Paul didn't have a side hustle

Paul made tents.

Not before he was called. Not instead of his calling. Alongside it, for a good chunk of his ministry.

He didn't see it as a compromise. He didn't feel the need to explain it away. He worked with his hands so the gospel could go where it needed to go, without him being a burden to the churches he was planting.

We've turned that into something he'd probably find strange. Somewhere along the way "sacred" and "secular" got split into two boxes, and making money outside the pulpit landed in the wrong one.

But Paul wasn't funding a distraction. He was funding the mission.

If you've ever felt a flicker of guilt at the idea of earning outside your ministry role, that's worth sitting with for a second. Where did that come from? Is it scripture, or is it something you picked up from a culture that never had Paul's problem to begin with.

You're not compromising your calling by building income around it. You're doing exactly what he did.

Standing with you,

Simon