Should Pastors Be Paid A Salary?
Hi to all my Forum Friends,
In the discussion begun by Henhouse titled "Moral Dilemma" -- the question of a church supporting its pastor is raised. In support of pastors being paid a salary, Joy tells us, "The Church in Bible times took care of the needs of preachers. I don't see why it's a problem if we do the same?"
And, Henhouse responds to her, "A point of distinction: There is not an example in the Bible of a church paying a guy to be their permanent "local preacher" whose main function is to preach to them each week.
They supported preachers as missionaries carrying the gospel to new areas, and when missionary preachers like Paul came to their areas they helped provide for them while they were there, as good hosts and enabling the preacher to do his work while there, but Paul worked a secular job as well to support himself.
I might also point out that even those preachers were Apostles. Modern day preachers are certainly not, so to treat them as Apostles would be a mistake, in my opinion."
Henhouse, I promise you, God will not punish you if you vote to NOT pay your pastor a salary. He will not punish you if you withhold your offerings because the pastor is being paid a salary.
But, let me ask you -- where you work, are you paid a salary? Could you afford to stay on that job if you were not paid a salary? Assuming you decided, because of your dedication, to stay on the job without a salary -- who will feed, cloth, and house you and your family, since you have no income?
Well, guess what? The pastor and his family have the same needs. You may choose to not pay your pastor a salary; but, how long can he afford to stay in that position without any income?
Yes, I have seen many pastors of small churches take on the pastoral responsibilities while, at the same time, holding down a full time job. I saw a very dedicated Filipino pastor of a small church in Orange County, California, who worked as a janitor at the Crystal Cathedral to support his family -- so that he could pastor the church God had given him.
What happens in such a case? Well, for one thing, many times when a church member or his/her family needs the pastor to come to comfort them, to advise them, or in some other way, to counsel them, or to visit them in the hospital -- he may not be available because he is at his full time job. But, since most pastors are pretty dedicated people -- many will still come to your home or to the hospital in times of need -- even though they are exhausted from working all day at their full time job.
What effect does this have on the church? Well, it is obvious that the pastor is going to exhaust himself -- and his messages, his teachings, may not be up to par. What then? Will you blame him for not doing a good job in his teachings? Whose fault would that be -- if he is forced to work full time in an outside job while trying to be a full time pastor?
But, Henhouse, I am confused. Why are you against the church paying the pastor a salary? Yes, there are pastors who will abuse this blessing from God. We see many television pastors who are living in mansions, driving expensive cars, and living the jet-set lifestyle. These folks are obvious -- and God will have a few words for them one day.
There are others who are not so obvious. I mentioned in an earlier post about a pastor who made his brother the only elder of the church -- and then, he and his elder voted to buy the pastor a new car from church funds. This was wrong.
Friends of mine moved to Santa Barbara about 15 years ago. They found a church and became members. At that time, the church had about 100 members. Slowly, the church membership began to shrink to where they had only about 70 members. Yet, the pastor, who was at that time getting a salary of $70,000 -- asked for a raise.
I told my Friend he should suggest to the pastor that if he wants a raise -- he should go out and bring more members into the church, i.e., do some evangelizing and door knocking -- so that the church could afford to give him a raise. Personally, at that time and place -- my feelings were that this pastor was being very well paid, over paid. He was wrong in asking for a raise above what he was getting -- while the church membership was shrinking.
But, as we all know -- there are people who will take advantage of any situation. This should not taint our attitude toward those many thousands of dedicated pastors who are struggling to make ends meet -- while still giving 110% in doing God's work among and for the congregation.
One last thought, in the late 1990s, our senior pastor was going to leave the pastorate and become a full time church planter. Our elders recruited a doctoral candidate from a seminary in Oregon. He agreed that he and his family would move to Southern California and pastor the church for the paltry sum of $1800 a month.
However, before he moved down to California, things changed in the church and they found that they could not pay him more than $1200 a month. This is a man who was CEO of a successful company before leaving that to enter seminary. This is a man who had a wife and three small children. This man trusted God enough that he accepted this lower salary and became our pastor.
That was over 15 years ago -- and that church has since tripled the number of members and is a thriving church. The pastor knowing he needed more income -- at first, did engineering consulting work on the side -- while working hard to grow the church spiritually and numerically.
In other words, he worked hard to grow the church to the point where it could afford to pay him a decent salary. This is just the opposite approach taken by the pastor in Santa Barbara who left the church because they would not raise his salary while their church was shrinking. By the way, that church in Santa Barbara is happy and thriving today -- with a new pastor.
No, Henhouse, we should not expect people to pay us for working -- if we are not willing to pay our pastors who work for us.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
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