Caring for Gospel Workers: Giving Beyond the Basics
Excerpted from Joy Giving, by Cameron Doolittle.
Imagine your family sitting down to a holiday dinner. People pass special food around, dishing out some to each person present except one. There's a child at the table who is part of the family, but you have all decided that while you enjoy a lavish feast, he should just have a few simple pieces of bread.
Of course, it’s unthinkable. And yet sometimes we're tempted to treat pastors and those in ministry just this way.
My friend runs a ministry. His child has severe special needs, and their health insurance does not cover his treatment. My friend's board keeps his salary low, saying that the ministry staff should have a “wartime mentality” and sacrifice whatever was necessary to serve the organization. (Then again, in wartime, soldiers get hazard pay. Perhaps his board should reexamine military compensation.) Sadly, this great leader is now torn between his calling to lead a ministry and his calling to provide for his son.
How Does Scripture Instruct Us?
In small, subtle ways, sometimes givers withhold from ministry leaders. They think, “This person chose to be a pastor, so they should be content with a small salary.”
But Scripture is clear that we are to treat those who earn their living from the gospel well. In 3 John, John the Beloved writes to his dear friend Gaius. Gaius has “extra” and is able to host a group of traveling missionaries. Here’s what John says to Gaius about how to treat these guys:
Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore, we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.
- 3 John: 5-8
Beyond the Basics
Gaius doesn’t know these men before they arrive on his doorstep, but through the Gospel, they are brothers. John indicates to Gaius that the men will not ask for funds from the people to whom they are ministering. Instead, John wants Gaius to take care of them—not just meet their basic needs but treat them in a “manner worthy of God.” These are God’s workers, after all.
By caring for missionaries like these, Gaius became a fellow worker for the truth. If someone works for the King, we should host them in a way suited to the King.
In the early church, as pastors and missionaries moved from place to place, they worked hard. Paul talks about “working hard in this way” (Acts 20:35). As givers saw missionaries pour themselves out for the gospel, they responded with hospitality and generosity.
The Philippians sent Paul “full payment, and more,” so he was “well supplied” (Philippians 4:18). Paul, in turn, told the Romans to take good care of his friend Phoebe. “Welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you ...” (Romans 16:2).
A Congruent Lifestyle
But when we talk about how to support ministry leaders, we must also address the other side of the spectrum: how far beyond “the basics" should we give? As generous givers, we need to guard ourselves against being cheap toward God’s workers, but we also need to guard ourselves against the opposite problem: ministry leaders who fleece congregations.
Let's start by making it clear that no one in the New Testament became wealthy by preaching the gospel. In the New Testament, as far as we can tell, the lifestyles of missionaries and pastors roughly matched those whom they served. If anything, we see the ministers of the gospel living below the normal standard of living. Jesus, at least during one season, did not have a place to lay His head (Matthew 8:20, Luke 9:58). Paul knew what it was to “be in need” and to “have plenty” (Philippians 4:12, NIV).
The lesson we find in their example is that ministry lifestyles should not be dramatically more or dramatically less than those being served. Some argue for long sabbaticals and high salaries for ministers. Being a pastor or ministry leader is hard, they say. But so is being an attorney or a doctor or a waitress. We don’t need to compound the challenges of ministry by making God's servants poor, but neither should we alienate them from the community or raise questions about their integrity by allowing lifestyles that are significantly higher than the community. Several churches I know set their pastors’ pay to match the median income of the communities they serve, since they believe pastors minister most effectively when they can live among their congregants.
As generous givers, we get to identify great ministries and ministry leaders and to build healthy relationships with them. As givers and recipients treat one another as brothers and sisters, we build community. And in community we care for one another well.
Faith & Finance Perspective
Whether pastoring a small congregation in rural America or running a community center among gospel-resistant people in a distant land, gospel workers often work long hours to make themselves available to those they serve. They open their doors at the dawn of the day or the middle of the night to counsel a person in crisis. They keep an extra setting at the table for a burdened heart in need of a warm meal and an encouraging word. They seize every opportunity to welcome a lost or wandering soul into Christ’s loving embrace.
As the recipients of their sacrificial kindness, we should give not only to provide for their essential physical needs but also for their spiritual and emotional well-being—so they can afford to drive safe and reliable cars; to have adequate medical coverage; to take their families on much-needed vacations; to put their kids through college; and, most importantly, to show them that we are fully supportive of their call to shepherd their flocks.
In addition to your regular giving, consider supporting your local Alliance church leaders or international workers with a special gift of appreciation to bless them and assure them that we have their backs!
For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”
- 1 Timothy 5:18