Working for Free…Is Not for Me

“We must establish priorities.  The ‘rent-paying’ activities are of first importance.  The congregation expects certain things of us, and unless we do them faithfully, outside revivals, community and denominational work, and golf will get us into difficulty, and rightly so.” _James W. Cox

For a church to be healthy and growing, it needs someone who is responsible for:

• Maintaining and managing the property, calendar, and budget.
• Developing and maintaining vital systems like the Sunday event, discipleship, age-appropiate ministries, etc.
• Outreach, missions, and evangelism
• The volunteer staff and eventually hired staff
• Pastoral care – vistation, counseling, etc.
• Trouble-shooting – dealing with difficult people and problems.

There’s not many people lining up to devote their life to doing these things for free. That is why the church needs vocational ministers who are paid to do them.

However, the temptation for ministers is to focus on the things they enjoy doing – the things they’d do for free – and let the other things go. As a result, many end up mostly working for free or are grossly underpaid.

To turn this around, do not neglect the things you’d do for free (your calling) but remember to also be intentional to do the things you’re paid to do.

And the better you do them the better you will be paid, and your family deserves that and your church will be blessed by it.

Currently you may be in a church that is not able or does not want to pay you well for doing these things – many churches like free! – but do these things anyway and one day a church that wants to impact the world so much that they’ll gladly pay you what you’re worth.

That’s my prayer for you.