There is a common view that one needs to put away their own gains and losses if he or she desires to serve God. In that way, a person can serve God purely, otherwise, there will be deceit in their ministry.
This is a good point because a person can spare no effort when he or she dedicates himself or herself to God.
However, it’s possible to eat his or her cake and have it.
It’s the person’s business if he or she has a pure heart to follow God, but we should not exert salary restraint on church workers according to some “rigid” standards of testing one’s faith.
For example, some churches offers an annual salary of 30,000 for full-time pastors, without any living allowance.
The annual income of 30,000 yuan may maintain the life of a rural pastor who has a house, but it is a drop in the bucket for an urban pastor.
The dilemma exists there all the time, older generation church leaders believe that poverty can train one to have faith, otherwise material desires lead to the clergy’s corruption.
The other reason is that a poor pastor can win respect from the congregation and vice versa.
The requirement is made from the angle of administrators, failing to regard those who serve the church as living humans.
A young person is responsible for honoring parents, caring for family, and raising up children. If a person is bad at managing his or her family and life, how can they serve God?
Some people emphasize the word “fairness”, comparing western missionaries who preached in China without any financial support and the old generation pastors who were unpaid, with the new generation of workers who are dissatisfied with their payment. The latter are corrupt.
It’s not hard to realize that missionaries to China or leaders from the last generation lived in a different time period.
The Old Testament has an example of the Levites, who left their ministry because they were not provided for.
Today it is the same situation that ministers will leave ministries once their livelihoods are not guaranteed.
More and more millenials become church staff, while more and more who have burdens for the church have to leave.
In face of marriage, diseases, and taking care of their parents, they are unable to deal with them.
However, the church doesn’t solve these problems with integrity.
Sometimes I think about how many companies care about their talented workers and meet their life needs so that they can play a valuable role in the company.
In the church there are also talented people, but there is no systematic plan to keep the brain drain from leading to the desolation of the church.
When will the livelihood of church workers be seriously treasured?
The question sounds like a lament, and more of a helpless sign!
Only God knows when it can be settled.
