It was some years after the first edition of this book was issued that systematic overseas preaching was resumed. We say "resumed", because it would be to pay altogether too little respect to the work of our own pioneers of a century ago, to say nothing of the apostolic fulfilment of the command to go into all the world and preach, were we to say "commenced". And now, as this chapter is written, we have the Christadelphian Bible Mission operating in many parts of the world from its base in the United Kingdom; we have the Australasian Christadelphian Bible Mission operating from Australia and New Zealand in the South East Asia region, and we seem to be on the way to having an American committee conducting work in the remoter parts of North America, and in parts of the Caribbean and Latin America too.

Christadelphian communities have been set up in Scandinavia, Holland, France, Malawi, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Fiji, Newfoundland, Greece, Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana, Panama, and Colombia, some numbering hundreds, and some very small. Resident workers from established Christadelphian societies are operating in at least eight of these places, though with comings and goings the figure is necessarily fluid. In eleven years something between fifty and one hundred such workers have been to the theatres of operation, lived there anything from one year to ten, and returned to take up the threads of their former lives again. The conditions of work in tropical climates, in particular, as well as governmental restrictions on what kinds of work may be undertaken for a living, and personal problems of the most diverse kind, necessarily make the turnover of such workers rapid, and the need for replacement constant and pressing.

This is one reason for the inclusion of such a chapter in the present work. A new dimension is introduced into our thinking. It is no longer a question merely of "Do I want to be a preacher? If so, how shall I set about it?" To this must be added the important supplementary question, "Ought I not to set aside some portion of my life to the specific duty of preaching, in surroundings where I should, almost inevitably, only be able to work for a limited time, and in which, for that very reason, I am likely to be most needed?"

Of course there will be those to whom such a question cannot usefully be posed, but it is better not to spend too much time on exclusions from the call. Commonsense will teach most of those whose experience, or whose other responsibilities, or health, unfit them for overseas work. What is really needed is to find new categories of those who can participate in such work, and the time is far off when we are likely to be embarrassed by too many offers.

For workers overseas have tended to be drawn from (l) the ranks of those who have retired from their posts; (2) those whose positions are in heavy demand in underdeveloped territories, especially teachers and others with academic positions; (3) a limited number of adventurous people who are prepared to go into foreign places and take their place in the line for any job which might be going when they arrive.

We have been well served by them all. But workers over 65 need to be in good health to withstand the rigours of missionary tasks. They are likely to be rich in experience, and have proved excellent guides to new communities; but much of the work and the hardships fits younger bodies better than older ones; and in any case there are not enough volunteers in this category to supply all needs. Schoolmasters have proved their worth, too, and are still doing so, but again there are not enough to go round, and since many of the most suitable workers are married, with young families, disabling responsibilities reduce their ranks still further. And as to the third category, while we have had, and have yet, those who have gone into foreign parts and worked themselves into stable employment, this becomes increasingly difficult as the newly independent territories tend to reserve for their own nationals every job which it is imagined they can do, and place crippling restrictions on the employability of the expatriate.

THE LABOURER IS WORTHY OF HIS HIRE?
Why then, it might be asked (though rarely by ourselves), would it not be well to recognise where we are placed, and see to it that professional missionaries are provided, maintained by the community and enabled to get on with their real purpose unimpeded by the necessity of working for their living?

Various objections could be raised. "The Apostle Paul", we may be told, "laid it down that a preacher should work like anyone else, and not be paid by the community." This opinion has had widespread currency, but the simple fact is that it is not true. The Apostle Paul laid down no such principle. It is true that on more than one occasion he preferred to earn his bread, and that of his companions, by pursuing a trade, rather than accept maintenance from his converts.1 It is also true that he advised those called upon to dispense the church's charity that "if any will not work, neither shall he eat" at the church's expense.2 It is even true that he laid down stern conditions before even widows were admitted to the official roll of those cared for by the church in return for their services.3 But the reasons for these rules were practical, not fundamental. He was not prepared to run the risk that his benefactors should think of him as a burden, or claim any rights over him because of their help.4 He was not prepared to set a bad example to those who would suppose that Godliness was a way of gain.5 And he would not allow the church to subsidize gossip at the expense of proper help to those who needed it most.3

But all this does not establish the supposed principle. And such words as, "Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel", 6 and "The labourer is worthy of his hire", 7 establish the contrary. Indeed, 'in the very act of repudiating such help for himself on one occasion, Paul expressly affirmed his right to have done so had he chosen.8 And if he "robbed other churches, taking wages of them to do you service", 9 there is at least a strong indication that Paul would accept help where he could do so without reproach.

We are perhaps a little too disposed to be contemptuous of "paid ministers". It is wrong that a man should be bought for religious service when his convictions are not there (and this doubtless happens when the church is a career). It is wrong that a man should make high profits for himself because he witnesses to the gospel. But it is not wrong in itself for a minister of the Word to be maintained in the essentials of his life that he might carry on, on behalf of those who live much more comfortably with less devotion, the testimony to the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is agreed that maintenance of this kind should be given sparingly. It is agreed that it would be bad for those converted should they be given grounds to suppose that the gospel provides an easy livelihood for its ministers. It is even agreed that, where employment is possible, it is better for the missionary to be financially independent, as to his personal needs, of the community as a whole. But it is by no means agreed that the community is entitled to accept it as a right that it should get its services from overworked brethren on the cheap, or that essential tasks should remain undone because we are unwilling to provide the minimum means needful to let those who are willing get on with their task. In fact, whenever Paul emphasizes that he had worked with his own hands rather than let this church or that give him help, there is an implied reproach that the church in question had been niggardly or contentious in doing its evident duty.

Nevertheless, this does not really solve our problem. For in the first place the funds available would be quite inadequate for widespread assistance of this kind, at their present or any foreseeable level. And in the second the help which could, or should, be offered would not be likely to tempt out of a settled manner of life those who feel that present security for themselves and their families, should not be foregone.