Kingdom Missional Support

I have a cousin who is part of the tech startup world. I’m not by any means an expert in that field in a technical or economic sense, but it does interest me, and I read several articles about the tech industry. There’s no doubting that for the past 40 years it has been a lucrative sector to be involved in, but it’s fascinating how much more financial payoff there is for a select few than the industry as a whole. According to my research, there are about 10 million people in America who work for tech companies. Of those 10 million people, a majority of them make just north of $100,000 plus benefits. That is not a small salary, but consider those 10 million people have worked to generate enough wealth to produce about 110 American tech billionaires with a combined net worth around 3.2 Trillion dollars.

Elon Musk — ~$450B 

Larry Ellison — ~$388B 

Mark Zuckerberg — ~$269B 

Jeff Bezos — ~$250B 

Larry Page — ~$216B 

Sergey Brin — ~$202B 

Steve Ballmer — ~$175B 

Jensen Huang — ~$150B 

Michael Dell — ~$150B 

Bill Gates — about $125–145B 

Pierre Omidyar — ~$12.2B 

Eric Schmidt — ~$43B 

Dustin Moskovitz — ~$12B 

Marc Benioff — ~$9–10B

Reed Hastings — ~$6.3B 

In our 21st century American context, there are people who work in the tech industry, and then there are the tech bros who are worth literally billions of dollars

Not everyone working at a tech start that is successful ends up with millions or billions of dollars in payouts, even when they’ve had significant contributions to the work.

I’m concerned that we might think about the kingdom of God and church a little bit like a tech startup instead of a family. Church as tech startup means that a select few, like maybe the deacons, or pastors, or missionaries will receive a big payoff in heaven, but the rest of us should just be thankful to be a part of the kingdom, but that’s not how Jesus teaches about this. The apostle Paul refers to the church in Ephesus as a household of God(Eph 2:19), The apostle Peter calls believers a brotherhood (1 Pet 2:17). James, the brother of Jesus references fellow believers as brothers and sisters (James 2:15). Jesus says later in Matthew that his own family are those that do the will of God (Matthew 12:48).

Do you know what a family does? They labor and pull together. There are certainly roles, like father and mother. There are is certainly authority and structure, but at the end of the day the family works together and eats together; enjoying the fruit of their labor together. As a family of God, we are to work together

Matthew 10:40–11:1 ESV

40 “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. 41 The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. 42 And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.” 1 When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.

Reception:Blessings for worthy homes and villages (10:11–13)

Rejection:General warning—unworthy homes and villages (10:14–15)

Rejection:Specific warnings—synagogues, governors, kings, family (10:16–39)

Reception:Rewards for receiving Jesus’s followers (10:40–42)

1. Work Together

2. Be Rewarded Together

3. The Best Reward is Jesus. He’s worth the sacrifice.

Do you tend to view church like a tech startup company where there are some really lucky or important leaders who will get really rewarded, and then everyone else that is just fortunate to be in the Kingdom?

How are you participating in the kingdom work by receiving and showing hospitality to Kingdom ambassadors?