Does the Bible state how much a Pastor should earn?

Tali,
First off, keep asking questions... keep asking even if you are an older believer.

Each church and denomination are diferent in how they determine who will get paid and how much.

My local church determines how much I get paid. It can go up :love2: or it can go down :tear:

We don't pay any musicians or ushers. But we do give a small amount to our youth workers.

I'm sure your pastor and church appreciate the work you do. God bless you.

 

Tali,

and don't assume that those people are only ushering or playing piano because they get paid for it. For all we know they were faithful volunteers and so the church decided to honor them by giving them some money for what they do. It does surprise me that your ushers would be paid...Ive never heard of that before........but there are lots of instances where pianists get paid for playing.

Each church is going to look at those things differently. I know ours determines how much the paid staff get partially by how much they need as individuals. We want to be taking care of their needs.

 

Some churches put up a fixed salary for their pastors, and it all depends on that church's doctrine and practice regarding their tithes and offerings. Many have deacons who handle and approve the use and disbursement of church funds, church treasurers who handle the disbursements, and church auditors who keep track of the documentation of these disbursements and other stuff.

In some churches I know of, the pastor is disbursing officer, treasurer and auditor all rolled up into one, with a deacon that has a pen in hand to sign and "legalize" the pastor's decisions on where this or that money goes.

Many churches pay their staff a fixed salary, and these are usually the janitors and maintenance guys if the church is big enough and "moneyed" enough for these kinds of staff.

Some churches call these expenses "love gifts", and when it is called that, the amount is not usually fixed. The amount may go up, or down, depending on the week's "tithes" and offerings.

I am sure that most of those who serve on the staff of many churches, in their minds and spirits, are convinced that they serve for God's glory, but, hey, Tali, they gotta live too, you know, so.....

Anyway, having said all these, among Primitive Baptists of the Old School we do not practice nor believe in salaried ministers, or for that matter, salaried staff. That is not to say that we don't give them love gifts, we do, but it is not an expected thing for most PB preachers.

Many PB preachers will travel a hundred miles, more or less, to another church to preach, spending his own money in gas and food, and receive a love gift way less than he spent going to that church, but, they do it because they love the Lord, His Word, His church, and His people.

 

Well, I can say "no" and "that is not scriptural" and turn red as beet for all anybody cares until my carotid pops, but, let me tell you, son, they all gon' do whut they all wan' do, an' they all gon' believe whut they all wan' believe, and there ain't no one sayin' nuthin 'bout nuthin' that's all gon' matter, you get what ah'm sayin' ?

They all gon' pop up with their own Scriptures to justify what they preach and believe.

Ah learned that thar less'n raht here on this heah boahd, son.

So, in the end, it'll all have to boil down to "we all of us are gon' face God someday, whe'er it be as redeemed believers, or otherwise", and then and only then are we gon' find out.

In the meantime, read your Bible, and stay within the Bible.

 

Every Pastor should be paid.

A Pastor should not have to have a day job. If he is working 40 hours a week and has a family to take care of, then how is being an effective tender of the sheep that is intrusted to his care. The whole of idea of tithing is to support the priesthood of the OT. That responsibility did not die with Christ.

If a church had only ten families and they actually offered a full ten percent, then the pastor's welfare is taking care of. A Pastor's job is not just regulated to just Sunday. Pastoring is a full time job.

If your pastor has to work a real job during the week, then your stewardship program that includes tithing is failing miserably.

As to an amount, the Pastoral Council (those deacons and elders ) should determine the proper salary based upon need.

 

At one church, I was asked how much I wanted to be paid. My answer was simply; take the highest wage earned in the church and the lowest. Somewhere in between the two would be fine.

In all my 79 years, I have learned that the Lord will provide. At one small church, I worked as an architect to provide my living. They couldn't afford to pay even a cleaner. In eight months they had a full salary for me. The church did not suffer with my working out....the Lord will provide.

Now the Bible question: "The labourer is worthy of his hire..." Whatever that may be. The Lord will provide.

Cheers,

Jim

 

It would be hard to set a standard as to what a pastor should drive, how big his house should be, and how many trips to Hawaii he can take. I think every pastor will ahve to answer accordingly for how he uses his money. The bottom line (no pun intented) is that its an issue of the heart, much like the widow's mite.

Consider two pastors I have known:

Pastor A served a small church, in a small town. Figuring in his parsonage, mileage, insurance, retirement, and salary, his compensation came to around $40,000 per year. When he first arrived he made some comments to the search team that the parsonage was nice, but very small. The church moved to buy a bigger, nicer house. He then said he needed storage space and lead the church to build a $4000 out-building. His expedition needed some major engine work, so he asked the church to pay for that. He constantly claimed to be poor, living on a pastor's salary and would preach about how he was worthy of a "double honor." He has always had conflict in churches where he pastors centered around two things: what is and is not his "job," and how little he is paid.

Pastor B serves a very large church. His compensation would be around $115,000. He purchased a modest home near the church. His mentioning of his own personal finances in sermons is limited to saying that he doesn't use credit cards because they are a problem for some. His staff (especially the custodial staff) has often said that he will do any job in the church. I can honestly say that I have never heard anyone say anything negative regarding his pay, his finances, or his lifestyle.

Some might say $115,000 is too much, and $40,000 is modest enough. However, looking at this as a heart issue, I believe the opposite.

As a pastor, I can say that when you are in God's will, He will take care of you. I have earned different salaries, and I don't know that there is a magic number. I am being paid much less here than I was in my last church. But I know that I was out of God's will to be in the last one, and I am in God's will in this one. I am actually much more secure in my finances now than I was then. Funny, how God is like that.

 

One of the postings in this thread asked why musicians are paid. Actually, many of them are not. But the problem has been that in order to get and hold capable musicians, a financial reward is about the only way -- IF your church wants professional caliber people. And that may be true only in the US.

I am on a mailing list for organists, and this came up recently on that list. To my amazement, well-qualified organists from Australia and England "piped up" (pun fully intended) and said that most of the church musicians in their countries are unpaid. Maybe only the cathedrals, where there are several daily services. Interesting.

I am an unpaid organist because I want it that way and because that is exactly what I am worth, trying to resuscitate skills I have not used much in 40 years!

 

I meant also to say that I never heard of a paid usher, as mentioned in the original post, or a Sunday School teacher. If you read the blog connected with the recent flap in Watertown, NY, you find that many of the bloggers on the attack assumed that the Sunday School teacher who was relieved of her duty was an employee. I'm 99.44% sure she was a volunteer.

I do have a problem with churches overstaffing. I once interviewed with the pastor search committee of a congregation with 80 in attendance. They were wealthy and had always had a full-time pastor and a full-time assistant. Both had left. So when they asked me what I would want in an assistant if I were to be called as pastor, I told them that they did not need an assistant, particularly if the idea was that s/he would do what they should be doing. I was not invited to continue the interviews!

 

:thumbs:

And may I hasten to add that if the Lord calls someone to the ministry, He is not going to send that fellow out into the woods alone and let him deal with problems on his own.
God has been there way ahead of him, and all Biblical examples we can find show that He has done the preparation for His man, prepared and supplied all His needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

 

Our synod actually provides guidelines for salaries for Church workers. They take into acount the cost of living in an area and set a base amount that should provide enough for a person to live without worrying about making ends meet. I won't give exact numbers but I can say that my salary as a first year pastor is higher than many simply because of the area we live in.