3 John 6-7 – Not sure why this is brought up, it appears to be speaking about supporting missionaries. Your assumption in using this verse to support salaries is that it takes a lot of money to operate church functions. It takes 0 money if you operate church the way it was done in the new testament, which is how we are exhorted to continue via 2Th 2:15.

Often also cited is 1 Timothy 5:17-18, which says elders are worthy of double honor, which has nothing to do with money. Jesus referred to money as “unrighteous mammon” (Luke 16:11) and so to use it to honor someone would be kind of strange.

Old testament references are also often used, and to that it makes no sense to accept the free gift of Jesus’ sacrifice and then try to pay it off by going back to the same rules we were freed from. For one who is a prisoner of Christ, all money should be for God. Not under obligation toward a salary, but a free gift for those in need as directed by the holy spirit, just as Jesus freely gave his life.

Do you not give your whole life to God? Or do you just pay unrighteous mammon to one human being trusting him to use it instead of trusting God to direct you by the spirit? The veil was torn and we all have access to the spirit that Jesus sent after He ascended. All humans are equal under Christ.

Pray for your pastors, provide for their needs both now and in retirement, and if you love them, help them achieve some of their personal dreams (e.g. I’d love to travel to the holy land.) That’s all they really want.

I believe that God calls us all to succeed in life, but the difference is that it is not necessarily the world’s definition of success. For example a pastor’s success is not necessarily based on how large his church is. I think some churches are supposed to grow to be “mega” churches and some are to remain smaller (while still growing and thriving) …

An emphasis on quantity w/out measures of quality create a situation where pastors are encouraged to continue building mega churches by sucking the life and resources out of smaller churches … until they become so big they’re compelled to create satellites & groups … which are then cherry picked by other neighboring mega churches.

I’m still not entirely sure the CEO model fits, nor am I entirely convinced that Paul was making arguments towards creating full-time CEO like pastors. Otherwise, why all the surrounding writings about the rest of us pitching in w/talents and gifts through various titles of stewardship?

I know when I was a member of a church of about 80 people, the pastor also worked as the sound guy, decorator, window cleaner and about 100 other things – where as a pastor of a larger congregation typically (I assume – I have never been one) could delegate more tasks and focus on leading and pastoring the congregation. Both are important, but the job descriptions of each are quite different…

I don’t know – I am just thinking out loud (or actually on keyboard )

However, have we gotten away from the Biblical model of what a pastor should be; keeping in mind that Paul was also a tent maker?

Consider this, as we’ve continue to move more and more towards the CEO model, the Church seems to be having less and less effectiveness in the areas of health, growth, conversion goals and retainment that were enjoyed adhering to the Tent-maker model.

Again, if we agree – and burden – pastors with a full-time set of duties, then pay them their full wage. However the downside of this is that the individual church member effectively “offshores” their duties as a believer onto the shoulders of the full-time pastor; creating a situation we have now where Church numbers are more based on shifting bodies from building/congregation A to B rather than making new disciples.