When I was in seminary, I heard the story of the pastor who did not earn enough to maintain a reliable automobile. According to the story teller, the pastor when to the chair of deacons and said, “It looks like I will have to start hitchhiking to the hospital to visit church members. I wonder what people in the community will think about the pastor of the Baptist church standing by the road with his thumb out?” I don’t know if this story is true or not, but it does illustrate the drastic steps that ministers sometimes have to adopt to get the kind of financial support they need not only for the basics of life but to do ministry as well. Pastors don’t like to bring up finances and lay people generally don’t want to hear about them. Churches are reluctant, perhaps afraid, to consider how much it costs to support a full-time minister. They may realize that they can no longer marshall the resources to sustain a pastor. Often churches adopt stra...
Comments from a Christ-follower on things that matter to him