A Pilgrimage Of Faith, J.B. Toews, 1993

ve one, but several leaders, and their ministry is a collective one. "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord."19 The educational diversity was consistent with the Menno nite Brethren understanding of a multiple ministry in which not one but several had been endowed with the gifts of lead- ership and teaching. The strength of the ministry lay in the collective household of God. FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR MINISTERS The early Mennonite Brethren Church was not averse to financially supporting its elders, leaders and ministers, and furnished support according to needs. From the outset it arranged assistance for elders who gave much time to admin- istration and supervision and those assigned to an itinerant ministry.20 Until recent decades the prevailing Mennonite Brethren view was similar to that of the sixteenth-century An- abaptists, who said: "To the question whether a congregation should support the ministers in a Christian way, we say yes. But we do not know whether they should have a fixed in- come."21 They understood 1 Corinthians 9:l4-"they which preach the gospel should live of the gosper-to refer to one's livelihood. The ministry was not, however, to be a means of accumulat- ing wealth. To make the ministry financially profitable would place it on the level of a profession and undermine the motiva- tion for the preaching of the gospel as a sacrifice unto God, This concern also governed the missionary assignment. Those sent to India, Africa and other lands and those who ministered at home received a minimal salary. The cost of liv- ing in the respective area determined the amount. Workers 60 LEADERSHIP AND THE TEACHING MINISTRY who retired or were disabled through illness were granted continued maintenance. Itinerant ministers and eiders and leaders responsible for extensive administrative duties also re- ceived modest support.22 The ministry at home and abroad thus required the sacri- fice of profitable income. This continued past the middle of the twentieth century. The shift to equal financial remunera- tion between ministers, missionaries and other professionals is a recent one. Peter Friesen expressed concern over the meager sup- port given some ministers in comparison with the wealth of many other church members. "The virtue of sacrificial minis- ters will not be able to stop the damage which churches are heaping upon themselves by their unjust exploitation of poor- er ministers, in comparison to the average wealth of the whole church/125 Notice that he specified the