Paid workers in the church

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A church paying people to work on the Lord's day is evil.

If you work to do something that is needful for yourself, that's necessity. No one pays themselves to see to their own needs.

If you work to do something that is needful for others, that's mercy. Expectation of payment for a work of mercy voids it as a work of mercy. Acceptation of payment for a work of mercy voids it as a work of mercy.

Meeting other people's needs on the Lord's day is excellent. However, meeting their needs by hiring workers to do it on the Lord's day causes people to sin.
 
Commerce, including ministry-related, on the Lord's Day violates the 4th commandment. The debate of nursery workers is for another thread, however if a congregation chooses to utilize them, they should be volunteer members from the congregation. Same with AV workers. If a congregation absolutely cannot find members to volunteer in various capacities to serve Christ's body, then that is symptomatic of another issue. I would be fine with paying someone to design a church website assuming they do not do that labor on the Lord's Day.
 
If you are going to have musicians, you should expect to pay them.
Again setting aside the argument for/against musicians, why should a church expect to pay them? Before my convictions to a cappella EP, I was in non-reformed church and then an OPC that each had musicians and none were ever paid.
 
Again setting aside the argument for/against musicians, why should a church expect to pay them? Before my convictions to a cappella EP, I was in non-reformed church and then an OPC that each had musicians and none were ever paid.


Sorry, you caught me in that approx. 1 minute before I deleted my comment, as I didn't think I was able to express myself well. Sure, if you have a member that sits in front of the piano to play the tune, that is one thing. And there is no need, necessarily, to pay anyone. But, I was thinking more of those churches which have a full-time organist/music director or similar, as a full time job. So, I meant not merely having musicians, but having a position like that.
 
To be clear, are you saying that doctors, nurses, etc. should not accept wages to staff, say, emergency rooms on the Lord's Day?

It's not up to me, but this is what the LORD has required by the Scriptures. It is a day where needs may be attended to and mercy may be extended, but not a day for commerce. I once heard of a surgeon who never billed anyone for procedures done on the Lord's day. That meant none of his staff received pay. The man who told me about this said that none of the staff ever complained.

A few thoughts here:

- If followers of Christ everywhere could agree on this issue, we could present a united witness to the world against unnecessary work and recreations on the Lord's day
- If the Lord blessed, things in this country could begin to change
- Businesses and places of recreation would be shut down on the Lord's day and the need for ER visits would plummet
- There would be a vast, enormous corps of believers who would willingly volunteer their time a few Lord's days a year to care for people in need and attend to things that could not wait until the day after
 
This should not be a new or strange idea. In 1595, Nicholas Bownd (True Doctrine of the Sabbath, p. 253) opined in the growing sabbath consciousness the puritans were fostering in England, that doctors should not charge for their time on the Lord's Day (while recouping costs of prescriptions, etc., attending what they performed, if I can paraphrase). I suspect this was not uncommon until the extensive modernization and medical industrial complex and of course falling influence of Christianity and Lord's Day consciousness.
It's not up to me, but this is what the LORD has required by the Scriptures. It is a day where needs may be attended to and mercy may be extended, but not a day for commerce. I once heard of a surgeon who never billed anyone for procedures done on the Lord's day. That meant none of his staff received pay. The man who told me about this said that none of the staff ever complained.

A few thoughts here:

- If followers of Christ everywhere could agree on this issue, we could present a united witness to the world against unnecessary work and recreations on the Lord's day
- If the Lord blessed, things in this country could begin to change
- Businesses and places of recreation would be shut down on the Lord's day and the need for ER visits would plummet
- There would be a vast, enormous corps of believers who would willingly volunteer their time a few Lord's days a year to care for people in need and attend to things that could not wait until the day after
 
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