A couple of years ago, a friend called me and said, “I need someone to hold me accountable. I just got offered a new ministry position, and I know I’m not supposed to take it. Can you keep me honest about not taking this position?”
I asked the obvious next question: “If you know you’re not supposed to take this position, why are you worried you might?”
“They’re offering me $15,000 more than I make right now,” he explained. “It’s pretty tempting.”
I decided to offer my friend a slightly different solution. “Let’s leave room for the Spirit to work in this,” I suggested. “I don’t want you to hear something different from God and then wonder whether you’re taking the job for the wrong reasons, so let’s just remove money from the equation. Why don’t you make the commitment that if God moves you to take this position, you’ll insist that your salary remain what it is now?”
My friend audibly gasped. “If I do that, there’s no way I’m even thinking about this.” He agreed to the suggestion, though. I didn’t heard from him again about the position. Praise God for shielding him from an obvious temptation and giving him the courage and conviction to not be swayed.
Vocational pastors, if you don’t protect yourselves, money is likely to seduce you away from your true calling at some point. It is a powerful temptress. How can you assure that you are being led by the Spirit and not by the love of money?
I would love to read your comments. Have you experienced a situation where money may have seduced away from mission? What would you suggest for fighting that battle?
teddy ray 
wow. your friend must be a wise man full of integrity and must occassionally where really tight shorts to work out in….i’d and anyone else would be luck to meet this fella.