Should Christians Work (Sorry, Minister) for Free?

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 3:27 pm by Alissa Wilkinson

Should Christians Work (Sorry, Minister) for Free? 2015-03-13T15:27:35-05:00 Alissa Wilkinson

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Ed Cyzewski has an interesting piece up at The High Calling asking if Christians ought to be paid less because their work is “ministry”:

It makes me wonder if Christians unintentionally undervalue each other’s work when asking for the family discount.

In some cases we have confused freebies with ministry, as if adding money to a transaction devalues the holiness of someone’s work . . .

Most churches have no trouble paying a pastor and calling that type of work ministry. However, when a website creator or a graphic designer is asked to “minister” in a church, it’s oftentimes assumed that he/she will provide professional quality work at a steep discount or completely for free.

You can read the whole post here. This is especially interesting in light of Tim Kreider’s much-buzzed-about New York Times piece last weekend (which is half right, half wrong, in my opinion) about whether writers should ever write for free.

What do you think?

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