"I Was Guest Preacher at _________ Baptist Church, and All I Got Was This..."

http://richmondfreepress.com/news/2018/jul/13/guest-preacher-says-he-was-stiffed-south-side-chur/

"The Rev. Ernest Blue Jr. of Richmond is often called to be a guest preacher....until July 1, he always has received an honorarium of $100....'As soon as I’m done, someone hands me an envelope''...'It’s just expected,' he said. But that didn’t happen when he preached at the 10 a.m. service at Morning Star Baptist Church on the first Sunday in July...After the service ended, Rev. Blue said Rev. Brown asked him to come to his office where he...presented him with a Morning Star baseball cap and an umbrella as compensation."

"Rev. Blue....said he decided to speak out so that other ministers could avoid making the same mistake....'I don’t think it’s right for a church leader to do this to fellow ministers,' Rev. Blue said. 'Other ministers need to know.'"

 

$100? We usually pay $500.

 

I have returned checks from small churches when I knew they really needed it. I have actually paid to preach because at my last pastorate I was the second highest tither. I went back to work and took no salary, only the utilities at the parsonage so the church could survive. It still died later as it was too late to save it. I now offer my services for free as I am retired and doing well financially.

I do not believe I would have reported the church who only gave the hat and umbrella. Every preacher should experience such a thing to keep them humble and to train them to do much better when they are in a position to bless a guest. The lad had a chance to speak to those people and may have made a bigger impact on them than the hat giver. That should be reward enough.

If you are in the ministry for the ministry what you get as a guest preacher should not matter. God will provide your needs even if the host does not. I have known missionaries who were cold spaghetti after they came in the back door of a rich man and steaks by a pastor of a small church. One traveled from NC to FL to a church that only supported him for $10 a month and because his wife had a cold and stayed in the RV she was determined to not be interested in the ministry so they dropped him after not even giving them enough gas money to get home.

Ministry can suck, but suck it up and move on. Whiners are not winners. Just sayin'.

 

I think he should have asked ahead of time how much he would earn.

For some $100 is pocket change. For many it means homelessness. Not paying your workers is a very grave sin. If you are able to work for free like Steve Jobs and others, more power to you. I’m sure God will bless you for your charity.

Marty

 

That could get you uninvited as it may appear that you only care about the money. If they told me what they gave before I went I do not remember it. In my experience few Black pastors are fulltime. They are bivocational as I was for most of my ministry so unlikely it meant homelessness. This lad look old enough to be retired and on Social Security. If you cannot walk into a place and be content to minister for whatever they give then do not go. I would like to hear the pastor's side of the story. He went to the press as a courtesy to other preachers or for revenge? Everywhere else he got $100, but not here. I get he was disappointed, but going to the press was probably not the way to handle it. God will repay him and that pastor. There are things like heresy that need to be handle publicly, but this should have been a Matthew 18 thing. Even then the public addressed is the church not the press. .

 

If God knows how to take care of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, He will take care of His servants.

I've preached places and have been honored with more than $1,000. I have preached other places and have received nothing but words of appreciation. When asked to preach, conduct a funeral or a wedding, or any other type of ministry, I don't ask for anything nor expect anything. When financial gifts come, I receive them. When they don't, I am not disappointed or worried in the least, because God is handling that side of the equation. When Jesus sent His disciples out to announce the Kingdom of God, they were not supposed to take a money bag, nor move from house to house in order to accept additional hospitality. They were there to do God's business, and He was going to take care of their needs. While I carry my wallet and pay any necessary expenses, like travel and meals, from my own funds, I follow that principle because it is clearly biblical.

I have known many ministers who also practice the same principle, and none of them have had to quit doing ministry. They demonstrate that the teaching of Jesus is true by their attitudes and lifestyle, and it gives them great faith in God to draw from in times of difficulty.

It is simply If one is preaching in view of financial compensation, then they should not expect God to honor them.

 

I've said in the past that if churches would stop paying preachers for six months we might find out who is really called to preach and who isn't.

 

First, you may be too blessed to realize that not everyone gets Social Security at retirement.

Second, I agree that he should not have gone public.

For me, the personalized merchandise was the clear evidence of obliviousness. That was so tacky. I could better understand it if the pastor just said he expected guest ministers to work without pay.

What would you do if someone gave you a bag of poo for payment?

If someone isn’t willing to give up their Mammon worship long enough to be minorly generous, they shouldn’t give something worthless as an insult.

Generally, I’ve seen pastors generally expect payment for funerals, weddings, etc. in addition to tithe paid. Maybe my family has had the “bad” luck draw.

If pastors work the entire week except for a day off and days taken off, I’m ok with them getting a full salary. If they are only seen Sunday morning, I’d expect them, to be paid less.

Generally, if you pay nothing, they will be doing it for free for another reason. That could be for God but it could also be for another reason you may not like.

The amount of money our society in the U.S. pays someone equates to the worth society considers them to have.

A church does not need a pastor to give a sermon. You can read a few chapters of the Bible instead. You can join in song without a music minister. To ask for things you have no willingness to pay for, especially when God has blessed you amply with money is not appropriate. I can understand about asking for charity if you can’t pay for it. Some people may be too poor to pay a pastor for a funeral or wedding. But if you can, and are not only using the services, but also asked for them?

Marty

 

The pastor I grew up under once said "When I became a pastor, you did it because you were called. You knew you would not make much money. Now many who are not called go into ministry because it is easy money."

 

If he was dissatisfied, he should have said so at the time, respectfully, and asked for $100. No public comment.

I'm reminded of 20th century pastor Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones who was quite well known in England and did considerable guest preaching.

At one church he demanded a considerable sum of money to be taken up as a collection before he preached. The men in charge were very surprised, but did as requested. When they gave him the envelope, he wrote the name of a young preacher that preached recently at their church but had not been compensated.

Those kinds of things tend to become known

 

I'm available. :Inlove

 

I was talking to a deacon at the largest black church in town, not very big about 150 on Sunday Morning. He said they usually give the guest speaker the morning offering. That's well over $1000. According to him, almost all their offering is cash. They write him a check for the total of checks in offering, stuff the cash in a separate envelope and hand it to the guest pastor. I told him "Y'all really, in the worst kind of way, need to immediately consult a CPA.

 

Really? I am available to preach at your church. :)

 

Sorry! No longer available for your church; I'm heading over there!

 

Although I have served as an assistant pastor and am more teacher than preacher, I have accepted a few invites to "preach".
I always refused or gave back the stipend. Not because I'm so great but to soothe my conscience for doing a bad job :)

 

When my father died in 2010 we had our pastor speak at the funeral service being held at a funeral home. Several people, including me, shared some memories and then the pastor gave a 10 minute "sermonette". Then we went to the gravesite for burial and pastor gave a short eulogy. The gravesite was 15 minutes away and on the way home for the pastor. Afterwords my Mom and I talked about compensation of the pastor I thought $150 would be appropriate--the whole thing took about an hour and a half of his time and he had to drive about 10 miles to get there. My mom, the daughter of a pastor, thought $75 was about right. I was quite surprised at her amount. I talked her up to $100, but I always had this nagging feeling it wasn't enough.

With all the pastors on this board I've got to ask--What amount would have been appropriate?