I think this may be more of a problem in the US than it is for us in the UK - pastors tend to be less exalted here! But basically, the answer has got to be fairly simple - remember that the priesthood of all believers is real, that everyone is a minister (it gives me an involuntary tick when I hear 'pastors' talk about being in the 'ministry', as if no-one else is), and that in every sphere of life we are all to do all that we do to the glory of God.

How about dropping the 'ministry partnerships' title from your sidebar?! That kind of terminology seems to me simply to propagate the notion of a distinct & professional class of Christian, distinct from ordinary believers.

Just sayin'!

I have found that elder-led, congregationalist churches tend to be more conducive to non-paid Christian leaders. In many church bodies the non-paid leaders fulfill the sunday school teacher role (which is necessary). But the problem I see with many churches, including the one I'm serving at, is that people are too unwilling to have a position that is unpaid. They seem to not be willing to invest that kind of time and effort in the body of believers.

At the same time, I know of churches and people who are fulfilling this role wonderfully so.

As a pastor, I remain bivocational to not burden the small church at which I serve. But are moving towards training lay leaders to actually lead in an active manner by putting aside the joys of this world and focusing on edifying the church through leadership and reaching the lost through evangelism.

I have come to the opinion that lay leaders who are unpaid are essential to a church striving to be a New Testament church and God honoring.

Thanks a lot Ed,

James H

Thanks for the post. We definitely need pastor-elders at our small church plant that aren't paid.

I think your use of "pastor" as synonymous with "paid leader" is not helpful to raising up non-paid leaders (elder-pastor). What do you think?

PJ,

Definitely... I tried to not equate the two and ended up with a lot of modifiers. Sigh.

But, I believe the office of pastor/elder can be either paid or unpaid.

Thanks,

Ed

Matthew,

I agree that pastors in the US are typically more glorified and that is a problem that needs urgent correcting.

And, yes, all Christians are to be actively pursuing the ministry of reconciliation through Christ to the world. But Paul was a bivocational missionary, as it were. Some pastors have the idea that the church is more of a business, which is incredibly wrong and unGodly. But the church is now able to support a pastor completely so that he does not have to worry about finances. These are typically called vocational pastors or pastors in the ministry. This isn't, or shouldn't be, used to the exclusion of the ministry that the local Christian dentist is to take part in. It simply refers to someone who has been freed both financially and spiritually to neglect the everyday secular job and pursue a path of edification of the church.

Pastor is a term that has become to linked with paid clergy. That is unfortunate. Pastor-elder leaders are both paid and unpaid.

Thanks,

James H

You mean some Christian workers are getting paid? I guess I've been too long at churches who thought the passage about "even the dogs get the crumbs under the table" was talking about the pastor's salary.

Ed,
Thanks for the post. As a pastor who is paid, our church relies heavily on volunteer staff. We currently have two volunteer staff memebers in the area of music and children's ministry. This fall we are adding an additional volunteer staff member in the area of misisons. At that time we will have more volunteer staff (3) than paid (2). As the church moves forward I think it is important to see voulunteer staff as a viable option for church leadership. We get the same quality as those who would be paid without adding additional financial burden to our church. At the same time, if the church desires to move a particular staff postion from volunteer to paid, then there does not have to be a lengthy search process, translating to no lag in the transition.

Excellent post! It's also a great question on how to encourage this. I'm a volunteer leader, not a pastor. I spoke with our senior pastor and we created a "volunteer staff" role for me as Volunteer Ministry Coordinator. I help develop non-paid Christian leaders and help them understand their SHAPE, for use both inside and outside the church.

I've been reading/thinking a lot about vocation/calling, and leadership development in the church, and hope to explore those themes further on my blog and in our congregation.

Thanks for raising the issue! :)
Larry

I think it is awesome that blogs have allowed those God chooses to use to reach such large audiences, credential or no credential. While it is natural for many to want credibility in the leadership (and to many a degree or dollar sign equals credibility), God's ways are not our ways. John the Baptist was called the greatest man by Jesus, and he lived in the desert wearing camel hair eating locusts. God often calls the "ordinary" to extraordinary leadership. If more churches would pray and seek God's will for their leaders - and obey when the leaders are presented - paid or not paid, credentialed or not would cease to matter.

Do you mean that ALL pastors are being paid for what they do?
Oops! Someone forgot to tell our Board and my ordination group that - if that's the case!
I am the pastor, but in our congregation our motto is: "Every member a missionary-minister; Every Home a lighthouse; Every service a celebration of God's amazing grace!

Just today I was in a meeting with a great Lay Pastor and one of the guys in the conversation commented that "just a" are deadly words. Well you're "just a" volunteer will absolutely kill ministry.

Dick,

I don't see that anywhere in my post. ;-)

Ed

i wish that the church (in general) would embrace this.

i wish, even more, that the church would embrace WOMEN who love to teach and preach God's Word and be given more opportunities to share their heart even if they aren't paid staff or pastor's wives.

We place high value on non-paid leaders and right now. No one in our discipleship or evangelism ministry is paid.

Our heartbeat is to take the church to the city rather than ask the city to come to church so that our faith and culture can be brought together through the Gospel.

So we do two things:
1. teach Christians how to live out the Gospel at work without being obnoxious or judgmental.
2. Connect Phoenicians to the timeless truth, which will give them the peace, purpose, and joy that they are seeking.

Our leadership team consist of a CEO and very influential member of the media, a highly respected former public school superintendent, a Grammy nominated artist, and the Arizona State Legislative Chaplain to name a few. We have about 20 people on our leadership team.

They are not members, nor do they attend our church. Yet they are all committed to this vision and mission of what we are doing.

Though these people are seasoned professionals and deeply committed to Christ, I spend a fair amount of time with them individually and in groups helping them connect the dots between work and faith.

Interestingly, more than one of them have told me that the pastors at their respective churches don't know exactly how to use them in their church ministry. They are not alone, many high performers that I have spoken with feel they same way.

Our desire to hone their gifts and give them the right knowledge to be an effective ambassador for Christ, thus fulfilling a part of their mission that Christ has called them to.

Ed,

Would it be fair to say that the attractional model that most of us are familiar with seems to do two things related to this topic;

1) it tends to create a professional ministry class that demands higher education levels, and higher level communication skills.

2) it tends to unintentionally (for many of these reasons) create barriers to men and women taking fuller responsibility for personal ministry?

As a tentmaking pastor who supports himself in a variety of ways and always has, I've wondered some things.

I've always noticed it's the ALREADY PAID Christian Leaders calling for more unpaid Christian leaders... seminary professors, authors with book royalties, etc.

It's not anyone in particular... I've seen this for most of my ministry.

When I graduated a Southern Baptist seminary in 1984 I was told they "needed" bivocational ministers in Northern "mission areas". From what I can tell, nobody told the mission areas. But that's another story.

I also always wonder when was the last time they tried being an unpaid Christian leader? It's wearing me out.

Haven't had a vacation in years when all the ones advocating unpaid Christian workers seem to travel quite extensively.

Sour grapes? It's Monday and I'm worn out... All my full time pastor friends have a day off!