My former classmate has served in the church for 15 years after studying theology and has travel subsidies every time when she goes to other churches to preach sermons. The church she belongs to subsidizes her at the end of each year, increasing from over RMB 1,000 to over RMB 3,000 now, but she never gets a salary for her ministry. Due to her previous ministry experiences, she cannot find a suitable job but only depends on her husband and parents. This year, she told me that she found a job of providing bathing, shampooing, nail cutting, and companionship for elderly people aged over 80 and she had free time to pastor the church. She serves each person for 75 minutes and charges RMB 15. After a few months, she got her first salary. She sent me a message, "I got my salary!" I thought it could be RMB 3,000, but it turned out to be only over 1,100.
There may be churches that cannot afford pastors in remote mountainous areas, but in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, which have strong economy, churches maybe have the ability to afford the wages, but no one cares to solve it. For example, some church leaders who have their own wages would not care for those who don't have, and some church leaders not lacking money would not be considerate enough to care for others who need to support their families. Further, some church leaders only talk the talk but never walk the walk.
Volunteers who graduated from seminaries cannot always ask the church to provide a salary. The church can not offer salary, but pastors have the willingness to provide their services, so they should have the ability to support themselves. A pastor said that Chinese theological students had better have the skill to support themselves and their families, so that they would not betray God or conscience because of survival problems.
It is not shameful for theological students to learn a skill, find a job, or earn money. It should be a matter of pride not to make money by faith, not to do illegal and criminal business, but to rely on labor and diligence for their own survival. My former classmate insistes on volunteer preaching for over ten years without complaining of no wage. She never gives up serving and trying to find a job, which is worthy of my admiration.
- Translated by Oliver Zuo
