LET…. MY…. PEOPLE…. GO !!

Chapter eleven

Your salary (salary: a fixed compensation periodically paid to a person for regular work or services” – dictionary.com) is the subject of this chapter. Is your salary Bible or Bible-plus? The sad truth is it…. just…. doesn’t matter.

I quote something I wrote many years ago, and have often repeated: “Evangelicalism only makes sense to the person who understands that there is no conformity between evangelicalism and the Bible.” To religionists, what the Bible says matters little. And to religionists, what Jesus (our Lord and Redeemer and Teacher and Shepherd) said matters little. Gospel churches castigate catholicism for placing tradition over the Bible even though they do the same thing with equal gusto.

Now back to your salary….

Your salary is just one of many examples of evangelical leadership straying from Scripture. (Jesus: “You have made the commandment[s] of God of no effect by your tradition.”) I know you are quick to retaliate, “The laborer is worthy of his wages.” But the wages Jesus was referencing was “eating and drinking such things as they give”. Check it out.

And I am sure the words of Paul quickly come to mind: “Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.’ ” Again, this is referencing food and drink. Paul is saying, “Don’t refrain the ox from eating so that it can keep treading out the grain. Be sure the preacher has nourishment so that he can keep on preaching.” Well how about….

1 Corinthians 9:14: “Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.” Paul was referencing “the Lord” Jesus (Mt.10:10): “a worker is worthy of his food”. Well how about….

1 Corinthians 9:4: “Do we [Paul and Barnabas] have no right to eat and drink? Do we have no right to take along a believing wife?” Again, this is referencing food, not only for themselves but for their wives (should they choose to marry).

The apostles lived by contributions. Repeat, contributions. The word salary cannot be found in the entire NKJV Bible or any other accepted translation (including ASV, ESV, KJV, NIV, WYC).

Logical question: If the word salary cannot be found in Scripture, why do pastors receive a salary?

Answer: “Evangelicalism only makes sense to the person who understands that there is no conformity between evangelicalism and the Bible.” Your Bible-believing churches aren’t. And now a few more questions….

Question: What importance does Pastor Typical of Typical Evangelical Church give to Paul’s words to Timothy, “Having food and clothing, with these we will be content”?

Answer: None.

Question: Does Pastor Typical heed the words of Jesus, “Freely you have received, freely give”?

Answer: No.

Question: Is Pastor Typical impacted by Paul’s statement, “I present the gospel of Christ without charge”? Answer: Not the slightest.

Question: Does Pastor Typical “lay up treasures on earth”?

Answer: In abundance.

Jesus lived by contributions. (“Many women followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him.”) Like Jesus, the apostles who received contributions were on the go. Peter left. Paul and Barnabas travelled. Timothy went. However pastors (unlike evangelists and apostles) are stationary and have no need of contributions; they can work to supply their own needs and that of their families. (The same as I and many others do.)

There is an enormous difference between living by contributions and living by salary, and the effect it has on your congregations.

First, contributions….

A contribution is a donation directed toward any person or cause the contributor so decides. The contributor always has decisions to make (instead of having others decide for him), how much to give and where his donations are to be directed. The recipient may be anyone within, or without, the congregation – those in need or anyone doing the Lord’s work. Dispensing one’s donations through contributions gives all active christians equal opportunity to be supported.

If your congregations were encouraged to prayerfully contribute, evangelists would be better financed. Supporting the evangelist is evangelizing; evangelizing is a means of fulfilling Christ’s Great Commission.

Now the salary….

A salary is a contract between an employer and an employee. Although you disdain being considered an employee, that’s what you are by definition – and your employer is the congregation.

The salary gives you special status, elevating you above all others. The salaried become the leaders, decision-makers, teachers, shepherds (all the roles Jesus wants to have with everyone in your congregations).

Your salaries have bought you power and power corrupts. As power corrupts the unbeliever, so it does the believer; to think otherwise is supreme naivety. Speaking of naivety….

In their book, The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse, (Johnson and VanVonderen) – which I highly recommend – the authors describe the naivety of congregationists who accept the advice of pastors without hesitation; the trust they have in pastors surpasses that which they have in financial advisers, etcetera. Pastor Whoever must be right because he’s the pastor; hearing from a pastor almost equates to hearing from God. This is the illicit and dangerous power you wield over your people.

The pulpit gives you this power. Every sunday you grow in stature and credibility as you display your spiritual wares before the audience whose trust you have captured. It’s your salary that procured the pulpit. It’s your salary that negates “one another” ministry. (“As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another.” “Exhort one another daily.” “Edify one another.” “Teaching and admonishing one another.” “Serve one another.” “You can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged.”)

A sobering thought….

The cost of your salaries is more than money; the cost of your salary is souls. Much of the money spent on your salaries could and should be directed toward Christ’s Great (and mostly neglected) Commission.

After much consideration, I estimate the cost of winning one soul in third world countries could be less than $20. If your monthly salary is $6000 and the cost of procuring one soul costs $20, the cost of your salary is 300 perishing people…. per month!. every month! (I know that hurts, but something has to wake you up!)

Wisdom is asking yourself (before your summons to the judgement seat of Christ), “Who gave me permission to accept/demand a salary?” You know it wasn’t Jesus. And you know the Bible gives no such permission. Your salary, my brothers-in-Christ, is “the tradition of the [evangelical] elders”. Your religion, evangelicalism, gave you this permission.

****************************** Another story…

I was the last relative to see Granny before she died and went to hell. My wife’s grandmother was not a nice person – mean, highly prejudiced, abusive, selfish. So there we were, Granny and me, in a hospital room.

Granny was dying. Granny was in torment. It was horrid.

A year or so previous this frail little lady was laying in bed, all were anticipating her death. I went into her bedroom fully aware of the everlasting torment that awaited her, and asked Lord Jesus to please give her another chance. He did, Granny recovered. but she never changed, not the slightest.

Now loudly moaning and groaning and absolutely terrified in the hospital, she was no longer cognizant of this life, but (it seemed to me) quite conscious of the monstrous realm where the demons were taking her. Perhaps an hour or two of this non-stop torment passed when, inexplicably, a nurse came into the room and wheeled Granny into a back room. When my wife and her mom finally arrived, they got the news that Granny had died.

While evangelicals give little consideration to that horrid place the Bible calls hell from which Jesus saved them, the reality of hell burns in His bosom. Hell is why He came. Hell explains Calvary. Hell is why Jesus talked so forcefully, so sternly.

At this moment, forty-plus years later, Granny is still crying out in torment. (“I am tormented in this flame.”) She never experienced one moment of reprieve. Not one. I wish every evangelical, for just a minute or two, would see and smell and hear and feel Granny’s eternal habitation. Perhaps then they would take Christ’s Great Commission seriously. Perhaps then they would detest, as I do, wasteful and treacherous evangelicalism.