Raising his hands, Aaron must then present the Levites to the Lord as a special offering from the people of Israel, thus dedicating them to the Lord’s service. [Numbers 8.11]
As the entire experience of worship of God went, there were, in fact, men dedicated to the tasks associated with that worship. The maintenance of the Tabernacle along with the events that took place there required human effort and oversight and so the tribe of Levi was singled out as that group.
Apparently, serving in the Tabernacle was not a matter of choice or even calling, but rather purely a matter of genetics. Every young Levite boy had this to look forward to: at age twenty-five he would begin his Tabernacle service in some capacity depending upon his particular clan.
Compared to modern culture, this practice seems unfair. Is not every man free to choose what he wishes to do? But then again, it sure removes a lot of guesswork!
In exchange for their service (a prescribed twenty-five year career followed by what appears to have been elective volunteer work), the Levites were cared for through the offerings of the people.
I don't know if there is a point, or spiritual application of this information today, but it makes sense that any gathering of people (be it for worship or a football game) requires personnel to oversee that gathering. Otherwise, who will open the gates? Who's gonna clean up the mess?
The Church, although it is not officially a building or even a business per se, does in fact involve people (the actual Church) gathering together from time to time. Even though animal sacrifice is no longer part of that gathering, still someone has to "open the gates" and then "clean up the mess" afterwards. The larger the gathering, the more details must be tended to in between the initial and final events named here in order for that gathering to realize its intended purpose.
Based on known data that $51,929 was the median household income in the USA in 2013, I am going to play with some math here and try to work out a possible scenario for the maintenance of the Church as it gathers. I will also assume that families who attend such gatherings give the Biblical ten percent of their income to support these gatherings - which for a median family in the US would be $5,192.90 annually. It has been said that in a "church," salaries should not amount to much more than fifty percent of the budget. Based on this assumption, and also the assumption that an employee of the church should be compensated similarly to the supporters of that church, then, it would be logical to conclude that a given church could support one employee (family) for every twenty contributing families (20 families @ $5,192.90/yr = $103,858 x 50% = $51,929). Obviously, these numbers a just a starting point, but give a good idea of what is, at least, possible! Going further, a gathering of 100 households, based on the logic followed here, should be able to support 5 working families (10 actual people) to service the needs of that gathering (100 x $5,192.90 = $519,290 (annual budget) - $259,645 (salaries for 5 employed families) = $259,645 annually for rent, equipment, utilities, supplies, etc.).
Now, keep in mind that the 2006-2010 median household population is (was) 2.59, so, 100 families equals 259 individuals to be maintained by 5 families which equals 12.95 individuals (obviously children and the elderly require other considerations) - these are just numbers here. Realistically, a working family would just be two people who would serve the median family of 2.59 so the ratio would factor out to be one employee per every 25.9 people (1:25.9).
Without great investigation, it is easy to see that this whole scenario falls completely apart if attending families do not support their presence! Likewise, the errant human element is all of this offers a plethora of varying scenarios for abuse and misuse (i.e. a church employee driving a new Mercedes while church supporters drive second-hand Fords).
As I further researched some of this on the internet, I realized that there are as many opinions as to how this should be done as there are people involved in it! Is there any way to get back to the basic outlines of the Bible and start over based on what It says and not what research says (Old Testament or New Testament should not make much difference as gatherings of people require oversight regardless of what they are doing (generally speaking).
How does the Church rise above statistics and culture? How does it break free from being just another business? I don't know. However, I believe genuine revival may be the best starting place (but then, who's going to organize it?). Laugh or cry, this is how we think. The problem is that we think. True revival cannot ever be planned or organized - it is purely the work of God in His people - He gains control of their lives and it becomes infectious.
Even so, please come, Lord Jesus!
Father, I have made myself dizzy in the considerations I have laid out here as every thought written here had almost unlimited sub-thoughts trailing off in my mind that did not get written! We need true revival. We need something that blows our schedules out of the water. We need something that blows our statistics away. We need something that defies every human attempt at control or explanation! Yes, we need revival!
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