Why a fee? We have been overseeing the Polishing the Pulpit Preacher’s Workshop for fourteen years, and are excited about the good it is doing in the kingdom. There has always been a fee associated with it, which was the suggestion of the preachers who originally put it together and asked us to oversee it. They wanted to help bear the cost of what was benefiting their local works, instead of asking one church to bear the entire load. It has always been a cooperative work. There is no charge to hear the Gospel taught at PTP. The fee pays for the materials the participants receive during the week (schedules, books, handouts, notebooks, pens, etc), for some of the meal costs and childcare, equipment rental and conference space costs, and speaker’s lodging and travel expenses. Any deserving person can come to any session for no charge. We have always had a policy that any preacher who needed, or wanted, to come for free could do so. We have never turned away a single deserving individual, and have arranged for preachers from mission points to have free lodging, food, and materials. We sponsor preachers from our budget (and sometimes from our pockets) when there is a need. Of course, the church here, nor any individual, makes anything from PTP. In fact, we make up the difference in money coming in and the actual cost each year. We budget more than $5000 per year to PTP, including paying for mailings and associated office costs. We arrange for the participants to have free drinks and snacks, and we give away many of the materials we produce (papers, tracts, tapes, etc) during the week. In Christian love, The elders of the Jacksonville church of Christ
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