What will happen is that if finances fall short and the church cannot afford to pay a full salary anymore then the church may be forced to get another pastor who is in a position to take a part time salary. Usually they are those who are retired or have some other income already.
Meeting the financial needs of your pastors serves the whole of the congregation.
Agreed..... you & I both know that some personal touch is at times required....and correct, it can be as simple as a 5 minute phone call.
Critical though is to follow up on the conversation action points if there are any. Say your conversing with a pastor & you & he agree to do certain things together or whatever....and there is no follow through. Are you going to trust him? And that in itself is time & perhaps labor allocations? What is the cost of follow up & what value does it have....and is it measurable (maybe even measurable in ROI)
Now, is that kinda like running a business.....maybe & sorry if that offends some people....but:smilewinkgrin:
Yeah, "enriching" myself on a salary slightly bigger than I would make at McDonalds, after leaving a cushy supervising job, where I made six figures....
You, sir (or madam?) are an interesting individual. You attack people for obeying God. I am speaking for other Pastors, who have left high paying jobs, cushy retirement packages, and places of authority, to come and serve the church, only to be attacked by venomous people like yourself, who do not care about them, or their families, you just want to keep your money in your pocket, so you can buy your next shiny new car.
Where is the salary breakdown of elders found in Scripture?
Where is the discrepancy between someone holding a Sr. title compared to Associate.
Where are we told the other 2 or 3 should work fulltime secular jobs and volunteer their time?
Where is this hierarchy?
We can say we don't run the church like a business, but open the finances and it proves different.
Let's compare our comfy, corporate model church with the churches found in Asia or the middle east.
Which is closer to the biblical model?
(Hint...not the one with a nice benefit package)
This is very, very true. Just as in other fields, there are some who work harder than others. But the laborer is worthy of his hire, and while I am sure there are some that do, no pastor that I know of does this for the money.
Many of us have or are currently working part- or full-time jobs while pastoring. Some like Annsi's husband, left well-compensated secular employment to follow the Lord's call at a pittance of what they made previously.
Like some say, "The pay isn't great, but the retirement plan is out-of-this-world!"
I don't know about "attacK', but yes, a rebuke. The difference is, that we have clear scriptural commands that we are obeying. There is NOTHING in scripture to support the refusal of support for a pastor/minister. On the contrary, Paul, the apostles, and the other ministers in the NT had their needs fully supplied. Paul even says if they do a good job, they should get paid more!
The only explanation for not wanting to care for full time ministers, is greed. There is not a shred of scripture to back it up.
You know what....if you left a cushy job to serve the lord then go do it, who is stopping ya. I didnt ask you to, you did it of your own accord. That was your choice not mine. Conversely I have given away a house & tons of money to support people like you.....generally with wise guy remarks from your type who ASS_UME all the live long day!
And you know where that leads! Oh, there you are. :laugh:
When does caring for the senior pastor take precedence over the needs of the entire body?
Did those in the first church in Acts sell their possessions to care for those in the body with need, or the elders first?
We are not talking about a small church that cannot afford to pay. We are talking about someone deliberately deciding not to provide for the elders, the way the scripture commands.
We don't use that command to trump the others.
James 2:8 is just as valid.
Small or large church, there are those within that are suffering or who cannot obey God's calling and command to missions due to providing for the top elder over anything else.
Just yesterday (Labor Day) I received a call from a member. Her brother in law was having surgery to have his hip replaced that very day. I kindly told her to call our prayer chain and have people pray for him and that I would check on them today. Now, she may be upset with me that I did not drop everything and come to the hospital right then. Had he been at death's door and an emergency I would have come. But, it wasn't. I have a home and a family and they come first. With that said I do try to keep up with the congregation. And, one way I do it is to keep my deacons informed. When I get news of a church member who needs attention I contact that member's deacon. Many times a deacon beats me to the hospital. And, many times I don't have to do anything because a deacon has handled the situation. If a deacon gets in over his head or he thinks the situation needs my attention he lets me know. We work together in keeping up with the congregation and meeting their needs.