Here is an email I received:
I watched your video the other day about taking donations. I’m still processing and don’t know exactly what to think about it. For a long time I’ve tried to persuade people I know to stop listening to “preachers” who are paid to preach to them. I’ve turned off multiple YouTube channels the moment they put their hand out and call for donations. I always felt safe in this position because I could point to people like yourself who are doing a great work without any compensation. Maybe I was wrong to hold that position. I’m trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. For the time being I am not planning to turn you off since the teaching of the Lord that have come through you have been an enormous benefit to me (although I readily admit to not following them enough.)
Any how, as I said, I’m still processing this. I hope I am making sense.
Here is my response:
First and foremost, thank you for your candor and honesty. It's hard to give a fair shake to new ideas, especially those that contradict old ones, especially those old ones we've taken public stands on. I know this struggle well. Such problems are wonderful gifts from God of opportunities to refresh our decision to prioritize truth above all else.
As you already know, I have long been very much against the idea of preaching for money. I still am.
I believe there is an important difference between selling what you preach for money and accepting money voluntarily given in order to buy more time to spend ministering.
God gives all of us the gift of giving a portion of our time to preach the gospel. What we have to give and what portion of it we use differs between people. I hope it is obvious that spending 40 hours per week on ministry over years in addition to two full time jobs (now "just" one) is not a normal "preacher asking for money" situation. I also hope there is an obvious difference in repeating things anyone could say and revealing things with content and clarity never before seen.
If people find value in this, they will have no problem giving. If they don't see value in what I produce, they shouldn't give. Those who want to help can, those who don't want to shouldn't, and all can still continue to use whatever I produce regardless.
For 22 years I have done everything I could to get into a financial position where I would have more time to minister without asking anything from anyone. The Lord has seen fit to close out the options previously before me. It is out of my hands.
I've worked very hard and very smart, I've taken big risks, I've achieved impossible things. But the Lord has decided to reroute the justice of that labor to magnify the spiritual riches he gives me--something others cannot provide--while giving others the blessing of being able to contribute what it is they do have to give.
The choice at hand is not mine to make: Continue sharing these things with others at the present pace, or slow way down. I don't have more that I can give to the Lord. I haven't for a long time. Until now, he's given me sacrifices I could make to do what I do without any help from others. This is no longer the case, and it is for your benefit. Others now have the choice to decide what it is worth to them, and it is the Lord's will that they make that choice. It is a blessing to take part in something that would otherwise be done without them. It is an example of the pattern of covenants, where a pathway to something much more than what a person deserves is given for a small fraction of the actual price.
I hope, for the sake of all, that sufficient support materializes for me to continue or increase my present pace. Either way, the Lord will not reduce what he has and does give me, just how much I have the time to share with others.
- Rob
PS:
You said that you are not turning me off for the time being because "the teaching of the Lord that have come through you have been an enormous benefit to me."One of the most valuable things provided by valuable things is not the value we perceive, but the hidden value that co-occurs with it. God frequently sends what we ought to value coupled to what we actually value in order for us to see the obtaining of what we sought as evidence for what we did not seek. For example, consider how Jesus used the opportunity to miraculously provide bread and fish--something they desperately wanted--to hungry crowds as evidence the he was the bread of life--something they did not want to hear and did not value.
The Lord said:
10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. (John 14)
I say:
I don't say or do anything but what I sincerely believe the Lord would in my place. Even if you don't believe that what I say is what the Lord would say in my place, believe in the value of what I am saying now based on the value of what you heard me say before.