Ones & Twos

There are ones and twos. Three weeks ago on 11th Jan 26 (110126), I preached my sermon having handed my letter of resignation and countdown began. Yesterday I preached a sermon and today (020226) it is now less than three weeks before I am free from all men in order to serve everyone. It's a paradox that I preached about yesterday from 1 Cor 9. The whole 27 verses in 49 minutes. I divided my sermon into 4 sections.

The first took the longest as it ran from v.1 to v.14 where Paul argued for the support of God's servants. Second, Paul said that he did not insist on his rights but forego financial support from the Corinthians. Why did Paul not receive anything from the Corinthian believers? Because he wanted to be free from them in order to serve them. Once there is a monetary transaction, most people would think the relationship between the giver and recipient is no longer free. 

Although I don't feel it much in my current place, I know of some churches that would think they have control over their pastors as they pay the pastors' salaries. So I told the church that I never insisted on my rights in my 25 years serving SIB (6 years in Singapore). 

At my current place I accepted only 50% of the denomination's pay scale. Never was I paid to the full in my five or six placements except for the first posting at Melangkap's College when the pay was RM700.00 per month according to the pay scale. 

Even when I served among the biggest of churches, I was probably the lowest paid PhD holder in Malaysia. And only once I received a pay rise when church income increased by at least four fold in 5 years. So much so when I left Sabah for Singapore in 2008, I was literally penniless after spending 3 months in New Zealand. All my little savings were gone

How did I survive? By God's provision and care - "who is the son of man that You care for and visit? (Psalm 8). Like Jacob, I could say "it is God who fed me whole life long". Laban cheated Jacob's wages 10 times and even in Singapore it was not plain sailing when money or salary is concerned. When I was awarded Singapore Permanent Residence, my troubles began. How often Christians are not faithful in finances or commit injustice towards another when money is concerned. 

I told my congregation, a play of words in Malay - saya lebih banyak kali mengalami penurunan daripada kenaikan (I experienced more salary decrease instead of rise and I added, "sy banyak keturunan..." penurunan is the word for decrease but keturunan is the word for descendants or seed, in the sense that since I was prepared to accept decrease and not increase, I have many more spiritual descendants. Everywhere in Sabah people call me pastor. Church leaders nowadays from various places tell me they heard me preached when they were in Sunday school or young teenagers.