do pastors and staff

Small congregations don't have the resources to support a full time minister even if they wanted to do so. It's great that ministers tend to the needs of these small flocks without pay. Large congregations may have the resources and may decide they want to have a full time salaried minister to tend to the needs of the larger flock. There is nothing wrong, scripturally or otherwise, with either arrangement. What's important is that the minister be about the work of the Lord in either case and not about the business of personal gain. Yet, if a minister is full time and salaried then certainly he must be prudent about his financies to assure neither he nor his family becomes a burden upon his Church or his family in his illness or old age. There's nothing un-Christian about that behavior.

 

I will serve the Lord wherever He leads me to do so. I have served for the last 4 years for no pay and I have had a job where I can earn a living. If and when I am called to a full time ministry, then I will expect a wage that will allow me to support my family and provide for a reasonable retirement. However, for the time being, I have a good job and do not need church support. A man who is a full time minister, to the point that he has devoted his whole life and all of his time to serving a church, does not have time to have a "regular job" and as such should be compensated so he can provide for the financial needs of his household. A church need not make him rich, but he should not qualify for welfare either.