IS IT WRONG FOR A PASTOR TO ENGAGE IN BUSINESS?

A pastor is already in business whether he knows it or not.

Business is simply a solution to a problem. “Ministry is service. A minister is anyone who offers services.” Anyone who offers service for the glory of God is a minister of God. A transaction is service that leads to offering a solution to a problem. The victims of the problems who are beneficiaries of the solution offer appreciation or monetary value for the solution. Whether the transaction is for profit or nonprofit, a business is a business under the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) registration of any organization (in Nigeria), be it for or nonprofit. However, the “legal structure and purpose are treated differently.”

We have business in diverse areas including the teaching of the Word of God. Churches collecting offerings from members is business. The Church offers services and the members support the Church. A business is not only about one big man or woman selling goods or services. Business exists wherever there is a transaction, whether for-profit or nonprofit.

A pastor who discourages other pastors from business activities but is also receiving a salary for his services is in business. He is still in business if he sells his books or renews membership cards for members for a fee. He is still in business if he goes to the market and buys any item from someone even if he is not selling. At least he is part of the business transaction of the person’s business.

When I started ministry in 1995, I did not understand very well the connection between life and work skills. Life skills are knowing why God called you and doing that. Work skills are knowing how to support yourself as you pursue the first mission of your life. I asked people for support for almost every aspect of my life and work skills in the early part of our ministry. I guessed that I had become a burden to some. I remember a time I went to someone to ask for support. I will never forget the way he treated me. I felt so embarrassed. I am not against asking for help, Jesus was also supported in His ministry by other people. I still need people to support our ministry. However, it is also important to have a source of income that will take care of other expenses, which is where a business platform comes in.

My wife who is a natural business person urged me to start a business in the early part of our marriage, but I refused. Later, we had a discussion and registered a company for an intentional involvement in business. I have seen the difference between now and then since we found and applied the balance between life and work skills.

Some time ago, I asked the Lord why I was not receiving support like before. I felt God’s response in my spirit that when a tree is small, the owner of the tree must go and look for the water, but when the tree grows up, the roots must go deep into the ground and get the water. He said the ideas He gives me now are the resources I need to convert into products and services. I did that and I have seen the difference between my first and second methods of doing ministry.

There are resources to support yourself and your ministry in business if you will trust God to show you. I have told a few young people that vision expenses and marriage expenses are not good friends. Vision is often driven by optimism, but marriage is often driven by realities. There are things in marriage that you must have the money to buy now and now. You cannot postpone like in the case of a vision. That is where many pastors are struggling. Marital expenses keep on hitting so hard.

I remember the cost of school fees for our children when they were kids. It was very embarrassing to see them sent back home because of lack of payment of school fees. Have you experienced this before? Many pastors struggle in feeding yet they keep on holding to the philosophy of not engaging in profitable business.
The Holy Bible has several examples of people involved in business. Abraham and Jacob were in the livestock business. Job was also a successful businessman. Paul was a tenth maker. He said, “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody” (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 NIV).

We need to rethink and start engaging in for-profit business. It does not have to be as big as the richest man in the world, but let the family of a pastor have an additional source of income without distracting the pastor from his primary assignment. A friend, who is a pastor is involved in piggery and breeding special dogs for sale. You can write a book and sell it. You can design a seminar and invite people to pay and attend: online or onsite. You can empower your wife to have a shop near your house. You can give agriculture the right attention. You can go into real estate if you can afford it. You can partner with others who have the time to manage a business. There are a lot of income opportunities for a pastor in a for-profit business.

It is not wrong for a pastor to do business. He is already in business by being a pastor. Pastoral ministry is still business because there is a form of transaction between the pastor and the members. There is service provision and financial support to sustain the services. There are offerings of solutions to members’ problems in different formats and feedback from them.

Pusonnam Yiri
(Theologian/Entrepreneur)