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Originally Posted by Ohio
Definitely the Recovery needs serious "financial reform." Each worker must be supported by his host church and be accountable to their local elders. These regional funds empower bad leaders. When an employee is mistreated, he can find another job. But what do the workers do? Some are stuck, really stuck!
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I think it was Watchman Nee who taught that "the work" is regional and has a center and that the coworkers go to and from that center (Antioch model). Working this way the financial support for Paul and his coworkers came from various sources and not just Antioch. Can this be applied today and still be practical and workable? I'm not so sure. In practice it makes churches branch offices.
The tension is between the authority of regional coworkers and local elders. I think churches would firstly prefer to support their own elders rather than coworkers who are controlled by an extra-local center and come and go at the whim of the "senior coworker" i.e. the boss. If funds are left over after supporting their own local needs than maybe they would want to give it to support an extra-local ministry but not with the idea that a coworker could waltz into their church and start running things and dictating to the elders and others how things had to be done. This kind of practice undermines the elders and causes conflict.