Do Pastors Get Paid To Study?

I was sitting in an Elders meeting several years ago at my former ministry in Ohio. One of the Elders who I had a great relationship with was teasing me about the amount of time I had been studying that month. As this was going on another Elder, who I will call Rodney (not his real name) had a very strange look on his face. When the teasing ended Rodney looked at me with all seriousness and asked if I had been using Church time to study for my sermons. When I told him that I had he began to get frustrated and a little mad. He told me that my job was to visit people during the day and I should study on my own time. He went on to talk about his military days and how he had to study "off the clock" on a regular basis. With all of the Elders now looking at both of us I explained to him that the Church paid me to visit, pray, study, and everything else that goes along with ministry. Rodney was not happy the rest of the meeting or the rest of the time I was in Ohio.

There are many misconceptions about what a Pastor does and does not do. All of us in full time ministry have very different personalities and approaches to how we accomplish things. For me I like to mix things up and work during the day and evening as well. I love to visit people and I enjoy my time in study as well. What my schedule is and what the guys schedule who ministered here before me are very different. Most leaders that any Pastor works with understands the dynamics that are involved with the different personalities and approaches by each individual Pastor. Still there are those out there like Rodney who feel that they know the best way that every Pastor should spend his days. If you are a Church leader and you find yourself frustrated with your Pastor then handle the issue Biblically and talk to him first. My situation right now is wonderful, but my heart goes out to my brothers who have to struggle through this with their leadership.

The Church needs to realize that it is imperative in todays culture for their Pastors to have enough time in study and prayer. These 2 vitally important elements are missing much of the time in a Pastors life. All of us in full time ministry need to be focused upon study beyond the Sunday morning sermon so that we are constantly filled with wisdom and insight. Our prayer lives have to take precedent over our busy days before they begin so that we are inviting God into our daily situations. Any Pastor who takes the time to pray and study several hours each day will be someone that God will use continuously. Those in the Church need to encourage their Pastors to take time for this each day. There is more power in a Pastor who prays with regularity than many realize. I always will wonder to myself why Rodney was so upset at that meeting? Would he have been so upset if he spent more time with the Lord? Maybe part of the problem is that some of the leaders in the Church think of their role as a position instead of having the mind of a servant. The Apostles in Acts 6 delegated ministry so that they could give their attention to the word & prayer. That still holds true for the Church today. I receive payment for working in full time ministry. A big part of that ministry is spending time in prayer and the word.

Communication Breakdown

Several years ago I sat outside of the Chapel at Bible College and struck up a conversation with a Pastor of a healthy and growing Mega-Church. He had a very charismatic personality and I liked him from the start. As we talked I began to question him about his journey as a Minister and discovered that he started out working with the youth and was involved with several other key areas of the Church before taking on a Lead Pastor's role. I was intrigued by this mans journey and asked him what the difference was between Youth Ministry and being in a Lead Pastoral role. He said to me "the only difference between the youth and adults is their age! No matter how old they are they still act a little childish from time to time!" I thought that was a bit strong, but figured he must of had his reasons for his comments.

I had forgotten about my conversation with the Mega-Church Pastor until the past few months. I realized that what he said had a lot of truth to it. As adults we sometimes still act like teenagers and little children. When we don't get our way at Church we pout and throw fits until we get some attention. We do this because in America we have things theologically backwards. We have begun to think that the Church is there for us and that we need to be ministered too constantly. We have been fed lies by the spoonful and have eaten every last morsel of it. Our selfishness affects the bodies that we represent in negative ways. We have become more concerned with what we want in the Church than what God wants from each of us in our communities and homes. People have become consumeristic and will now shop around for a Church that fits their own needs. Once a Church is found the disciple begins to think of themselves as a customer who needs to be served and made happy if they are going to stick around for any length of time. This mentality is killing the Church!!!

The Church does not exist to make people happy or to fit some type of personal spiritual blue print. The Church exists to edify God through ministering to each other and the community that each Church is in. One of the key elements that is missing today is humility. Dallas Willard in his book "The Diving Conspiracy" says that humility is the hardest thing for the modern Christian to grasp. Our lack of humility is causing us to battle with each other over order of service, music style, and levels of authority within many congregations. Our lack of humility keeps us from loving, serving, worshipping, and praying together like we should. Our lack of humility hinders God's blessings and movement among us. I don't know how you feel about all of that, but personally I am tired of the lack of humility I see among God's people.

Pride is the counterpart of humility by the way. It is an affective tool that Satan has used through the centuries to divide God's people. Our pride holds us back from getting to know the entire congregation at times. Our pride holds us back from listening to each other and loving one another more passionately and deeply. Pride was not a problem for the Church in the book of Acts. They humbled themselves and God moved in powerful ways. When we learn how to humble ourselves we will experience God in great ways also. The road of humility is not an easy road, but it is the best road that any disciple can be on.