First, Bobby Auner compares two conferences he went to this year: Two Conferences, Many Differences.
The first conference was Ligonier Ministries conference. Big name speakers. Huge venue. High production values. The other was the Threshold conference, held in a conference room of a Holiday Inn. From Bobby’s description, there was lots of interaction and relationship building whereas Ligonier was mostly about the speakers.
There was a time when the big, high production value, professional conference was really appealing. When I went to Together for the Gospel in 2008 I was really eager for that sort of doctrinal teaching. I was with a couple of friends and we hung out, had meals together and spent a lot of time browsing in the book store between sessions. When your focus becomes fellowship and relatonship, I think a gathering like Threshold sounds far more appealing.
Meanwhile, Eric Carpenter asks a question: Are Salaried Pastors Necessary?
Are they necessary? No. There is not only no Scriptural support for a professional, salaried clerical class, there is also nothing in the functioning of elders and the church at large that would support the notion of a professionalized clergy. That is where Eric makes a great point. The issue is one of how do elders function in the church more than to pay or not to pay because the function of elders, understood Scripturally, determines the answer to the pay question.
That brings us to the more pertinent question. Necessary is clearly out. Is it helpful? This is a more complicated question. I think most people, other than the most staunch defenders of institutionalism, would agree that the church can get by without a salaried pastor. But is having that salaried individual helpful to the church? I don’t think by and large that they are (no shocker). Not because pastors are not dedicated and not because they don’t work hard. Rather, as I have said before, it is because having a salaried employee of the church who is seen as being responsible for ministry and study tends to make the rest of the Body apathetic about ministering (that is the pastors job) and studying the text and asking the hard questions. The way he framed the question is interesting. Elders/pastors are very important in the Church. The question really is about whether the way that elders function and our expectations for them is on par with Scripture. It is on that level that the salaried/professional pastor really comes up short. Paying him is really ancillary to a misunderstanding of the function of elders in the first place. If elders/pastors are supposed to function like we traditionally understand it, then a salary might make sense but when we view elders as Scripture depicts them, paying them a salary makes no sense at all.
Two good posts worth your time to check out!
3 comments:
Necessary in terms of Biblical precept, no. Prohibited in terms of Biblical precept, no. But necessary in certain contexts, I'd say yes.
My pastor is not particularly pentecostal, but I know that he owned an apartment complex for years and finished seminary while simultaneously running the complex and pastoring a small church for military servicemen until the local base shut down. He felt strangely called to be the pastor of a small church that had essentially taken institutionalism to it's conclusion and a bunch of members left for institutional church reasons. He ended up being recommended to them by the interim pastor as well. He told them salary was not the point and that it was about God's call and he would even work for free or a dollar a year.
He has a salary, but I cannot think of a time that he has not had a job or two since that time. I think the Lord has used him to form Christ in all of us. And, if God really did call him to the situation, there is a real sense in which the position is practically necessary. I know that the "felt called" language gets way over used these days, but almost everybody who attends the Sunday meetings spends a lot of time feeding needy people, counseling addicts, doing over seas missions, educating young people, evangelizing their neighbors and families.
The Holy Spirit certainly did not need him or his salary to do this, but I think we as a congregation have needed our pastor. Not in a sycophantic way, but in an Ephesians 4:1-16 sense.
Hi Geoff
I draw a distinction between someone who is financially supported by the church to some extent versus those who draw a salary as their sole source of income from the church, plus health benefits and a retirement plan, etc. the real issue is that all Christians, elders or not, should be financially supported by the church when in need but not as their permanent source of income.
And, unlike most other people, when a salaried pastor loses his job, he also loses his church.
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