Colossians 1:24-25 “I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God.”
PREACHERS ARE NOT “EMPLOYEES” OF THE CHURCH!
Well, Paul sure got rid of the mistaken concept many western churches have about the role of ministers as their “professionals” on the payroll of the church with dozens of bosses sitting in the pews, each believing they know better than their preacher how to do his “job”.
Paul came straight out and said he was happy to be suffering for the Colossians? Why? Because he was not cloistered in a church office doing a nine-to-five administration job watching over carnal babes in Christ who didn’t want to grow up on God’s word or have their nappies changed (I Corinthians 3:1-9), and who were happy to continue their easy-going “social-church programmes” that make them feel like Christians a few hours a week.
For him it was out in the highways and byways where the lost were. He put his life on the line day in and day out to challenge believers to grow up and become disciples and get out there with him. In some cases he even ministered to brethren from behind prison bars because he dared to preach a meaty gospel that challenged lives. And, for whose sake was he doing this? The church’s? That’s right; the church’s. He wanted them to go home to be with the Lord and to take as many others with them as possible!
Paul expanded it further and said that his ministry was a “stewardship” appointed to him by God. He was a bond slave to Christ and it was for the glory of God that he was set aside to save the lost and lead them to maturity in Christ. But, the key to his stewardship was that it was unto God and not unto men.
He wrote to the Galatians and told them that if one serves men; they are no longer serving Christ, Galatians 1:10. Yet, too many churches today are doing just that. They are employing “professional preachers” with minimum academic BA, MBA or PHD levels to carry out a “job”; the nature, of which often spiritually immature believers determine with job descriptions, work place agreements, constitutions etc., but not scriptures or the leading of the Holy Spirit.
They even now ask preachers for extensive resumes, rather than ask if they have a calling from God to serve His people making up His body in that place. They forget to let God send His Spirit-filled, appointed steward to them and preach His message to them. Then they expect him to work on a twenty-four-hour-a-day call basis and pay him according to an acceptable standard, which is usually just above the lowest paid working group in the congregation. That level is also usually determined by a Church Board of educated, well-off worldly qualified professionals.
In reality, if these comfortable, worldly leaders of men did their maths, they would see that even at low hourly rates for the eighty hours a week at least that their preacher is reading, studying, praying, visiting, evangelising, teaching, motivating, marrying, burying, marriage counselling, etc., etc., they would have to pay him at least one hundred thousand dollars a year. That, is of course, without taking into consideration overtime rates and double hourly rates on Sunday; all of which no member in the congregation would agree to do if their employer said they could not be paid such legally arbitrated rates for more than a 38 hour week or weekend work!
Folks, you cannot afford your preachers as paid employees! You are ripping them off according to normal worldly pay scales! Worst still if you expected them to have degrees then their pay scale should support your expectations!
So, the way congregations get around paying a worldly pay scale matched to the qualification and work load of their preacher is; they expect their preachers to live by faith. They expect them to take what they get, despite their qualification criteria, and trust God for anything above what may be needed for their kids to have a life, their wife and themselves to have decent clothes, their car to run well and to have something members on church boards seem to know something about; holidays in places beyond a hundred miles from home in something called resorts!
So, the next time you are discussing your preacher’s salary and his having to live by faith, think about this: it is not his faith that you are expecting him to live and support his family by; it is your faith you are expecting him to live by! Your faith determines how much you will contribute each week to keep yourself spiritually alive and him and his family physically alive.
So, once a church has their “living-by-faith” preacher employee, who has dozens of bosses who seem to know his job better than he will ever know it, they expect him to be the “five-fold ministry” all wrapped up in one. Or, in some cases, they find subordinates called juniors or administrators etc., to help run the worldly enterprise they unashamedly call God’s church. Then, from his first day of employment they scrutinize their new employee’s every move; both in the church and in his home to see whether or not he makes the grade they expect of their professional preacher. Everyday he lives on a knife’s edge not knowing from one day to the next if he will have a “job” tomorrow because, it just may happen that, one of his bosses has their nose put out of joint by something he preached, or said, or his wife didn’t look well-dressed for a preacher’s wife etc.
You know, I think Paul got it a lot easier even though he was beaten, shipwrecked, stoned, hunted down, hungry, naked harassed by brethren, was a poor public speaker and failed often, II Corinthians 11.
Brethren, bless your preachers for they are stewards unto your heavenly Father who lives in you and you are not their bosses and they are not your employees and they don’t fill job vacancies as determined by men; they answer the call of God for your sakes. They are called of God to serve Him as He lives in you and in that, and only that, are they expected by Him to be found faithful.
Increase your love toward them and don’t expect them to live and survive by your faith until your faith exceeds theirs!