I love your comment here about Paul’s choice to be self-supporting. I believe this is something we need to reconsider in the West where paid ministry is seen as a given, where a career in religious work is just seen as another kind of career. Also, one of my recurring questions is how honest we really choose to be with our flock when they are paying our salaries, when they hold our job security in their very hands. Do we dare making prophetic proclamations of truth when they will likely offend the donor base? More and more, I am leaning towards “having a real job� (said tongue-in-cheek, so please don’t be offended, all of you paid pastors) and having some kind of pro-bono shepherding ministry on the side.
I'm not offended, Jamie, but I wonder if your perspective here isn't strongly influenced by previous negative experiences in the church. Mine have not been negative, and I've been a paid "shepherd" for all of my adult life - except when I was paying to be trained as a shepherd. I don't recall ever feeling a conflict between receiving a salary and needing to say what I believe God called me to say, although I freely admit that the conflict probably exists in the background more than I realize.
I'm not sure the reference to Paul's self-supporting apostolic ministry in 2 Cor. 2:17 should ever be made without a balancing reference to 1 Tim. 5:17-18, where he says that elders who serve well are worthy of "double honor. His supporting Scriptures indicate he is speaking of remuneration. Perhaps the distinction is between an evangelist/apostle and a pastor/teacher.
There is value in being paid. The most obvious value, of course, is the ability to devote full-time to the ministry. But there are other benefits as well. Receiving one's support from others is humbling. Being dependent on God's people to give reminds me of my own need to give and to be a faithful steward. The alternative, receiving no remuneration from the work of shepherding, could easily lead to arrogance - "I don't need you and what you think about what I say and do doesn't matter."
To follow the analogy of the book, what would happen if the sheep-owner's field hands not paid? Would that increase or decrease their commitment to pastoral work?
The key issue for the pastor is not whether I'm being paid. The key issue, and this chapter raises it well, is for me to be aware of my own potential for becoming a shepherd-wolf on many levels. I must admit that constantly before the Lord. I must open myself up to the Spirit through personal time in the Word. I must read widely, to be challenged by those with other perspectives and backgrounds than my own. I must find ways to meet with other pastoral colleagues who give me permission to be candid, who have permission to ask hard questions, who encourage and challenge me, and who pray with and for me. I must
be vulnerable to godly lay leaders in the church, inviting their inspection of my life and correction of my ministry rather than running from it, without ever becoming captive to opinion polls. All this can happen and must happen, with or without a paycheck, if I am to "guard myself."