Why pastors and preachers should not be receiving salaries

Wages in those days of the apostles are used to satisfy basic needs, not to give apostles an extravagant lifestyle. The very same apostle Paul who wrote the epistle to Timothy also wrote that “the love of money is the root of all evil”.

Here I am warning the dangers of pastors asking for money (a sign or at least a step towards greed), a practise totally foreign to the teachers who followed after the apostles, and all I get is mockery, false accusations and strawmen arguments. It angers me that those who truly love the Lord are so few and the Gospel is blasphemed because of pastors who don’t give a damn about what they do. If they were not guilty they would not take offence at anything I said. Mock me and falsely accuse me all you want hypocrites. Even the atheists and pagans see through your hypocrisy.

I would hate to be the pastor of This woman's Church. Just have to eat whatever food they bring me. If she understands a cookbook as well as she does the Bible, you will probably get a boiled sandwich for dinner.

I have been to churches where an offering plate is passed and I have been to churches where they have a donations box at the back of the church. But no one asks for money.
And the pastor at our church don't collect the money nor does he delegate what it's used for. We have a body of elders who do that according a directive voted on at body meetings every quarter.

Surely your not opposed to giving to the ministry.

Yes the love of money is the root of all evil.

But money in itself is not evil.

True purpose of collections:

Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had NEED.
Acts 2:44-45

Collections had nothing to do with paying teachers, other than what they needed for living.

Paul also wrote clearly in that verse you quoted, said the collection was for the SAINTS, ie all believers, not solely for the teachers.

No I’m not opposed to supporting the ministry. I’m opposed to those however who use what you’ve mentioned as a disguise to then use the money to fill their own pockets.

I would hate to be the pastor of This woman's Church. Just have to eat whatever food they bring me. If she understands a cookbook as well as she does the Bible, you will probably get a boiled sandwich for dinner.

Exactly...are your preachers not SAINTS..they minister to you, they look after your well being, the place where you meet...thats managing...and deserves wages... where do they get this...from collection...as well as the help need by the members of the body...

The solution is biblical: a plurality of elders where no single one has the power to decide where the money goes, and set salaries so that increases in receipts don't lead to increases in the preachers' incomes.

Asking for money to fill ones pockets is a big sign of loving money. I never said money is evil in and of itself.

But collections today are never distributed among believers who are not Teachers are they? How much of the collections are used to help the poor and widow sitting in the pews?

But you seem to indicate it is if you receive more money than is needed to meet your basic needs.

Yet you seem to indicate that basic needs is just food.
Have I got that right?

I understand your beef concerning preachers milking the church but to be honest I have not any.

The solution is biblical: a plurality of elders where no single one has the power to decide where the money goes, and set salaries so that increases in receipts don't lead to increases in the preachers' incomes.

And why is it not? If I’m a pastor and I get extra money beyond what I need without sharing it with the poor would you think I’m not greedy?



Paul told Timothy, a teacher of the Gospel to be content with food and clothing and to flee from the desire for riches. Are we somehow different from Paul or Timothy that we have more needs than them?

That statement comes right before the one about not muzzling the ox while it's treading out the grain. The clear implication is that preachers' needs should be supplied through their work of preaching. That means wages.

So basic needs are just food and clothing?

Yes or no?

In the same chapter where Paul says he wont take anything for himself? And that the worker is worthy of his pay, and they have the right, but Paul's example himself took nothing.

9 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? 2 If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

3 This is my defense to those who would examine me. 4 Do we not have the right to eat and drink? 5 Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife,[a] as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? 6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? 7 Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?

8 Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same? 9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? 10 Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. 11 If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? 12 If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more?

Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. 13 Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? 14 In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.

15 But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. 16 For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. 18 What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.



While yes the preacher is worthy of pay, but what people are referring to more in this thread are the preachers that dance on an alter covered in money chanting "money, money, money", If you can't see the difference and total wickedness what they are doing, man I don't even know what to say to that.

Yes, so what? Your going to accuse me of using things beyond my basic needs? Then let me tell you I never preached with a salary before and I’m using these things from my own labor outside of church. I’m not guilty of the same things I speak out against so boo.

Besides I use the internet to defend the truth, not to make more money. Don’t even attempt to accuse me of things I’m not guilty of.