Preachers Getting Paid

This is an interesting topic.  I grew up with a father, my pastor, and the builder of this church, who worked 3 jobs.  I don’t think he slept.  When he passed away and I took over the helm here I had the responsibility to look through all of the books and assess the financial status of the church.  The most I ever saw he made from the church corporation was $12,000 in one specific year when the church board voted to give him a stipend.  He had a wife and four kids, and only made $12,000 one time in a year.

That was my role model.  I know no different.  I make zero dollars from my church and am quite proud in that.  My retirement and other things I do help out, but otherwise, all of my retirement goes into the church and the mission of the church.

So, let me ask you a question, if your pastor didn’t get paid and have all of those entitlements, would he stay?  I think that if you take the money out of preaching you will quickly find out who was called or which ones just wanted a job where they could have their office hours, church secretary, and others in paid positions.  You see, we collectively have turned our faith into a corporation and not a service as God intended.  God’s purpose and profit RARELY go hand in hand.  The most pure preach for impact, whereas, the others preach for income.

Every day in the calling is a battle.  I always remind myself that the road to heaven feels like hell, & sadly, for so many who are lost the road to hell feels like Heaven.  There is a reason Jesus told us to take up the cross & follow Him, and that straight & narrow way often times feels like a goat path up the side of a mountain.  The closest example I can think of is being an infantry Marine in a sustained movement to contact with ambushes all along the way.  Its NOT a job, it’s a calling.  I recently did a call out to the universities I attended to see if there was anyone who felt the calling to be a youth pastor, and got zero responses when I told them it doesn’t pay anything, they could sleep in the church basement until they could afford an apartment, and would have to work a solid job to be able to help with the overhead & bills of the church.  Funny.  They are all looking for a job and not an Isaiah 6:8 response of “Here am I Lord—send me.”  It’s a calling.

I remember the early days of courtship with my wife…& in every relationship I have had they NEVER wanted to answer this calling or even support me in it for that matter.  After going through too many of these relationships I gave up.  My loathing and disdain for frail, whiny women seriously hampered my testosterone levels.  All I needed was one plate, one set of silverware, and a good chair to sit and sleep in.  Heck, it was better than 33 plus years sleeping in the dirt as a Jarhead.  I had given up.  Then out of no where, a dear friend that I had known for 30 or so years hit me up and we started to talk.  Quite frankly, I was pretty darn mean to her as she was really curious about my faith and calling.  I told myself, I’m not falling for those womanly wiles that eventually crash and burn like a plane crash.  After a while, she said something to me that, “All roads lead to Quincy.”  And, amazingly, they did.  She picked up and moved four times, each time getting closer and closer to Quincy.  I told her it felt like she was a bad artillery battery or 81’s platoon, bracketing and bracketing, but never putting steel on target.  Now, she is here (finally).  What really struck me was that on our wedding night, it was lovely, nice dinner, etc..  But then I had to deal with a severe PTSD Marine and she was good with that & got in her pajamas.  I got done with that, then the phone rang, and one of my old doc’s wife was dying in the ER and they needed me there.  I looked at her and said, “I have to go, you can stay here and go to sleep as its going to be a long night.”  I remember her face as she said quite emphatically, “No, I’m going with you.”  She worked with the women who were there while I focused on my good Navy Corpsman through this time of distress.  His dear wife passed and everyone was exhausted.  I asked my wife to assist me in getting people home and I convinced Doc that I would stay with his wife to ensure the dignified transfer of her remains to the funeral home.  He needed rest as the next few days would be intense for him.  We finally left and got home at about 0430.  I remember watching my wife curled up in a small hospital chair going in and out of sleep and simply thanked God that there was that one woman, who didn’t want money, could handle a MUCH smaller house that was completely a man-cave, and wanted to answer the calling.

She reads her Bible faithfully, prays for and with me, helps me organize the church and house in every way.  She makes me bathe and clean my ears.  She has gotten so good that now SHE calls me out on Scripture and challenges me in all the ways that are right and good.  She shows me dignity, honor, respect, and is frighteningly LOYAL.  Her greatest attribute is that when she says or thinks something, she can actually back it up with fact & experience and NEVER hyperbole.  I can think of no one else I’d rather have an intelligent, well-informed discussion with that her.  An anomaly in a world of hyperbolic, toxic empath feminists.  Sometimes I just look at her and instead of yelling as I often do, “REALLY GOD?!!” when things have gone wrong so many times in my life.  Now, I just look at her and quietly say, “Really God” almost as if to tell Him that I don’t really deserve this blessing.  And now, every Sunday, she is up front, just like my mom and I feel so less alone.  Therein lies the beauty of God’s timing and not ours.  For us it has never been about the money…It’s a CALLING!

She and I do NOT avoid confrontation, rather we revel in it as it makes us stronger.  We encourage Scriptural conviction with one another—iron sharpens iron.  We aggressively seek daily repentance, not just with one another, but with God.  Our study of Scripture provides us greater spiritual maturity.  She is my wise counsel, and I hers—never a need to go outside the house.  And, of course, we hold each other accountable.  Trust me, when I get off kilter with her, her first, and usually only line, is “Hey, you’re a pastor.”  Now I get to say, “Hey, you’re a pastor’s wife,” and we laugh.  But it keeps us in “check fire” and sometimes “cease loading!”

The clergy needs to stoop down & get dirty—isn’t that what Jesus taught us?  Dostoevsky wrote: “Pain & suffering are always inevitable (Jesus certainly experienced that) for a large intelligence & a deep heart.  The mystery of human existence is not just in staying alive, but in finding something to live for.  Power is only given to those who dare to lower themselves & pick it up.  Only one thing matters, one thing…to dare.”  Remember, Jesus did was the pharisees would not do…he got dirty on his hands and feet…he ate and drank with sinners, but never sinned.  He called them names like vipers and vacant tombs…but that hurt some feelings back then.  So, they killed Him.

Remember churches with rock solid pastors of the Scripture and God’s calling, these statistics: 97% of pastors have been falsely accused or deeply hurt by a close friend; 70% of pastors battle with oppression and depression; ~7,000 churches close each year; ~1,500 pastors quit each month; only 10% will retire as pastors; 80% of pastors feel discouraged; 94% of pastors families feel the pressure of the ministry; 78% of pastors have no close friends; 95% of pastors report working anywhere from 55 to 80 hours each week. Yep—it’s a calling.