Pastor compensation

Back to Scripture

Hallelujah! Someone quoted Scripture! Though I may not entirely agree with the interpretation, I am so happy to see someone digging for the answers rather than shooting from the hip. There has only been 2 or 3 posts so far that referenced Scripture. Many churches tend to forget that Scripture addresses the topic of pastoral compensation. A thorough, Biblical study of the topic would be most beneficial before a decision is made about what to pay a pastor. Plus, lots of prayer should accompany the decision. Paying a pastor is not a business decision...it is a spiritual decision. Do we seek God's direction on this or our own???

 

While I applaud the merits of a Scripture based study about paying a pastor it would seem, given the aim of Scripture the point is largely about whether or not to pay the man. This point has been conceded by almost all the posters in this thread.

I don't recall in my studies seeing the point about how much to pay a man being taught as much as just being willing to pay him. If anyone can tell me a specific, biblical amount I'd love to see it...but I'm not holding my breath.

Don't suspect that we are all just "shooting from the hip" because we don't cite chapter and verse for every statement. Almost all of the perspectives here are deeply informed by Scripture.

 

There truly is nothing new under the sun.

Peddlers of this "plurality of part-time elders" nonsense would do well to consider the counsel of the Baptist Assembly of 1689, John Gill, Andrew Fuller, and Charles Spurgeon:

Crosby's History of the English Baptists:

John Gill, A Body of Practical Divinity:

Andrew Fuller, “On Church Government and Discipline”:

Charles Spurgeon, "The Call to the Ministry":

 

Pray tell, what about growing spiritually is outward?

What about activity without productivity should be rewarded?

I anticipated this kind of response. Nothing I said should indicate that I think it is ALL about numbers. What I purposely avoided is coating the post in spiritual gobbly gook jargon saying things like, "If he never wins a soul so long as he is faithful...." On a subject like this it seems we always have to bend over backwards to pet and pamper the many in ministry who have little to no success. There are many who do not win many souls who do not see much results in their lifetime, but they are faithful and will receive their reward. But there are many more who are doing all the wrong things and preaching all the wrong things- for these reasons they are not successful- they ought not be pampered. They ought to be rebuked and put on the right path.

 

The article is a fine article. I do not undermine any principle it puts forth.

I anticipated this kind of response. Nothing I said should indicate that I think it is ALL about numbers. What I purposely avoided is coating the post in spiritual gobbly gook jargon saying things like, "If he never wins a soul so long as he is faithful...." On a subject like this it seems we always have to bend over backwards to pet and pamper the many in ministry who have little to no success.

Of course there are many who do not win many souls who do not see much results in their lifetime, but they are faithful and will receive their reward. They are, I think, the exception not the rule among those who have no success. There are many more who are doing all the wrong things and preaching all the wrong things- for these reasons they are not successful- they ought not be pampered. They ought to be rebuked and put on the right path. Because they are wasting energy and time with activity without productivity they fail to take their communities for Christ and they fail to help the universal church take our world for Christ.

 

Jesus started a church with 12. It grew to 120 in three years. In four years it grew to tens of thousands. Today it numbers above a billion.

He said, "I will build my church..." Boy did He!

 

Exception, not the rule. There are plenty of exceptions- Jeremiah is another. In this age the field are white unto harvest but the laborers are few.

 

I remember preaching at a youth meeting in Barrie, Ontario. None openly received the Lord. Forty years later a local pastor came to me and said, "Thank you." I just looked at him. He then said he had accepted the Lord after a meeting in Barrie and went on to study for ministry.

I just left that meeting some forty years earlier and accepted that nothing had come of it. We don't always see the fruit of our labours, but the Lord does, and He is faithful to His word.

Sometimes pastorates go along a similar path. We toil, preach the word and leave that work as if nothing happened.....Yet, the Lord does His thing. He doesn't need us at that moment, but used us just the same.

Our job is to "go ye into all the world and preach....." The harvest may not be ours to know. Don't judge a preacher by what you do not see. You never know, do you.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Jesus said he would build his church, no? He built it. It numbers in the hundreds of millions. He built it. Around the throne will be a congregation so massive that the multitudes cannot be numbered. That will be a church that CHRIST has built.

He had to die to build his church so you are way off.

Furthermore, he said to those twelve- Greater things than these shall ye do...

 

I agree with this one hundred percent, Ann. But too many use this philosophy as an excuse to continue having little results when they could have great results if they practiced and preached and planned the right things. They don't do it because folks like you and I come along with our tales of Jim Elliot never seeing any results and Jeremiah and Noah- then these people who could be doing great things actually develop a spirit of superiority because of their smallness; and they never do great things.

Dreaming big, thinking big ought to be commended- not counted as unspiritual or arrogant. It ought to be embraced not disdained.

The great commission is huge in its scale. It says- Baptize the nations!!!

Thinking small and contentment with smallness should not be petted or pampered or excused when there is a planet to take for Jesus.

 

Define productivity. Define where in the Bible we are a failure or success based on how many souls we lead to Christ? It's our job to spread the gospel and be faithful. It's the Holy Spirit's job to convict their hearts. We are to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. We are to walk humbly before our God. GOD decides when and where and how to give the increase. That may or may not be something we can see or measure during an entire lifetime, so to base a person's salary on such (or our perception of it) is a grave error.

 

Exactly. And giving my best may be more or less than another person's best. I don't see how we can pay someone for something that cannot be measured.

 

Sure, and commendations on starting that new work!

I just want you and all of us to think big. I hope that you will go to this place praying like John Knox who said, "Give me Scotland or I die"! I pray your attitude is that of George Whitefield, who prayed, "O Lord, give me souls or take my soul"! or like Henry Martyn that you mourn when you see others trapped in false religion and cry out, "I cannot endure existence if Jesus is to be so dishonored"!

God bless you for your willingness to serve the Master!