I just recieved a bit of news regarding your employment at your church…
They can no longer afford to financially compensate you for your time.
Will you continue to serve?
Would you spend 40+ hours a week dreaming, planning,
strategizing, praying, studying, preparing,
counseling & caring?
Even if you didn’t get paid for it?
Would it be easier for you to say “no” to those things you hate doing?
Would you find a creative way to free up your time to pastor?
Would you just stop pastoring?
Is pastoring something that you do because you’re paid to?
If you were no longer paid to pastor, would you continue to pastor?
Would you simply move to another place that could pay for your pastoring?
or
would you remain at the same location?
Do you feel called to the people you’re serving?
or do you feel called to full-time (i.e. paid) ministry?
If the money dried up at your current position,
would it still be your calling?
Wow. I love this post! I had that dreaded ‘we can’t pay you anymore’ meeting last fall. It really made me look at what I do and why. Ultimately I decided that I did still feel called to serve the youth of this community. Now I’m working as a missionary and running a youth center less than a mile from the church. I’m absolutely loving it!!
There are so many things to say about this post. The first would be that I think is great that some churches are able to support people who spend their lives in ministry. The second is that there are many many unsung heroes who spend 40+ hours a week working somewhere else so they can serve or enable others to serve for the sake of Jesus. Really it is those people who work in the world who are best placed to reach people…
I can safely say that paycheck or no paycheck, making disciples is my calling, but there are bills to be paid.
And perhaps a follow up question would be, would you be a pastor at your current church if you weren’t paid… I knew a guy at seminary who changed his denomination for the sake of a decent paycheck. Great post. Maybe you should repost it every month just to keep us honest!