Why do pastors need to know all that much about economics? My friend and writing partner, Austin Hill, tells the story of a conference he attended as a graduate student, when the facilitator posed the provocative question, “Can somebody name for me one area of our lives that has nothing to do with economics?” The group was silent for more than a few moments, as the students were pondering this, most for the first time. Then a student spoke up in a southern drawl, and said what I suspect many were thinking.Ěý He said, “As a Christian, I believe that my eternal salvation has nothing to do with economics.” The group was taken aback by his forthrightness, and the facilitator then rephrased the question this way, “Ok, let’s assume you’re right about that, and let’s assume that one’s eternal destiny has nothing to do with economics (a debatable assumption), can somebody name a second area of our lives that has nothing to do with economics? He went on to suggest that “every facet of our earthly lives is impacted on some level by both economic activity and economic conditions.”

Think about how you would answer that question the facilitator posed to this group. Can you think of an area of our lives not impacted by economics?Ěý I would debate that the notion of our eternal salvation has nothing to do with economics, since the Bible actually describes the elements of our eternal salvation in economic terms. In Romans 4, when discussing the notion of justification by faith, salvation is described in terms of an accounting ledger, in which our sin is cancelled on the debit side and the righteousness of Christ is credit to our account as a result of his atoning death for sin. As a result of this transaction, we are declared justified, or acquitted from the guilt of our sin. In fact, when Jesus declared “it is finished” on the cross, that is also an accounting term, literally translated “paid in full.”

But a further response to the student would suggest that there is much more to a person’s spiritual life than simply the matter of his or her eternal destiny. Life on this side of eternity matters greatly, reflected by the fact that Jesus had more to say about money and economics than he did about eternity. If we refuse to separate out the sacred from the secular, and thus affirm that all of life is spiritual, then there are few, if any, areas of our spiritual lives that are not impacted by economics.

Connecting the dignity of daily work with pastoral ministry is a common-sense starting point. Since most people in the church work for a living in