Always Abounding - Spring 2020

SUPPORTING GOD’S WORKERS
by Dave Olson
Most preachers
don’t enter
the ministry
hoping to earn a
lot of money. They
expect to sacrifice.
Unfortunately, a
pastor and his church
can suffer if he is not
compensated properly. Consider how this
can happen. Since many pastors opt out
of paying into Social Security, they will
have no way to support themselves during
their golden years unless they make wise
investments. However, if their income
is minimal, they have little to nothing
to invest. To make matters worse, many
pastors do not own their own homes
because their churches, in an effort to
cut expenses, provide parsonages. When
a pastor gets up in age and needs to step
down from his position, he can’t because he
has nowhere to live and no income. Such
a scenario happens far too often, and it
hurts both the man of God and the church.
Hopefully, you can see the need to support
God’s men financially. If you disagree with
a pastor receiving a reasonable salary from
the church, read on.
“Did you see the nice car that pastor
was driving? I wonder where he got the
money for that!” muttered a disgruntled
church member. It is surprising how many
people expect their pastor to live on a
level far below the average member. It is
almost an unspoken rule that the preacher
should reside in a stuffy old parsonage,
drive a car at least ten years old, and wear
dated clothing. Because such insensitive
members expect their pastor to live “by
faith,” they neglect to give him a raise
year after year. Meanwhile, those very
members think that they are underpaid
and deserve a raise at work.
The fact is that people in every
honorable profession deserve to be
paid, and that includes the pastor.
While some churchgoers think that pastors
do not have a “real” job, they are gravely
mistaken. The notion that a preacher
only works on Sundays and has little to do
throughout the week is nonsense. When
you read the book of Acts, we see God’s
men saying, “…we will give ourselves
continually to prayer, and to the ministry
of the word” (Acts 6:4).
One of the most taxing professions
is being a pastor because he has to
deal with the problems of so many
people, including yours! Every 45-minute
sermon you hear on Sunday morning
is forged by several hours of study and
prayer. If you attend Sunday school, return
for the evening service, and get to the midweek
service, you realize that the preacher
invests dozens of hours preparing for those
lessons too. Perhaps you never understood
that the happy young married couple who
sits on the third row is only happy because
the pastor has spent countless hours with
them in counselling. The five sick people
on the prayer list that you forgot to pray
for this week were visited by your pastor
in the hospital, at the nursing home, or
in their homes. The funeral of the head
usher that you did not have time to attend
took hours of planning by your pastor, not
to mention the time he spent helping the
struggling widow through her grief. The
pastor’s wife and children wish they had
more of his time, but they realize that
other people need him, too. Then, on the
way home from church after hearing a
sermon about tithing, you say to your wife,
14 | ALWAYS ABOUNDING