What Does Your Church Pay Your Pastor?

[pastor's wife]

(06-05-2012 05:25 PM)ThatsWhatItSays Wrote:  I don't knock all the pastors, PW. I just feel they have been configured into that image by the expectations of churchianity.

Don't worry! I knew you weren't! I do try not to be over-sensitive or take things personally! I know that a lot of people here have experienced some terrible examples of pastors' bad behavior.

I agree that generations of churchianity has ended up forcing pastors into a certain mode. It would probably be healthy for the church to rethink this, but I don't know it that would ever happen to any great extent.

Quote:But I wonder, is the clergy/laity distinction wrong, or is the fact that Paul makes certain requirements for Bishops and Deacons indicative of a necessary division? We know that the division was wrong at some point in church history (the gospel was, for all intents and purposes, lost, and the laity didn't have total access to the word of God). In what sense is it appropriate today?

One of the biggest things that bugs me is the idea that if you're really "sold out" for God, you'll go into "full-time ministry." There's definitely a caste system in Christianity with the idea that the pastor is "holier" or "more important" when the Bible clearly teaches that we're all equally important in the body of Christ, that we all have different yet equally important roles to play, and that leaders are to be servants.