Conley Owens Gets Challenged on His Dorean Principle

moment All right Well, welcome everybody.

We got Edwin Ramirez in the house telling me that I'm scheduling lives now and he's proud of me

Well, don't get used to it because I'm not the live the live guy But we'll give we'll give people a few minutes to jump on board before we get started.

I got Conley Owens here He's the man behind the Dorian principle Say hi

Conley. How's it going everyone? You know Conley you did you send me the book when you said you did or did you get send it late because I just Got him kind of recently.

Oh, no, I sent them right away. That's so weird So Conley sent me his book like basically right after we did the last video supply chain man.

What can I say? I got him like a week ago So this is what it looks like now Thanks, President Biden.

How crazy is that? That's that's like that's more than a month Yeah, it was quite a while That is so crazy man,

I was wondering I was like, yeah, maybe maybe he forgot or maybe it's like Maybe he makes the requests and it just takes forever.

But now I don't know man. All right. All right So we'll get started here.

You know, we've got only a few people watching live. That's okay, though, because I'm not a live streamer So we don't really have to wait for a whole, you know critical mass or anything

But I wanted to get Conley back on He wrote the book of the Dorian principle that we're talking about and it's about the commercialization of Christianity The appropriateness of selling the message of God to people

Whether or not that's appropriate the the book says no it is not So but but we had him on before we kind of explained the

Dorian principle and then you know over the the last month Or so I've heard some pushback and I've heard generally

Conley Let me just say this generally the feedback has been very very positive That has surprised me

I I've seen that too and I I never thought that going into all this I expected Very few people to agree with us

Yeah, so what I keep hearing Conley and you tell me a few this is your experience as well but what I keep hearing is like It's almost like a like it's almost like an aha

It's like I've always felt weird about this or that or this preacher that thing and he's a good preacher

I love him. His message is great. A lot of people mentioned John MacArthur in particular And and and they say

I love John But I've always just felt weird that he sells this stuff and it's just kind of strange and and so so but people are like This this makes sense

So the pot this feedback is positive, but there's there's a hesitation to kind of jump in and I personally that's how

I feel as well Have you experienced that as well? Yes Yeah a lot of people have said similar things that they've had thoughts like this, but never known how to express them and so this is really helping them and Yeah, what you said about John MacArthur?

I've heard that a lot too and I think it has to do with a particular article that's been floating around lately about his

Lavish lifestyle. I I think it's a little overblown Sure, you know pointing out the property value of this house when it's

California if you want to live in California known a home and you you bought it back in the 60s or whatever

You know, it's not so I people are focusing on the wrong thing, right? They're focusing on the the amount and they're not focusing on the mechanism, which is which is where the real question lies

Sure. Yeah, I would I would agree with everything there, you know, you know when I always see that kind of stuff you know like the

Sneakers that certain people wear or like the watch that a certain person has and I'd always just like well

That's just so weird. Like I I'm not the kind of guy that buys expect. I think I've said on my channel I haven't bought like real a real like load of clothes in years

I just have the same clothes that I've had for a long time. That's not my thing But like I've got other things right? so like let's say I decide one day to buy a bass boat and someone's like well 80 has a $26 ,000 bass boat is like it's like well, that's just stupid, right?

That's just that's really stupid. So anyway, so I agree that that's that's all weird It's more about what they're doing to get the money not how much money they have

So someone could be breaking the Dorian principle and be basically broke Yeah, and there's always there's always concerns about the appearance of sin but in general

The work of a minister is a is a noble work and it should be rewarded. Well Sure, cool.

So and just so calmly, you know before we jumped on live you mentioned, you know wanted to ask about you know Sort of my what

I'm thinking about everything and so I've told this is what I've been telling people calmly I've been saying I believe that the

Dorian principle is I Think I'm convinced enough to stop taking money for my book, right?

So I give the book away for free if you want a copy of my book social justice Pharisees All you gotta do is email me and I will get it out to you as soon as I can

I just sent out actually the last request from December. I just sent him out this past week So those are on the way and all of that.

So I'm I'm not gonna be doing that anymore I'm not taking money in exchange for for for the message anymore

That's awesome. That's really exciting. Yeah No, I'm I feel great about it and I kind of thought about it for a while and I just thought to myself look there's

It's never gonna get any easier for me to do this So if I'm convinced now enough for me to do it, I just got to do it now

So I so I did it so I'm happy and I'm grateful to you for that I'm not convinced enough to like take people to the mat on this though Somebody asked me so sorry in a video.

I was I had a guy on who had has done a movie about It's called enemies within the church and it's kind of about like some of the some of the like Structures of power within evangelicalism and where the money comes from and all this anyway so someone asked me why why did

I allow him on my channel if he's selling this movie and And like isn't that like kind of you know suspect for you and I was like well

Even if I thought it was which I wasn't sure if it really qualified But even if I thought it was I'm not convinced enough to be like what and you're in sin for doing this

So so calmly like I'm not saying your book isn't very very interesting and convincing in its own, right?

But I'm not comfortable enough to take people to the carpet for does that make sense? Oh, yeah I mean, I I've struggled with it myself, you know, am

I ready to bind people's consciences with this one? You know, it's just not it's just not frequently talked about and I've gotten to a point where I'm convinced enough by scripture that this is something that I should be putting in people's faces and You know in a very gentle manner calling them to repentance on it calling them to Reformation.

Yeah, cool, man So, let me ask you this too because you know I've heard this from a few people where I'll tell

I'll tell them about your book and they'll say like a funny comment like oh That sounds communist or something like that, you know

So he's against capitalism stuff like that I've heard this a number of times and in this was from people who have not read the book

So just what it sounds like sure so so calmly like are you against making money? No.

Yeah, I am. I'm 100 % capitalist Probably more than most Christians who call themselves capitalist.

Yeah, I've seen the things you say I I agree with them Yeah. Well yesterday I did a video make as much money as you can.

Yeah Yeah, and I saw I saw a lot of Christians responding to Dave Ramsey trying to defend him saying well, yes

I agree with him change in market, you know that that makes it Okay, there's change mark even if there's not change a change in market if it's your property you have the right

Yeah, so yeah, none of this is about none of this is about how we ought to Make money in secular affairs.

This is about when we are acting as the servant of the king What does he require of us?

Sure? Absolutely. Yeah. No, that's good stuff. So I would imagine as a software engineer, you know, you're you're totally fine making

You know a good living on your software engineering and I'm sure you would have no problem You know going to your employer and asking for more if you felt like you deserved it, right?

Yes So there you go. All right, so Connelly is not in fact a communist we've established that All right, so let's talk about a little bit some of the pushback though So I've got a few things and I emailed you a message from someone

So one of my YouTube subscribers Who had had his pastor read it because he liked the book too

And he just wanted his pastor to read it and his pastor did not like and so I sent you that email So we'll talk about some of that stuff.

But Connelly, what have you what have you seen out there? What's the common pushback that you see that maybe would be helpful for you to address right now?

so the most common one especially on the comments on the last video that we did together a

Lot of people had questions and this wasn't so much pushback, but a lot of people had questions about whether or not

This applied to just any time The gospel is present or any time the Bible is present

Like if you sell a candle and they stamp a Bible verse on it You know does that count as a gospel ministry and I would say that the essence of it is not gospel ministry there's a difference between saying that a gospel ministry and everything that attends to it must be free and then saying something that's not gospel ministry

And then if it's framed with the gospel It's important how the Dorian principle is defined in the book because I said that if you take money as Something other than co -labor right as reciprocity.

You're undermining the sincerity of ministry And so if it's important to communicate sincerity

You know is sincerity at stake when you're selling a candle know people understand you're trying to make a living

You know, they understand what you're doing. It's there's no sincerity at stake It's when you're offering the gospel to someone that is mean that the ministry that you're doing that you want to preserve that sincerity

Yep, got you. So so I'll give you an example So, I don't know how it is in California, but here in New England for some reason

There's a lot of Christian egg farmers and I don't know why but every company that I buy eggs from I don't seek them out

But they stamp a Bible verse on it, right and they've got a Bible verse. It's different Bible verses

I don't know what it is, but Christians like farming eggs. So When you're selling in a dozen eggs

And you stamp a Bible verse on the packaging Maybe it's your favorite verse. Maybe it's your company's verse.

Whatever what you're selling is The eggs and so right there's reciprocity there because someone is buying the eggs from you

You're you're selling the eggs or buying the eggs and the fact that you put a Bible verse on there

Maybe to spread the message of Christ because I don't doubt that's what they're trying to do these egg farmers That's not what's being sold there.

That's not where the reciprocity is, right? Is that is that fair exactly? yeah, and and you know,

I've been so I grew up in the South right in Virginia and I Was sometimes disturbed the way people would use a

Christian fish, you know to maybe get more business But but in general no I would I would say there's no problem with doing this sort of thing or or in and out here in California in and out

You know has a Bible verse at the bottom of the rim of their cup. Sure Yeah, no problem there.

Yeah, I think I think you know Honestly, there could be some like motivational things there that if you were that person's pastor like, you know

What are you doing there? But sure but at the end of the day Chick -fil -a is selling you a chicken sandwich You know, they're not selling you the gospel the egg farmer selling you a dozen eggs.

They're not selling you the gospel That's the bottom line, right? Right exactly Okay, cool.

So that's the so that's was there another one that you said was pretty so common so another one that I get occasionally not that much but When I was looking for feedback for this book originally before publishing it one of the people

I talked to was Lee Irons and he had he had offered some pushback specifically around the Subjective nature of it and I've heard a few people mention this later.

So are you saying that? Whether or not I accept money is is right or wrong is based on what's in somebody else's head

You know, how how can I be held accountable for what's in somebody else's head and interesting and I've had trouble trying to respond to That but I think it in the end

Basically, all I'm saying is that we have to do due diligence to make sure that we're communicating correctly, you know

Whether you're counseling or preaching or speaking to a friend, you know, you do do due diligence to make sure you're speaking accurately and truthfully given what that person understands your words to mean what kind of You know relationship you have with them, you know in your words and gestures and so the question

I'm answering what are the words and gestures in the context of receiving Around the gospel

That communicate rightly that I am a servant of another and not a free agent as Paul would say in first Corinthians 9

Yeah, definitely definitely and Natalie we're gonna get to that question in just a moment So I'm not ignoring you, but I will get to that in a second

She's asking about pastors and salaries, so we'll get to that in a minute. But okay, cool So so, you know, you know,

I think So some of this some of this book I think and I think I've seen you redress comments like this as well

You're trying to offer a principle, right? So you don't have every detail figured out. You don't have every nuance figured out

But you've got a principle and then hopefully if you agree with this in principle, you know, we'll work out the details over time

Yeah, I've been good. I've been thinking a lot about that. And yeah, if I can say a few things I've been thinking a lot about how this relates as an analogy to the regulative principle of worship.

Hopefully some of your Listeners are familiar with this, you know, the regulative principle of worship Distinguishes between forms and elements and so you have forms and worship like, you know, how many songs do you sing?

Do you sit or stand while you're reading the word things like that the circumstances that are changeable, but the elements, you know

Reading the Bible that shouldn't be removed. You shouldn't be adding liturgical dance, you know things like that and so Hopefully, you know every reform believer can agree in the regulative principle of worship that there are these forms and elements one can be tampered with one cannot, you know one there's

Liberty one there's not Liberty and Then you know deciding what's the form and what's an element there are disagreements, right?

Some people say that instruments Musical instruments would be an element not a form other people say that it's a form.

So same thing, you know I'm just I've got a principle on distinguishing between co -labor and reciprocity I'm hoping we can all agree on that Even if we disagree on what kind of things are co -labor and what kind of things are reciprocity

Definitely and so with the reason I've thought about that is because you're talking about the way that we present the information the way we present

The gospel and then also, you know how we talk about co -labor and support and stuff like that. Okay, so, you know

We can obviously improve from okay. Here's this message in a book, you know, give me $20 for the book

We can improve upon that messaging and so but then there's gonna be like ways to improve upon it where you're asking for a co -labor

Co -labor, but it's implied that you'll get something in return or something like that. Okay, maybe that's better than you what you used to do

Maybe we can still improve upon it. So like you don't have a final destination here Like we have a principle that we can work through right?

Yes I'm calling people to you know, possibly exercise even more consistency than I am currently, right?

There's there's a lot of there's a lot of open questions. I think we talked about ads last time, you know ads are yeah, that's

Fuzzier for me. I I have a thought on it, but it's fuzzier for me And then I don't know if we talked about this but employee matching programs, you know here in Silicon Valley there are a lot of employee matching programs where if you

Dan donate to your church, which you know is registered as the 501c3 the

The employer will match your donation up to a certain amount now. Can their donation be received as co -labor?

Well, it's it's not reciprocity You know, should it be received just like Worship is allowed in the church from those who just walk in, you know, yeah, and and don't necessarily know the gospel yet So, uh, so I think that can be

Called co -labor, even though they're not co -labor is in the full Christian sense. Sure. So there's a lot of hard questions

I don't have all the answers, but I'm hoping that we can all work together and then you know, maybe have some differences That's fine.

Yeah, I think about all kinds of stuff even like, you know, a lot of these ministries that took, you know PPP loans that were forgiven and stuff like that There's all kinds of weirdness that we obviously, you know, we have to work through some of that stuff

But the principle hopefully you agree with the principle that you can't sell the gospel message.

You can't sell ministry If you do then let's work through some of that stuff. I think that's that's very valid good stuff

Okay, so really quick for Natalie, so I don't think she's read the book, but she's asking about pastors and their salary

Shouldn't pastors be paid a salary? Explain the Dorian principle in a simple way to Natalie All right so the the

Dorian principle says that we should be supporting ministers by co -laboring with them and giving money out of a desire to support ministry and We should not be

Supporting them by reciprocity. It's not so much about us. It's about the minister, right? the minister should not be receiving money as reciprocity where someone is exchanging their money for what they've received and in the context of church life you have a group of people who want to make sure the gospel is proclaimed in this area and One of them has to quit their job and work full -time ideally in order to do this well

And so it's reasonable for everyone else to to forego some of the fruit of their labor so that this man can do that and in fact you see in Paul's lists of his

Lists of persecutions, you know in addition to being shipwrecked in addition to being beaten beaten

He always lists that he worked with his hands, you know working with his hands is one of these these trials that he had to undergo in order to minister and so when we

Work with our hands and forego some of the fruit of our labors so that a minister can minister.

Well We are partnering side -by -side with them. And that's that's co -labor. That's totally appropriate and And then one other thought you use the word salary

So maybe you weren't referring to this but there have been a lot of people especially in the past couple of centuries of the church who have looked at some of these same verses and come to the conclusion that It's okay for pastors to be paid

But not if it's regular not if it's salaried as long as it's only irregular and I don't

I don't think the verses are talking About that. I don't think there's some principle of faith that says that you have to be, you know

Just barely hanging on trusting in God for that next paycheck You all you should be trusting in God, but you know what

I mean But you can structure it and it can be regular and it can be like a like the way that you know

You would receive your salary from your employer, right? Understood. Got it. No, that's great.

That's great stuff Okay, so let's jump into some of the pushback here because I think that's actually where I got an email from a pastor that you

Know he didn't want to come on and do a debate just because he doesn't have time for that kind of stuff He wasn't scared or anything, but he had a bunch of stuff where he says you completely flunked like no no mincing

No words Connelly. Your book is a flunk and He starts and you know to be honest based on what you just said and based on how

I read the book I I kind of was confused as to why he started here, but he kind of started well, actually he didn't start here

This was this was like the second point but he talks about the Levites right because you obviously use the example of the

Levites in the book and you mentioned the Levites and How you said that the money that the tithes that the

Israelites paid They paid to God And and so that wasn't that was something that was given to the

Lord for you know Because he commanded it and the Lord, you know gives it to the Levites But he says here that or I'm sorry

Yes, and the Lord gives it to the Levites, but he says here that it's like well No It's given to the

Levites too and it's in exchange He even says he even brings up numbers 18 and he quotes it as all tithes in Israel are

Given as an inheritance in return for the work, which they perform the work of the tabernacle of meeting

So he's saying that it's it's it's both you give it to the Lord But you're giving it to the

Levites in return in reciprocity is what he's trying to say For the work that I do in the tabernacle, how would you respond to that?

Right. Well when I when I read some of that I was confused as to whether or not he was responding to the things

I had said about Leviticus 18 or excuse me numbers 18 or whether or not he was Bringing up a point that Sure came from a casual email like it wasn't like a logical treatise, but I write as well

So the so the reason I point that out is because if you look at chapter 3 where I addressed this

Kind of my whole point is to affirm these things in a qualified manner

Like I want to affirm there is some kind of reciprocity. It's just not between people in the in the ministers, right?

It's between God and the minister that he he is faithful and he pays his servants And then on top of that that there is an obligation we have to the ministers

It's just a mediated obligation not one that is direct but one that in our obligation to the

Lord He requires that we That we support these ministers.

So there is I'm not saying we're not obligated in any sense I'm saying there's a qualified manner in which we are obligated and that needs to be taken into consideration

What I was confused about Conley to be honest is the way he quoted the verse kind of added a little confusion

But you know, I I use the King James as a kind of a safety net But you know, even the ESV and a lot of other versions

I checked them It's very clear that God is saying I have given the children of Levi Right 10th in Israel for an inheritance for the service and and I think the

ESV says in return for the service So it's pretty clear that that the people's obligation is to God and God is saying because you're doing this work for me.

I'm giving you this in order to do that, right? There is some reciprocity there, right?

Yeah Yeah, and people don't like talking about God's obligation to the minister because you know, how can God be obligated?

But you know, he binds himself by by ways of promises and he is he has promised to be faithful to the

Levites, right? Yeah, I I was a little confused by that too and and maybe it was

I I don't I didn't check every version But maybe it was the version that he was using for numbers 18 that kind of didn't make that clear but the point is though that as a church go where you give your offerings and your ties to God and God in return pays the minister for the work that the minister is doing right?

Yeah to take it back to Matthew 10 and Luke 10 which we had talked about last time when it says the workers worthy of his wagers at the work workers wages are the workers worthy of food in Context God is the

Lord of the harvest He is the employer and so the wages are coming from the Lord Yes at the hand of his other servants, but they are coming from the

Lord That's that's what we're supposed to understand in context as he is the owner of the whole field Yeah, I think that's it

So so when we go to church and we give their tithes and offerings we already know where it's like Essentially where that money's going we just kind of it's we don't think about it.

And so this seems like a big a small deal It's like well, well ad Conley like what's the big deal right? Like we already do this, you know, why worry?

Well, the reason why we're worried is because outside of the church context There's all kinds of weirdness going on and that's what we're really addressing.

You're not really that concerned I don't think at all in the book with how pastors are typically paid. They're typically paid according to this principle

Yeah, normal church activities are totally in line with the Dorian principle, right? So so that's not what this book is about like your normal church activities.

It's about all the extras, right? Okay, cool. Okay, perfect. So good stuff now let's go to the beginning of this of this guy's message because I've heard this a lot

Conley and you can tell me if You have heard this as well. Basically the argument goes like this. It's not really an argument.

It's just kind of a feeling and it's like So who's this Conley guy like we've been at the church for 2 ,000 years and nobody's ever seen this and this is a brand new

Thing and the idea is anything new anything like a new understanding? It's probably wrong.

Some people just say it's flat -out wrong Like this at least this guy said it's probably wrong and that's an impulse that I think you know

A lot of us adopt just kind of naturally we hear a new thing. We're like, I'm suspicious of that Have you heard that kind of impulse as well?

Absolutely, and I think it's right. It's a good impulse. Um, and that's that's how I address it in the book

That that's a good impulse to have so we need to we need to look to make sure that there's really a way to account for one did this exist at all and Earlier portions of the church and to where it didn't why didn't it?

and it is that reasonable given what we usually see about doctrines and practices in church history and One thing that I come up in that letter that you forwarded to me was the forward right because the the forward is

From the publisher talks about how how new and special this this is

While I while I agree with the publisher like those are also, you know The publisher is really trying to push push this work, right?

So that's not me saying this is brand spanking new No one's ever thought about this before So So, yeah, what what do you expect to see with doctrine in the church so with doctrine you tend to see you know growing clarity over time maybe some periods of Confusion, you know with the doctrine of the

Trinity Yes people understand that Jesus is Lord and and they begin to realize more and more what that means about his relationship with the

Father until You have it articulated in the doctrine of Trinity what you see with Practices in the church is a little different because usually practices because they are happening in the life of the church they actually degrade and then are recaptured later and so for example take

The church offices, right? There's this rise in the Martin monarchical episcopate, you know originally there were multiple elders the way they were supposed to be and things worked as as They should and then you have the rise of one guy over many churches and then it's only later after the

Reformation you have these different movements to recapture that I Am saying that something very similar happened with money in ministry where We have several works that show you at the dedicate the

Shepherd of Hermas. We have Apollonius who I I cite in the book we have these evidences that people were practicing the

Dorian principle in the early centuries of the church and then Yes, there was a decline.

In fact, this is why the Reformation was sparked was over indulgences it was over selling salvation and then so you have a recapturing but not a need to Articulate it as clearly as we do now because it's only in the past 300 years

That the problem has really escalated and I'll go ahead and explain what I mean by that In 1710 you have the

Statute of Anne which is the first modern copyright law So prior to the Statute of Anne authors generally are not getting paid direct royalties, right?

they might write in at the beginning some kind of What do you call it at the beginning of the book where you dedicate it's like a dedication

And then and then the society or the king or the queen who you dedicated to, you know Hopefully will reimburse you if they like the pretty things you said about them

But no generally generally authors weren't paid royalties So it's only with the with the advent of modern copyright law that you have this model where the ones producing content teaching are selling their teaching directly and So with that you have a rise in that and then in the past 50 years, you know

You have the whole advent of digital media where you have just all kinds of creative ways where people are Selling the gospel and well getting the gospel out for one and then secondly occasionally commercializing it.

Yeah. Yeah you know one way that I've kind of talked with some people about it that kind of I think it kind of clicks a little light bulb is

Through a lot of a lot of people criticize certain pastors for selling like their sermons

Their sermon sets, right? So they they were pastors for years and then they get you know to the point where they have you know 300 sermons or 500 sermons or a thousand sermons and then they'll sell the mp3s of those sermons in a bundle for Whatever the price is and that just strikes people like in a real icky way, right, right?

And there's some there's a lot going on there because they're kind of double -dipping, you know, they had their salary But now they're kind of so there's some of that but then but it just kind of just even if they weren't

It strikes you weird, right, right. So then I'll say okay. So I Agree with you that is weird.

They're set like and oftentimes they'll even use the language. They're selling, you know salvation They're selling the message of God that they receive freely.

Why aren't they giving freely? But then it's like, okay, so what's the difference if they were doing that or if they put it in a book, right?

Yeah, exactly one We know, you know If someone put a turnstile at the door of of the church like people would recognize that something wrong with that You put the you put the turnstile outside of you know

Some kind of gospel conference where people are speaking and and suddenly it's okay You know, they might be identical messages even yep

It's it's and so that's that's what I think I don't think I've necessarily convinced anyone but but that's what gets them thinking

Okay There we do need to figure out what the principle is there because it can't just be this one feels icky

This other one doesn't feel so icky, you know It's like I put a turnstile, you know in in front of the church to hear the gospel

But it would be wrong for a street preacher to kind of do the same thing or you know

Like there's just all kinds of things that feel icky automatically, but right anyway Yeah and a lot of these things are a lot of people's conclusions that they haven't worked out are driven by pragmatics like You know very pragmatically

Oh, I don't think anyone's gonna be turned away if we do this or it's only the more You know scholarly people who are going to read this or it's only you know

And so and so they don't feel like many people are going to be turned away But what happens in the end once again, the

Dorian principle is defined around sincerity You've already undermined the sincerity even if you haven't turned away a single person.

Yep. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely Good stuff. Good stuff. Um Alright, so then you know,

I don't want to go too long calmly So in that list because I have one that I think think is interesting But in that list, is there one of those pushbacks that you definitely want to address?

I'll give you that opportunity. Uh Let me well, let me first say just a general one.

I I think there's so confusion I get a lot of times is that you know, I'm saying that pastor shouldn't be paid or that uh,

Or that there's no sense in which we're obligated to our pastors But first of all, that's not the case and hopefully chapter 3 clarifies that well.

Yeah Um, one specific thing was this thing from Zechariah uh where Zechariah was uh

Is paid 30 pieces of silver? Um for tending sheep now

I believe that's literal sheep and I don't I don't have a problem with this. Um Yeah, maybe software tab.

Yeah, maybe this maybe this isn't a fair one to talk about without uh, Sure without someone to represent the other side, but I don't think we have any good examples

Let me just say this I don't think we have any good examples of prophets in the old testament ever accepting money in exchange for preaching that is ever

Uh in exchange for the prophecy in a way that is ever applauded or endorsed Sure.

Um, in fact you have mica 311 that says Uh that says that prophets who teach for money are evil and they lean on the lord and think that nothing's going to happen to Them that no judgment is going to come upon them for doing this.

You have elisha who uh who refuses money from from naman And when ghazi his servant takes it he's cursed.

He's his name is leprosy goes to him, right? And you have you have one example, uh where People might and i've not heard anyone say this but i've been kind of waiting for it

Uh, you have in the beginning of first samuel where saul goes to samuel to get help finding his livestock

Right and he and he brings money for samuel now It never describes him giving the money to samuel or anything like that So, you know, it's unclear whether or not that exchange happened

But some of the commentators i've read uh, including john gill if you're familiar with john gill say that this is evidence of saul's wickedness

That he would come to uh samuel with money thinking that that samuel would prophesy for money

Yeah, no, so it's unclear but but I would I would tend to agree with that. That's like that's like saul's mo

Kind of so so it's like you know, and so would it be wickedness for him to do it?

But not wickedness for saul for samuel to take it. That doesn't make any sense. So anyway

Um, so I wanted to talk about paul here just real quick because I I didn't think that this one was was that great? But I thought you know, maybe other people are thinking about it as well

Talking about paul's, you know his reason for not taking pay from the corinthians But also his rights and so he mentions, you know, paul here indicates that um

He says that so a lot of the other apostles didn't reject money when they planted churches.

He says here um, okay, so let me just read the the uh, The criticism here first corinthians 9 6 indicates that the other apostles did the opposite of paul and barnabas when they planted churches

And that he and barnabas had the right to do the same if they wanted quote Or is it only barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working?

end quote in context that right to compensation for his labors was equivalent to his right to eat and drink

And his right to be married if he wanted to he voluntarily did not marry and did not take wages for them But it was because of their sinful attitudes not because of the durian principle

Do we not have do we have no right to eat or drink? Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife?

Uh as do also the other apostles the brothers of the lord or in cephas Um, or is it only barnabas and I who do not have the right to refrain from working?

So he's basically saying that like paul in his making this case, uh about the other apostles and stuff

He's basically saying look like no, I actually do have the right to get money for this message

Is that how you read it? Because I highly doubt that's how you read it. No Yeah, well, he he is saying that he has a right to uh be um

Compensated for his work from the lord and when he's talking about his rights there Uh, you have to keep in mind the whole context of first corinthians because he talks about rights in a way that has more to do with stewardship than it has to do with perfect license and he interacts with the uh, corinthian and chapter nine comes in the middle of chapter eight and ten which are about Uh is about meat sacrifice to idols, right?

That's the that's the context here and he says in chapter 10 Uh that all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable

And that was the same phrase he used back in chapter six And when you go and you see what he's talking about when he says all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable

He's not talking. He's not saying that he has uh this perfect license to do something But he wouldn't do it because he gives examples like for example sleeping with a prostitute is something that He in context is calling lawful, but not profitable.

So he's what he's doing is he's interacting with the Corinthians and their statements about rights and lawfulness and he's acknowledging.

Yes. The gospel covers all these things, you know, uh That christ, uh, his forgiveness covers all these things, but that does not make it good

So he's he's not talking about a lawfulness Uh the way we might typically talk about lawfulness.

He's not talking about perfect license where there's perfect christian liberty Sure Very very very interesting

Yeah, I just thought that maybe other people might be a little bit confused about paul's what his whole purpose is here he also mentions that he doesn't think paul's reason for not taking pay was from the corinthians was because of the dorean principle, but rather because They had bad attitudes or something like that if that's the case though Why does paul at the end of first corinthians?

Well, he says there that he will never take money from them, right? He doesn't he doesn't leave open the door for once you mature i'll take this money from you

This this money that they're trying to pay for them. He refuses but then in chapter 16 He says that he's hoping to come to them so that they can send him on his way

And using the word propempo, which implies financially supporting him and second corinthians did the same thing in chapter 11

It says he'll never take their money that they're trying to give him but it's either chapter one or two I think chapter one where he says he's hoping to come to them so that they can they can support him on his journey

Implying financial so I think in both paul is saying this one kind of money you're trying to give me I will never take

I'm happy to have you support me in these other contexts yeah, so what you were saying is if you understand the greek verbs there then like That would that would be like a paul contradicting himself within the pages of a few paragraphs, right?

But he's obviously not doing that because he you know, obviously people don't tend to do that in one letter But also he was a genius

So what he's saying is there's a certain money that you were trying to give me that there's just no way i'll ever take it

But that's not to say that he's not going to take co -labor's first ministry because that comes from god, right?

Right interesting interesting and I think that's the big thing. It's like Compensation for the minister comes from god

Not from the sales of a book Speaking of speaking of which how are the sales of your book doing?

You know, I was wondering connelly like, you know, obviously, you know if you're selling a product, you know You can measure your success by your profit margins and your sales and your revenues and stuff like that How do you measure success for a book like this?

Well, I I try to set up some analytics, you know, and I can see how it's ranked on You know amazon and the list of free books and I can see um, how many people order physical copies

Um, it's hard to tell how many people are are, you know reading of course but um Well, that's probably true people who buy books too.

I know a lot of people buy books and never read them Right, but you know at the at the end of the day It's the holy spirit working and that's the thing a lot of trouble churches struggle with is to you know come up with metrics for things, um, because you're either being too mechanical and not trusting the spirit or uh, yeah, you know

It's hard. It's hard to figure those things out. Yeah Yeah, so that no that's that's I I hope that those of you by the way

Those of you who are asking what the dureen principle is you can watch the previous video I did with conley where he kind of explains it a lot more in depth, but also you can get the book for free.

Um, because Um, it's uh, it's available on is there there's digital copies as well as physical copies.

Oh, yeah, absolutely Yeah, kindle epub pdf audiobook Everything however, you read it. Um, he you know, he'll he'll get that sent out to you right away

And it explains exactly what this is. This is not an attack on your pastor, you know making an income for his ministry um, that's not what it is, but yeah, and that's

I had something to say about that too because you know, you had sent me this letter from this guy's pastor and uh,

I want to Yeah, I want to encourage uh Congregation members to talk to their pastors about these things at the same time

I understand that this is a this is an issue that people could get really riled up about. Yes you know,

I I talk to some people who just get like So much more on fire about it than me and i'm like, whoa, you know, don't don't cause any division, you know, don't

Like give give people some time with this, you know, definitely so yeah, I want to encourage those conversations while at the same time uh, you know

Promote understanding but this is this is going to be something that people haven't thought about before Yeah, you know so talk to them about it.

And uh, yeah, I can just imagine just someone just saying to their pastor here read this and the no context and the pastor's just like What?

What are you trying to do here? But but that's so so basically especially with pastors because they are in the ministry um,

I would Be care not care like not not do it but have conversations and give them some context let them know

This is not an attack on you making too much money because I know pastors go through this quite often Where people say well you make too much money or this or that and that happens sometimes with pastors

Even though pastors regularly don't make too much money. So Um, if you're going to give this book to your pastor and get his feedback on it

Don't get don't don't put him in a position to try to have to defend himself It's like it's not about your salary, you know, and even and and might even help is saying, you know

I don't even think you're I don't think you're overpaid just so you know You know what? I mean? So But but this is about other things and I just want to work through this with you something

Something non -threatening I think right? Yeah, and a problem i've seen is that a lot of people

Uh already have some convictions about this. They've had a hard time articulating and so they go ahead and import

What what they already had convictions about into the book and sometimes they'll say yes You know one thing

I really don't like is and they describe this thing that i'm totally fine with and i'm like Where did you get that out of the book? You know, you already you already came to the book with that idea.

So, uh so yeah, I would hate for the legacy of this book to be you know, a bunch of people left their churches in the huff because You know, they their pastor didn't accept it or anything like that.

So Yeah, let's let's have these conversations, but uh, let's do so with understanding one thing I have noticed kindly as well and i'm not trying to throw anyone else under the bus here

So i'm not going to name anybody but those of those people who i've talked to that Um are regular laymen they they generally have very positive things to say

They're not quite sure exactly what to think but they're very positive those who do kind of Potentially break the durian principle or even if they don't they do get their income from you know ministry related activities

Let's just say that um they tend to be way more standoffish and so That's understandable.

So go into those conversations knowing that that's a possibility And so adjust your communication accordingly

Right. Yeah, it's the those who have a dog in the fight really, you know are going to are going to feel differently about this and that's what makes your your change in all this so, uh,

You know encouraging is that you know, you already had been working with a publisher you had you a dog in the fight in the sense and yeah

And uh, yeah, you've you've uh made some transitions. That's that's really encouraging Yeah, definitely and so, you know i'll i'll let you know kindly if I ever get to the point where i'm like All right, i'm ready to go to the mat on this one.

You know what I mean? Like I'll definitely do that. I'm sure I won't make any Additional friends there, but that's okay.

That's okay If I get to that point I get to that point Um, but just just know kindly that your work is very much appreciated

I'm sure people tell you this all the time, but i'll tell you this um, I got so many emails after our first one that was just like how encouraging it was and um, how how how grateful they were to hear the conversation, so I recommend the book.

It's I mean the the price is definitely right, but the content is it's definitely worth You know the few hours it takes to read it

Someone said that they they did the audiobook it took two or three hours to hear it You can do that just whatever it is get your hands on this and uh,

And think it through because it's real good stuff. It's worth every penny. You will pay for it Connelly is very confident in saying that and you know what?

I'm, right there with him In any case connelly god bless you, um, obviously, you know

I hope you want to keep the door open to have you on again if you have any questions for connelly Put him in the comments here last time he went through and I think he answered almost every question

That I saw on on the youtube comment. So go ahead and leave a comment. I'm sure connelly will be monitoring those again