When I was just getting started my new wife and I visited an elderly retired pastor and his wife in their mobile home. They were godly and happy and content. But I decided that day that I would be not only godly, happy, and content when my wife and I reached their age, but also financially solvent. I also knew that because of the fact that I was serving an inner city church at the time on a subsistence income that I would have to get creative about it. Because I did that I’ve never relied on my churches exclusively for income. And because of that I was able to serve them below “market rate.” For example, the only time one of my churches was in the red at the end of the fiscal year was 2008, when everyone was in the red. I surprised my session by taking a voluntary $20,000 pay cut in order to balance the budget. Today I serve a church that pays me well. Even so, between my wife and I we have 8 other streams of income. I’m 61 years old and it took a long time to build those income streams, but even today it’s possible to do so.
When I was just getting started my new wife and I visited an elderly retired pastor and his wife in their mobile home. They were godly and happy and content. But I decided that day that I would be not only godly, happy, and content when my wife and I reached their age, but also financially solvent. I also knew that because of the fact that I was serving an inner city church at the time on a subsistence income that I would have to get creative about it. Because I did that I’ve never relied on my churches exclusively for income. And because of that I was able to serve them below “market rate.” For example, the only time one of my churches was in the red at the end of the fiscal year was 2008, when everyone was in the red. I surprised my session by taking a voluntary $20,000 pay cut in order to balance the budget. Today I serve a church that pays me well. Even so, between my wife and I we have 8 other streams of income. I’m 61 years old and it took a long time to build those income streams, but even today it’s possible to do so.
Colonizing Christians pay their pastors