Episode 113: Pastors are Not Hirelings

To the Ruled Church podcast.

This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. He is honored, and I get the glory. And by the way, it's even better, because you see that building in Perryville, Arkansas? You see that one in Pechote, Mexico?

Do you see that one in Tuxla, Guterres, down there in Chiapas? That building has my son's name on it.

The church is not a democracy, it's a monarchy. Christ is king.

You can't be Christian without a local church. You can't do anything better than to bend your knee and bow your heart, turn from your sin and repentance, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and join up with a good Bible-believing church, and spend your life serving Jesus in a local, visible congregation.

Welcome to the Ruled Church podcast. I am your host, Alan Nelson. I am one of the pastors at Providence Baptist Church in Perryville, Arkansas. And I would say today, almost at a spring day, but actually, it is technically a beautiful winter day.

We haven't actually hit official start of spring. And this time of year in Arkansas, I have no idea when this podcast is gonna come out. The way I'm recording nowadays, sometimes shuffle things around.

So I guess it could be well into spring, or maybe early summer, by the time this podcast episode comes out. But I will say this in this opening banter. One of the most beautiful times of year in the state of Arkansas is the springtime.

Two caveats to that. First, springtime is also tornado season in Arkansas. And some years can get a little more rough than others. So far, again, we're still very early on. So far, it's been pretty good.

The other thing that gets people in the springtime in Arkansas is allergies. And so those are the two caveats. But if you can get past those, it is a really beautiful state this time of year. Very green, cool mornings, warms up into the mid to upper 70s in the afternoon.

Anyway, you didn't tune in to hear me talk about the beautiful state of Arkansas. In fact, I kind of want to keep it a secret because what happens is some people in these other states find out about Arkansas and the cost of living is cheaper and maybe land and homes are cheaper.

They wind up moving here. So we don't want Arkansas to turn into a blue state. Anyway, the topic of today's episode is not that. What I want to address today, something I know that Pastor Eddie and myself have talked about before, but not sure that we've given a complete episode to this.

And that is this truth that pastors are not hirelings. Pastors are not hirelings. Maybe I could state it this way. Pastors are not ultimately hired by the church. They're not ultimately the employee of a church.

I think even on our taxes, we're considered self-employed. So even in our tax, even the government doesn't necessarily see the relationship as employee to employer. And certainly as we're going to look today, the Bible does not see the relationship between a pastor and a church as employee and employer.

But the reason I bring this up, and really I hope that maybe this episode can be one of those episodes that maybe you could sneak in and let your deacons listen to or church members listen to. And it's not my desire to be unduly harsh or anything like that.

I just need to talk about how we need to understand the office of the pastor biblically. Because when you work for the church in the sense of the employee-employer relationship, then there will be times that your loyalty will be divided.

You will feel like you have to do the things that the church wants you to do, even if it contradicts the scriptures. Let's start out with a narrative from the Old Testament. I'm going to look at now Judges chapter 18.

And I would commend to you the sermon from Judges 17. You can look this up. It's by Parris Reedhead. It's called 10 Shekels and a Shirt. It's from Judges 17, 10. 10 Shekels and a Shirt by Parris Reedhead.

You would do well to listen to that. Pastors, church members, do that. I say I'll try to remember to put a link and maybe I will. But if I don't, if I forget, Parris Reedhead, 10 Shekels and a Shirt, Judges 17.

But I want to go to Judges 18 just for a moment. And I want to talk about Micah and his priest. And so with maybe just a little bit of context, the Danites, well, I'll start in verse one. That's important.

In those days, there was no king in Israel. And in those days, the tribe of the people of Dan was seeking for itself an inheritance to dwell in. For until then, no inheritance among the tribes of Israel had fallen to them.

So you're in this context of the conquest of Canaan and you have the tribe of Dan and the tribe of Dan is looking to continue to take over their inheritance in the land. And it's important there to start out like a theme of the book of Judges is there's no king in Israel.

Now, this doesn't say the rest of this phrase that happens a couple other times. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. So Judges is this book of a lot of wrong things. In fact, a lot of people like to use from the book of Judges about Deborah.

And so they're like, well, see, women can be pastors because look at Deborah, she judged. But you don't want to take something from the book of Judges as normative when the book of Judges tells you time and again, there's no king in Israel and everyone is just doing what is right in their own eyes.

So anyway, that's not what the show's about today. What I want to get down to is in verse four. So the Danites are trying to conquer and they come upon this man named Micah and Micah has a priest. Well, how does he have a priest?

We'll go back to Judges 17 and go listen to that sermon. Paris read head, 10 shekels and a shirt. But I'll just read verse four, save us some time. Judges 18, verse four. And he said to them, that is the priest is talking now to the Danites.

And he says, this is how Micah dealt with me. He has hired me and I've become his priest. So this relationship between Micah and this priest, and I don't want to stretch this too far. It's not necessary to make the point.

I'm not trying to, what I mean is, I'm not trying to put 21st century understanding of hiring. I'm not trying to impose that on this time period of the book of Judges. But it does bring to our mind a thought that this relationship between Micah and the priest is one where Micah gives the priest money, takes care of him.

Back in Judges 17, 10, it says, and Micah said to him, stay with me and be to me a father and a priest. And I will give you 10 pieces of silver a year and a suit of clothes and your living. And the Levite went in.

So Micah says, I'll give you 10 pieces of silver. I'll give you every year. I'll give you a suit of clothes. I'll take care of your living and you'll be a priest to me. Now you tell me whether or not you see that type of mentality in a lot of churches today.

We'll give you a house to live in. We'll give you a salary. And we just want you to preach for us. And then I say that intentionally the way I say preach for us. A lot of churches that hire pastors that have this mentality that we're the employer and you're the employee, they don't actually want a pastor.

Okay, because you remember biblically the word pastor, elder, overseer, bishop, they're interchangeable. There's two offices in the church. There's pastors and there's deacons. And inherent in the office of pastor is a measure of authority.

It's not tyrannical. It's not being a dictator. It's not unchecked. Maybe we'll talk about that later. But there is a measure of authority because remember that word overseer. What does that imply? You oversee.

You oversee the people of God. You're responsible, Hebrews 13. The pastor's responsible to give. In fact, since I said that, let me just flip over there real quick because I know that some church members listen to this and it's not just pastors.

So let me give a word of exhortation both to the pastor and to the church member that would listen to this. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 17 says this. Obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.

Let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be of no advantage to you. And so when the author of Hebrews says obey your leaders, he's not talking about your government leaders. He's not talking about the mayor.

He's not talking about the president. He's talking about your pastors. Now that's a strong statement, isn't it? Obey makes us bristle. We don't like that. Americans, we don't like the idea of authority being over us.

But again, I reemphasize the fact that in God's economy in the local church, biblical ecclesiology maintains that there is somewhat of a measure of authority in the office of the pastor. So in the pastor.

So obey your leaders. I might give a plug here too, that leaders is plural. So the idea, the goal for every local church is that they would eventually have a plurality of elders. You can't just appoint people.

You can't just call people, I should say, who are not qualified. So I understand that. But local churches, we ought to be working towards having a plurality of elders because the text here is plural too.

Obey your leaders and submit to them. But then again, for Hebrews 13, 17, they are keeping watch over your souls. So there is a measure of authority and there's a measure of responsibility. With authority comes responsibility.

They're watching over your souls. And think about this, as those who will have to give an account. An account to who? Not an account to your mom. Not an account to the president. They'll have to give an account to God.

And so the author of Hebrews says, let them do this with joy, not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. Every pastor, if he's honest, will admit there's some church members that they watch over, that they do with joy, and there's some that they watch over that they do with groaning.

So if you're a church member, the exhortation to you is you should be one that the pastor watches over your soul with joy. So pray for him. Make it an easy responsibility for him to watch over your soul.

Okay, so back to judges. And I'll read the text again. 18 .4 is where we were. And he said to them, this is how Micah dealt with me. So the priest says to the Danites, this is how Micah dealt with me.

He has hired me, and I have become his priest. This relationship of I pay you money and you do spiritual things for me so that I feel better. So in the church today, we pay you money, you come here, you get in the pulpit, and you give us a sermon so that we feel better.

You make sure that when we have to go to the hospital, you come visit us and you do whatever it is that we need you to do. We'll give you time off when we think it's okay. Maybe every now and then we'll give you a little carrot bonus or whatever the case may be.

But the point is, in many cases, much to our shame, the pastor is treated like a hireling. So there's a bit of rebuke here to churches first and foremost. You can't treat your pastor this way. He's not a hireling.

He doesn't work for you in the sense of the employee-employer relationship. In fact, let me just cut to the chase. He works for God. God is his boss. God is his king. He is responsible first and foremost before he's responsible to anybody at the church, he's responsible to God.

That is the way that this system works. A church does not hire a pastor. And in some senses, a church doesn't fire a pastor. A church may discipline a pastor out of the office, but if you don't hire, you don't fire, you understand a church may, if you have to dismiss a pastor, it needs to be because of being biblically unqualified or sometimes the pastor may resign and those sorts of things.

But I'm just talking about this whole relationship. We get it wrong in many places. A lot of churches even have, and I'm not saying this is necessarily wrong, but I just think that we should think about it.

A lot of churches kind of have like maybe a personnel committee. And that personnel committee, again, I'm not saying it's inherently wrong. So don't misunderstand me with that. I would say it's not required.

If a personnel committee was required, the scriptures would teach us this. So it's not required, but it may not necessarily be wrong. And there may be some wisdom and setting salaries and those sorts of things.

Even our own church has a budget and finance committee that sort of helps with those things. But I'm just saying you cannot see that committee as a board that becomes the employer for the pastor. That's not how this works.

That may be how it works in the book of Judges where everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes, but that's not how this relationship works in the local church. Your pastor does not work for you first and foremost.

He is not your personal priest. He is not the one, hey, I pay my tithe, so he better come see me. You know, that kind of thing. That's not the relationship between a pastor and the church. And then there's also a bit of rebuke for pastors because you have this kind of relationship.

Churches run this way, but also pastors accept this way. And you might even say this. In one sense, you might lay the blame at the feet of pastors who for years and years and years have treated the church like a stepping stone.

So they come to this church for a few years and they move up the ladder and they go to that church for a few years. They go work for the convention for a few years and come back. They work for this church for a few years because they see the church as a job.

And in a job, you wanna get up the ladder. In a job, it's a good thing to move from maybe being the janitor to the CEO of the company. I heard a story one time about the guy who did Spicy Cheetos. Anyway, that'll get us lost on a tangent.

He was a janitor, I think, for Fritos. And then he came up with this idea for Spicy Cheetos and he wound up getting high up on the board. In the secular world, I'm saying, that's great. We applaud that.

That's wonderful. We applaud the young man who joins the military as a private and then he leaves the military as an officer or whatever. That's good, okay? But it's not good in the church. This is not the way that we're to see the church.

And I'm gonna stay in Judges 18 because there's an example of this with the priest. You go down in Judges 18 and you look at verse 19 and the Danites say to Micah, or sorry, to the priest, they're gonna steal Micah's priest, right?

Judges 18, 19. And they said to him, keep quiet, put your hand on your mouth and come with us and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man or to be priest to a tribe and clan in Israel?

Now, I know a lot of guys who would say, God called me from the house of Micah to the tribe of Dan. And what I mean by that is the priest in our story, in our narrative, the priest is an opportunist. He is looking for an opportunity to climb up the ranks, if you will.

He goes from this little country church with just one other member, one man, and he moves on up to an entire tribe. Now he's the pastor of a mega church. And that's what happens. Okay, let me give a caveat.

I'm not trying to nuance this to death. If you've ever moved from a small church to a big church, I'm not saying that in and of itself is inherently wrong, but I am saying that there is this mentality that if you see the church as an employer for you, then you feel right and justified in treating the church as climbing up the ranks.

I've gone from pastor to this little old country church, and now I'm gonna be a pastor in the big city. I'm climbing the ranks because that's what happens. The only difference is in the Christian world, and I'm putting this in air quotes, we sanctify those moves.

And we say, God's led me. I've talked to a lot of men over the years, and it seems that when God leads them, it's always to a bigger church and a bigger salary. Now, I'm not saying that God can't lead in that way, okay?

Of course he can, but it's interesting to me that I very rarely talk to men, particularly like my background in Southern Baptist world. In the past, I very rarely talked to men in the SBC world who God called them to a lesser salary and to a smaller church.

That seems to be a lot lesser reality. And why is that? Well, because too many pastors view the pastorate as a job. They see themselves as an employee. One time I was in ministry with the brother, and he resigned from the church, and he gave his resignation to the chairman of the deacons.

It's an interesting mentality with that. A pastor see the deacons as those who oversee them, right? So pastors are the overseers, and the deacons are the overseers of the pastor. That's the mentality.

That's not biblical. That's not the right way to look at this. Pastors are not hired. They're not given money in order to do a little priestly job. Okay, so if that's not true, so if that's not what they are, is there anywhere that we can look at to show what they are?

Well, I think about, we're gonna look at Acts 20, if you're listening to this and you can look at a Bible, Acts chapter 20, 28, but I think about 1 Peter 5 also, where Peter tells the elders to shepherd the flock of God that is among them.

That's a lot different than Judges 18 and the priest being paid to do a little priestly service to make Micah feel better. No, that's a lot different. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you. By the way, I'll throw this out there too.

In chapter 26, the second London Baptist confession talks about this, but pastors should be paid. So this isn't about the church not paying pastors. The church should pay pastors. The church should compensate pastors and that's gonna look different in different places, but bottom line, you should be able to make it as best you can where your pastor doesn't have to worry about his income and he's able to focus his thoughts and his prayers and his attention on shepherding the flock.

So this is not about, hey, pastors should work for free or whatever, they shouldn't, that's not right. But it is about, you're not working for the church, Colossians 3 .23, whatever you do, work heartily unto the Lord and not to men.

That's an application across the board to all Christians, but particularly applicable to the pastor that you work for God. And it's just church's responsibility to compensate you even as you are seeking to shepherd their souls.

But anyway, Acts chapter 20, verse 28, just mention this. Paul says, now again, to the elders, again, just another little plug. He says to the elders, plural, of the church, singular, at Ephesus. So the church at Ephesus had a plurality of elders because this is the pattern and the system God has created or willed for his churches.

But in Acts 20, 28, Paul says, pay careful attention to yourselves. So the elders are to pay careful attention to themselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

Well, there's a few thoughts here. So we're talking about pastors are not hirelings, then what are they? Well, let me jump into the middle of the verse there where it says the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.

That's fascinating, isn't it? Who calls men to churches? It's actually not the churches. It's actually in God's work, it's the Holy Spirit who appoints and makes overseers. Now, it is the church's, okay, so what role of church?

Like, you just say, like, how does this work? The Holy Spirit just come and speak audibly into people's ears and say, call this person? No, so what you do is a church has to do its due diligence, and when it's ready to affirm the call of a man as an elder, they have to examine his life.

They need to examine him according to Titus chapter one and 1 Timothy three, and also it's okay to think about maybe the cultural connection language. So for example, it would not be wise for a church in rural Arkansas to call a person who only speaks Japanese, even though that person is very, very godly and qualified according to 1 Timothy three and Titus one.

You understand? So there's some application there of just godly sense, godly common sense, if you will, when calling a pastor. But the point is, it's the church's responsibility to examine a man, to think through these things, and to seek the will of God, because the one who ultimately is appointing the overseers, the one who's ultimately calling the pastor is the Holy Spirit.

It's the church's response, so I'll use this language. It's the church's responsibility to affirm the call that the Holy Spirit, so when you call an elder, what you're saying is, we believe, we're not calling this man, we're not hiring this man, we're simply saying, we affirm, we confess that we believe that the Holy Spirit has made this man an overseer fit for this congregation.

Sorry, that's what the text says. Acts 20, verse 28, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. So if you're not hired by the church, then how do we need to understand it?

You're not hired by the church, you're called by God. Who your boss is, who your king is, who your master is, it's God, it's not the church. Now, is there a level of accountability? Like, and especially this can be dangerous for the solo pastor.

And I think this is probably why churches create this system where the deacons are in charge or whatever, because this solo guy, doesn't he need a measure of accountability? Well, yeah, he needs a measure of accountability, but how that's brought, the measure of accountability to the design of God is that elders are not supposed to be just singular.

That's the measure of accountability. So God's way, I'm just gonna tell you, God's way for the church is not for the pastor to be there and then the deacons to be the ones that oversee him. That's made up, that's manmade.

And it's contrary to the scriptures and it's very, very unhealthy. Other situations, you may have a committee or really, be careful here, but really there are little pastors in the church. And I say that with air quotes, maybe it's the lady in charge of this committee or it's the man in charge of that committee or it's just the family that everyone knows as always, but they're the real pastors of the church in terms of practicality and big decisions are being made.

And this little boy that they called is, he's just supposed to work for them. Well, I'm just saying that that mentality is contrary to the scriptures. It's ungodly, it's unhealthy. And those who participate in such shenanigans, they will stand before the Lord.

This is not God's design. God's design is he calls pastors and they work for him. And the measure of accountability is supposed to be within the plurality of the eldership. Now, if you just have a situation where it's one solo guy and the church, that can be a little more challenging.

That requires the man to be, well, all pastors should be self-disciplined, but it certainly requires a man to be humble, to listen to the church. Just because you're not a hireling doesn't mean that every time a church says something or suggest something that you should just dismiss it and you should throw your authority around.

That's wrong, that's unwise. And I'll just tell you, brother, you're not gonna make it very long in churches, particularly small rural churches. You're not gonna make it very long with the mentality of, you can't tell me what to do.

So sometimes you need to, all the time you need to be humble, but you need to put your humility into practice. You need to lay aside your preferences. You need to say, well, they want me to do this thing.

It's not necessary. I don't feel like necessarily I have to, but if I were to do this thing, it would go a long way in endearing myself to these people. So you just have to think through those things.

You have to be wise. But again, it's difficult. And one of the reasons it's difficult in a situation like that is because God's design is for a plurality of elders. But anyway, the elders should be humble anyway.

They should be humble to the church. They should listen. There are times that maybe the church is wrong in what they're asking a pastor to do, but the pastor can still be humble and say, okay, I'm gonna figure out a way that I can serve the church without just throwing my authority or, you know.

There is a sense that you do have to think about the battles that you want to fight and that you need to fight, and then you have to put your foot down. So anyway, there's wisdom in all that. But let me get back to the text.

Because the text says the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. And then it says this, to care for the church of God. To care for the church of God. Friends, can we all just remember this for just a second, that the church is not the deacon's church, it's not the pastor's church, it's not this sweet little lady's church, it's not the women's ministry's church or whatever.

The church is God's. It is God's church, and he has appointed elders in the church, and he has appointed these elders not to be dictators here in the text, but to care for the church of God. Friends, I'll speak to pastors for a second.

That means it's a lot more than just preaching, okay? Everybody wants a position where all you have to worry about is preaching. Like, man, all I gotta do is preach. I just gotta come up with these great sermons, and I can put them on YouTube, and I'm just gonna preach, and that's all I gotta worry about.

No, to care for the church of God, it is to put a priority and a primacy on preaching, and to put your time and your labor and your effort in preaching. But listen, listen, listen, this is important. It's not just preaching, but it's preaching before God to a specific context.

So you're preaching under the gaze of God, and you're preaching to a people. You're preaching to the flock of God that you have been entrusted with. You're preaching to the flock of God that is among you.

You're preaching to the local church that the Holy Spirit has made you an overseer. You better take seriously that though you're not hired by the church, you still do have a boss, and that boss is, if you will, I don't like the word boss.

You do have a master. You have a king, and that is to triune God. You have someone that you are working for, that you're laboring for. It's God, it's the Lord, and you have a responsibility as you labor for him to care for not your church, but his church.

Not to guide the church in the way that you want it per se, or cast your vision for the church or whatever, but to have Christ's vision for the church. It is your responsibility to shepherd the church as God's church, and so that will require sometimes going contrary, quite contrary to the will of the people.

So, you know, there's this great puppet show ministry or whatever, and all the deacons and all the people in charge are like, hey, let's do this on Sunday morning. This will be great, and you have to say no, and the reason you're saying no is not because you're just being contrary or stubborn.

You're saying no because this is God's church, and hey, listen, the buck stops with the pastors, and so you're responsible for overseeing how the church worships, and you're not allowed to worship in that way because God hasn't given us that way to worship.

The reality is that you, brother pastor, brother pastors listening to this, you are responsible to shepherd that church under God's authority. That's your responsibility. It means that sometimes you will be pulled away from your family.

You do, like, I'm not saying that every time someone stubs their toe that you have to go visit them, but there are times that you do have to go visit.

Your people.

There are times you need to be in their home. There are times that you need, and that may not be an emergency situation. You just need to cultivate godly fellowship. You need to pray with them. You need to read the scriptures with them.

You need to, and then sometimes you do. You need to handle a certain situation, whether it's a sin issue, or it could be just an emergency situation. There are times you have to do that.

Why?

You're to care. That's what the text says. You're to care for the church of God. An exhortation I would give to church members is to say, make this easy on your pastor. Make it easy for him to care for you.

Let your needs sometimes be known. Oh, I don't want to bother him. Well, sometimes he needs to know because if he doesn't know, how can he care for you? As he's preparing his sermon and he doesn't know what you're going through, how can he ask the Lord to bring application to your situation?

Okay? So it is both ways. Need to understand how the pastor is to care. And there's more application I give, but let me go on to this. So the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

I will confess to you that even in my own heart, I do not see the preciousness of the church as I ought. How precious is the church to God's eyes? How precious is she? He obtained her with his own blood.

You want to know the focal point of the gospel, you would say is the glory of God. But secondarily, don't miss this. It's about God redeeming a people for himself. That Christ was born of the Virgin Mary and lived a sinless, righteously obedient life to the law of God to procure a righteousness for his people.

That his active obedience would be imputed to his people and that they would be considered by his work righteous. That he would lay down his life for his people. And that's what the text says, that he obtained her with his own blood.

That is on Calvary, his blood was shed so that the church could be forgiven of her sins. So that those transgressions that she has committed against a wonderfully holy God could be considered atoned for, propitiated.

Wrath, satisfying, sacrifice. The wrath of God is propitiated in the work of Christ and he rises again from the dead.

Why?

Yes, for the glory of God, but in redeeming rebels. And in this context here in Acts 20, 28, not just redeeming individual sinners, but redeeming the church. Pastors and church members, you need to hear this message.

And that is that God considers the church wonderfully precious in his sight. So precious that he sent his own son to be her propitiation, to shed his blood for the church. What a glorious and wonderful thought.

If you get nothing else from the episode today, I hope that you would get this. And that is that the church should be of utmost importance and preciousness and beauty in our eyes. Oh, how often do we neglect the church for such foolish things?

And then to come back to the whole context of the point of today's episode. And that is when we view pastors as hirelings or as pastors when we live as hirelings or we treat the church as a stepping stone.

What are we saying to God about the blood of his son? God, you've purchased his church with the blood of Christ. And now we're spitting on it. We're treating it in a way that you have not called us to treat her.

You understand? You can't have a high view of the church and then have a poor view of the role of the pastor. Like, well, I just love the church, but I just think pastors work for us. No, then you don't love the church.

Oftentimes when people say that or have that mentality, what they love is the nostalgia of the hymns and the feelings that the church gives them. And they love the social club and they love that we have the fifth Sunday potluck or whatever the case may be there.