![]() ![]() Honour here can mean respect (see the way the word is used in 1 Timothy 6:1, for example). It is true that the word for honour can mean a financial remuneration (and this is certainly Paul’s primary focus, given the quotes that follow) but it can mean an awful lot more. Such leaders, says Paul, are worthy of “double honour”. What a church pays its pastor (or indeed any other worker) needs to be set in its wider context. For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.” The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honour, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. Let’s listen to what Paul writes to Timothy ( 1 Timothy 5:17-18) first, and then draw some principles. We’re happy to provide some input into this most frequent of questions, so here goes. ![]() And a leaders’ pay is one of those.īut without wanting to be prescriptive, we can – we trust – still be helpful. We’re a fellowship of Independent churches and, while there are some things we need to be firm about in order to promote working together ( our Doctrinal Basis is the primary example), there are others which we believe should and must be determined by the local church. There is a reason we don’t have such a document, which goes to the heart of what FIEC is. This is a question that comes up time and time again, especially as people scour the website in vain for a document called ‘FIEC Pay Scales’ or something similar. Questions about coronavirus rules (especially at the moment), questions about resources, questions about conferences… and questions about what to pay the pastor. Most of the time it’s churches with questions. Very rarely a phone call is to let us know how helpful we’ve been, although feel free to do this more! Sometimes it’s just a sales call, but if you’re reading this, we have enough coffee/security/stationery/public liability insurance (delete as applicable) already. People ring the FIEC office for all kinds of reasons. ![]()
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