Pastoral Ministry

Chapter 11—Personal Finance

Those not qualified to manage their own business affairs are not fitted to become ministers—No man is excusable for being without financial ability. Of many a man it may be said, He is kind, amiable, generous, a good man, and a Christian, but he is not qualified to manage his own business. As far as the proper outlay of money is concerned, he is a mere child. He has not been educated by his parents to understand and practice the principles of self-support. Such a man is not fitted to become a minister.—The Youth's Instructor, February 7, 1901. PaM 65.1

Refuse to engage in any business that would hinder you from giving yourself fully to your sacred calling—The energies of the minister are all needed for his high calling. His best powers belong to God. He should not engage in speculation or in any other business that would turn him aside from his great work. “No man that warreth,” Paul declared, “entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier” (2 Timothy 2:4). Thus the apostle emphasized the minister's need of unreserved consecration to the Master's service. The minister who is wholly consecrated to God refuses to engage in business that would hinder him from giving himself fully to his sacred calling. He is not striving for earthly honor or riches; his one purpose is to tell others of the Saviour, who gave Himself to bring to human beings the riches of eternal life. His highest desire is not to lay up treasure in this world, but to bring to the attention of the indifferent and the disloyal the realities of eternity. He may be asked to engage in enterprises which promise large worldly gain, but to such temptations he returns the answer, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul” (Mark 8:36)?—The Acts of the Apostles, 365, 366. PaM 65.2

No separate business can be engaged in without lessening the vigor and force of our labor in the cause of God—Wrong habits of life have lessened our mental and physical sensibilities, and all the strength we can acquire by right living and placing ourselves in the best relation to health and life should be devoted unreservedly to the work which God has assigned us. We cannot afford to use the few enfeebled, crippled energies which we possess to serve tables or to mingle merchandise with the work God has committed to us. Every faculty of mind and body is now needed. The work of God requires this, and no separate business can be engaged in aside from this great work without taking time and strength of mind and body, and thus lessening the vigor and force of our labor in the cause of God. Ministers who do this will not have all that time for meditation and prayer, and all that strength and clearness of mind that they should have to understand the cases of those who need help, and to be prepared to “be instant in season, out of season.” A word fitly spoken at the right time may save some poor, erring, doubting, fainting soul. Paul exhorted Timothy: “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.”—Testimonies for the Church 1:470. PaM 65.3

Ministers should not gain wealth by speculation—I cannot lend my influence in any way to prompt you or any of my brethren to gain wealth by speculation and extortion; you are not to be united with those who certainly do this. The men of solid worth are most apt to be found with those who possess little of this world's goods, and what they do possess they have gained by diligence, honesty, and economy, and not by speculation. Those who are suitably remunerated for their labors ought not, if they practice economy, to be in rags, or on the verge of pauperism, or overwhelmed in debt.—Testimonies on the Case of Elder E. P. Daniels (Ph 96), 37. PaM 66.1

Do not influence members to engage in business speculation—I have been shown of God the sinfulness of the course you have been pursuing. You have engaged in mining and real-estate business, and while an acknowledged minister of the gospel, you have worked upon the minds of your brethren, and have influenced them to invest their means in real estate and in mining shares. You told them the investment would bring large returns; that they would more than treble their money, and could help the cause so much more. You represented that this was a golden opportunity which you did not want them to lose, and urged them to avail themselves of the advantages that God had placed right within their reach. With your powers of exaggeration you represented the matter in such a light that many were deceived, and some lost their money, which should have gone into the cause of God.—Testimonies on the Case of Elder E. P. Daniels (Ph 96), 71. PaM 66.2

Do not sell merchandise to your people for your personal gain—A great mistake has been made by some who profess present truth, by introducing merchandise in the course of a series of meetings and by their traffic diverting minds from the object of the meetings. If Christ were now upon earth, He would drive out these peddlers and traffickers, whether they be ministers or people, with a scourge of small cords, as when He entered the temple anciently “and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” These traffickers might have pleaded as an excuse that the articles they held for sale were for sacrificial offerings. But their object was to get gain, to obtain means, to accumulate.—Testimonies for the Church 1:471. PaM 66.3

It is a sacrilege to take one dollar from God's treasury for yourself—That which has been set apart according to the Scripture as belonging to the Lord, constitutes the revenue of the gospel, and it is no longer ours. We are to treat it as wholly the Lord's. It is no better than sacrilege for any man to take one dollar from God's treasury to serve himself or to serve others in their secular business. This has been done, and some ministers are at fault in diverting from the altar of God that which has been especially dedicated to him. Ministers should regard this matter in a right light. Let them not, when brought into a strait place, take money consecrated to religious purposes, and use it for their own advantage, soothing their conscience by saying that they will repay it at some future time. Far better cut down your expenses to your income, restrict your wants, and live within your means, than use the Lord's money for secular purposes. This subject is not regarded as it should be. Under no pretext is the money paid into the treasury of God to be used for the benefit of any one in temporal affairs. It must be kept for the object for which it was given.—The Review and Herald, May 23, 1893. PaM 67.1

Your reward comes when the work is done—A faithful shepherd will not study his own ease and convenience, but will labor for the interest of the sheep. In this great work he will forget self; in his search for the lost sheep he will not realize that he himself is weary, cold, and hungry. He has but one object in view; to save the lost and wandering sheep, at whatever expense it may be to himself. His wages will not influence him in his labor, nor turn him from his duty. He has received his commission from the Majesty of heaven, and he expects his reward when the work intrusted to him is done.—Testimonies for the Church 2:341. PaM 67.2