TILL
As a former Church-of-Christ preacher, Michael, I certainly know that many
of them are paid low salaries in terms of what other professions earn. As a
missionary, my salary was even lower than what preachers ordinarily earned
then. However, you surely know that some preachers, even in the Church of
Christ, are very well paid. What would you suppose that ministers of the
large congregations in places like Memphis, Dallas, Little Rock, etc. make?
Also, salary isn't everything for a preacher. Most of them live rent-free
in houses owned by the congregations they preach for, so they are not making
rent or house payments of several hundred dollars a month that people in
your age group in other professions would be paying. Some preachers are also
provided expense accounts. You surely know that this is true.
Income alone, however, is not the only issue. Job security is something
that almost all people are very concerned about, and I see no reason to
think that preachers would be any different. I was once offered a
nonteaching position at a higher salary than my college employer was paying
me, but I turned it down. In my case, I didn't want to sacrifice the known
for the unknown. I knew what was involved in my teaching position, and as a
tenured faculty member, I knew that my job was secure as long as I didn't do
something in violation of tenure laws, which I knew that I wasn't likely
ever to do, but I didn't know any of these things about the position I was
being offered. I was once offered the same teaching position at another
college, and I refused it too, because I knew my associates and got along
with them, and I knew what my duties entailed. I knew none of this about
the position at the other college. In other words, I felt comfortable and
secure with what I knew that I had but insecure and uncomfortable about
giving that up for the unknown. I think if Michael would inquire about, he
would find that many people are reluctant to leave jobs that they feel
secure in for the uncertainty of new positions with other companies or
organizations. Do we have any reason to suspect that preachers would be any
different? Many of them move about frequently, but in most cases that is
because they serve at the whim of the congregations they work for. When
members get bored with their preachers, they may want to change, but the
jobs are pretty much the same. Some preachers may also seek a change,
because after a while they run out of soap and look for other congregations
where they can recycle their sermons. A preacher will be expected to preach
two sermons per week, and teach a Bible class on Sunday morning and
Wednesday night. In some places, the church may sponsor a radio program, so
he will have to prepare something for that each week, usually just a
15-minute talk. He will, of course, have to go about visiting members who
have been reported sick, so there will be the routine trip each day to the
local hospital or to the homes of those whose illnesses aren't serious
enough for hospital confinement. So-called "personal work" will be
involved, which is merely the following up of leads and contacts that are
considered prospects for conversion. Time will be spent in the church office
so that members can come by and unload their problems on the preacher and
ask for his advice. Ocasionally, there will be weddings and funerals to
officiate at. It's pretty much the same everywhere, so when a preacher
goes from Podunk to Mudville, he pretty well knows what to expect. If,
however, a preacher chose to quit preaching and work as, say, a used car
salesman (a fitting profession for ex-preachers), a great deal of
uncertainty would be involved in the change. Therefore, a preacher might
well decide to stay at a $300-per-week job rather than switch to one that
could bring more income but could bring less, that could have unpleasant
aspects associated with it that are worse than the unpleasant aspects
associated with his preaching position.
Besides these factors, there is the simple matter of training. If one
studies to be a preacher, then that becomes what he knows how to do in order
to make a living, so if he later becomes discontented with his job or
skeptical about the premises his profession is based on, he may feel that he
has no choice except to stick with it, because he just doesn't have the
qualifications for other jobs. This was what happened to me. I trained to
be a preacher, but when I lost my confidence in the Bible and found it
intolerable to remain in that profession, I had to confront the problem of
training for something else. This is a frustrating situation that some
preachers may choose to avoid, especially if their discontent happens at an
age when they know it is unlikely that there would be a demand for them in
other professions. In my case, I chose to retrain, and this involved
returning to college for a year and a half with the responsibility of a
family to care for. I handled this problem by taking student loans and
working at whatever odd jobs were posted each day on the college bulletin
boards, but this was not a very pleasant time in my life. It took me years
to pay back the loans and recover financially. Does Michael think it is
unlikely that some would just choose to remain in their preaching positions
rather than confront the retraining problem?
By the way, I want to say to everyone that I met Michael Hughes when he
moderated for Jerry McDonald at our debate. I found him to a cordial,
personable individual, but he is a preacher. Hence, I have to consider him
a hired gun for the biblical inerrancy position, so I find it hard to
believe that he has much objectivity about the issues that are discussed on
this list.
I also wonder if Michael is so naive that he thinks that all preachers in
his profession are there out of personal devotion and dedication. Would he
agree or disagree that some preachers, even in the Church of Christ, are
"money grubbers"?
Farrell Till
Skepticism, Inc.
jftill@midwest.net