Provision and Purification

Provision and Purification
NUMBERS 18: 1-19: 22

The other day I was visiting a big church in another city. It made for an extraordinary contrast with my little church, where the pastor is the only paid person and the building feels very full if there are seventy people present. This other church had a huge campus with lots of people working there (on a Tuesday!), and a budget that would frighten me. I don’t know whether they have had to let staff go in the recession that we are living through as I write, but I do know that one or two churches in my own city have had to do so. Our little church, too, has to work hard to make its budget work. In my classes, potential pastors spend their time discovering the contents of the Bible and the way it may speak to the church in our time, but once they get into the ministry, they may have to spend more time worrying about whether the church’s giving will continue to cover their salaries and the salaries of other members of their church’s staff...