Do you go to church?

Question

If you do, what do you think of pastors getting paid to preach? Jesus clearly says NOT to get paid for preaching. I believe this was because it causes a conflict of interests - you are not likely to tell the congegration something unpleasant, but that they need to hear, because they will simply stop coming and giving money to the church and you are out of a job. What are your thoughts on this?

Answer 1

I occasionally attend a UU or teachings at the local Buddhist monastery.

I don't think there is a problem in getting paid to preach, personally. What I do have a problem with is the pastor in a convertible and a church with a gymnasium and tennis courts and whatever else when the people across the street don't have enough to eat.

Answer 2

I believe that pastors should be paid for what they are doing. My mom is dating a pastor and honestly for some people preaching is the only way they feel they can make a living. Most people preach because they feel a 'calling' to preach God's word and if they aren't paid then there is no income because pastors give christianity classes, they write sermons, they run a church and organize events...There is a lot that goes into being a pastor that people take for granted. Yes there are pastors that are in it for the money but there are also some that answering a calling...its hard to distinguish which is which.

Answer 3

Yes I do.

'what do you think of pastors getting paid to preach?'

I think you should feed the mule that pulls the plow. Even a small church like I attend keeps the minister busy a lot more than just the little time he spends just occupying the pulpit. So why shouldn't the members of the church support him?

'Jesus clearly says NOT to get paid for preaching.'

You can't give me chapter and verse on that one. Because it doesn't exist. But if you would care to contact me I can give you C&V that says otherwise.

'I believe this was because it causes a conflict of interests - you are not likely to tell the congegration something unpleasant, but that they need to hear,'

*LOL* At my church that is what the minister is for.

'because they will simply stop coming and giving money to the church and you are out of a job.'

If they stop coming because of what they hear from our pulpit it will be because they aren't getting fed what they need. *LOL* And where I live you don't come to church to give money. You give money because you come to church.

Answer 4

I have read the Bible cover to cover 9 times so far, and I don't recall Jesus saying NOT to get paid for preaching. The fact that Jesus' little group had a Treasurer (Judas Iscariot) shows that the group was receiving donations wherever Jesus preached. Even preachers have to eat (and some have to support families). In the writings of Paul, he clearly states that the worker (preacher/pastor - which is what Paul was) deserves his wages, even though he didn't exercise his right to those wages - he had a second job.

A true pastor has a heart for his congregation and what they need to grow strong spiritually. A "pastor" who is only concerned about himself (i.e. keeping his job) is in the wrong profession because he is self-centred and self-serving.

Having a pastor can give a church direction, and ensure that there are activities going on that will grow the church spiritually and numerically. Without a pastor, churches tend to decline - probably due to members thinking that outreach and evangelism are the responsibility of a pastor (a result of our modern easy-believism mindset).

If you have a congregation that is truly evangelical in practice as well as in belief, you might be able to get along without a full-time pastor but, in my experience, a declining congregation without a pastor is easily discouraged - and continues to decline.

Answer 5

Religious leaders "getting paid" is nothing new. Whether you call it a salary or them just receiving the blessing and support of a congregation, priests, ministers, and such have received financial support (some better than others) throughout history.

Personally, I've known a pastor or two and I know they aren't doing that job for the money. But they do have to eat. And if they had to hold down a regular job, how would they have time to do Gods work?

Guess it doesn't bother me. I think I have more problem with the idea of people with money thinking they can buy their way into Heaven and them feeling like they have the right to bully the pastor into delivering the Message as they want to hear it because they "give" more money to the church than others.

Answer 6

Yes, you're describing the typical conflict of interest when people are paid to do any job and are tempted to simply say what is convenient rather than what they believe to be true -- or at least 'color the truth' a little.

Politics is another area where this principle is in effect... and probably even more common. (Election 2006 is coming... look out! :) )

So should we refuse to pay pastors or politicians? School board members? Company board members? Authors of self-help books or other instructional books? Historians, who might be tempted to fudge the past so that their books will sell better? We already know we can't trust accountants or wayward power companies...

I understand why you say what you do, and it's good to remove undue pressure from a pastor to just say what peopel want to hear; I just think the principle carries over to any occupation involving payment and the potential for compromise.

I'm also not really sure of a practical way to implement your idea.

Unless he has other sources of income, a pastor IS dependent upon his parishioners for the money he needs to put a roof over his head, to keep his family alive, to set up retirement plans, and so forth. And even if he received no salary but just his daily needs (a place to stay, food from friends, being taken out for clothes, etc.), he would still be in the same position to potentially compromise his beliefs in order to stay in people's good graces. Receiving any sort of support whatsoever would be classified as a potential compromise by your proposition.

Couple that with the fact that a pastor never really gets to "go home" at the end of the day but always feels responsible for his flock's well-being (and people call him at all hours anyway), works 60-80 hours a week with some ministry, research, counseling, caregiving, or whatever else he is asked to do that week, has his weekends filled with running weddings and services/preparations, and receives far under in salary what someone with the same amount of educational hours typically would receive... well, I think a "salary" is a necessity.

There is no way for him to actually do the job he was hired for, without a stable source of income. People want a round-the-clock professional to go to with their needs, and this demands someone with an official position, job requirements, and a salary -- since he sure won't have time on the side to earn add'l money.

I'm not a pastor, but many of them have given up lucrative careers in order to enter the ministry and make a modest income -- often less than the median of the people they serve. For many of these average people, they're already made many financial sacrifices just to enter the ministry; if they were going to compromise, they would have done so by not becoming clergy at all.

[For some reason, we see the big guys at the top of the "mega-church" ministries and assume they are representative of pastors in general in terms of how they live and how much money they have, but it's not even close to being the truth for the typical pastor. ]

I wish I could respond to your paraphrase of Jesus banning the receipt of money for any sort of preaching. While I could be wrong, I simply don't recall him saying such thing. (A reference would help.)

I know he told his original disciples -- the original evangelists -- to take only the clothes on their backs and go from town to town and not worry about what they might get or not get from people... but these were guys who were itinerant and not serving a single established church body. They were essentially supposed to be roving disciples and not put down roots at first... and Jesus' whole mission was also a roving one. His example didn't really address how a local leader/minister dedicated to one group of believers should live.

[The tradition later was that a visiting preacher was expected to not just preach but also chip in with what loca work needed to be done; otherwise, he was a freeloader and shouldn't be supported by the community.]

Answer 7

What you say is totally true.Religion (go to church),are now a billionaire business.The Bible do not say make money with the church's congregation.Some churches use the money for the needs of the church (payment of the building),others simple steal the money to God and steal money to the people.You are right.Pastors make the preaching of the bible their business, and some time they do not preach the Bible.Imagine they preach 4 Sundays and they have until 5 to 6 thousand dollars monthly,plus extras.It is sad,but this is the reality around the world.Jesus never was teaching that.Some few churches are okay.

Answer 8

I'm a Catholic and I go to Church, I used to go to Church everyday to serve mass from the time I was in 3rd Grade. nowadays with all the work & stuff it is difficult to go everyday, so I go Sundays.

In the Catholic Church I know that Visiting priests are paid a small amount for their travel expense, thats all, no big money here. Out of this they have to give 10% back to the church they serve. Why are they paid money is so that they can reach the church ontime and safely.

Regarding Pastors of other Churches, I do think that its a money making racket. You see them in the best of cars, best of clothes, perfumes, their kids in the best of schools, etc. Well in the olden days, when the church was being estalished in countries like India, there were Priests sent from Rome, who had to go through hell and make the money by working for people to build a church and whatever money they got they gave back to the poor.

I do not see this happening nowadays, its Sad that the people who preach do not practise it.

Answer 9

Here is my thought on it. I don't think Pastors should be paid to stand up on Sunday and preach - but that isn't all they do. A great many Pastors are also counselors (marriage, family, personal counselors)
They are called out at all times during the day and night. They are expected to attend special events for the congregations, be ready to jump and run should there be a death, illness or injury to a member of the congregation.
This all makes it awfully hard to have a job to pay the bills.

Now these people who are traveling all over and getting thousands of dollars to speak at your event - they are another thing all together.
For example - they set up their ministry, people donate to their ministry - their ministry is rich. If they come to my church to speak, we have to pay for travel, room, board and a huge speaker fee. Everything they do is tax exempt because you pay their ministry - not them directly. Then they go around talking about how they deserve to wear designer dresses and have a yacht on the lake.
THIS makes me angry.

Answer 10

I do go to Church. And I see no problem with the pastor getting paid. Where in the Bible does it say that not to get paid for preaching? Can you post a chapter and verse?