Every pastor I know is held by two scriptures at opposite poles–and also torn between them.
On the one hand, “The laborer is worthy of his hire.” That word from I Timothy 5:18 is a quotation of several Old Testament references. The New Testament will not let the super-spiritual among us dismiss the idea of compensating the minister with something like, “The Bible teaches that the ministers should get out and hold jobs like everyone else; there’s nothing in there about paying the preacher.”
Bad wrong. Read your Bible.
But on the other hand, the other reality that Scripture nails down as a line the minister must not cross says, “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” (I Timothy 6:10).
On one side, the minister must never put a price on the work he does. He must look to the Lord as the Source for his needs.
On the other side, he should be adequately compensated. The church must do the faithful and responsible thing in providing for these the Lord has called, equipped, and sent into His fields to labor.
He has a hard time saying this. So, I’m saying it for him.
Some thirty years ago, Dr. Bill Prout was a professor of religion on the faculty of Mississippi University for Women in Columbus, MS, where I served the First Baptist Church. I was Bill’s pastor, but he himself was a former pastor of Southern Baptist churches. He often supplied pulpits in the area for absent ministers and took interims when churches were between pastors.
I wrote an article for the old Baptist Program (the wonderful Leonard Hill was editor) based on a conversation Dr. Prout and I had. Fifteen years earlier, when he arrived in the community and began to fill the pulpits, he told me the average check to the visiting minister was 50 dollars.
“It’s still 50 dollars,” he laughed.
A friend who worked at a local bank ran the numbers and informed us that 50 dollars in, say, 1960, would have to be about 125 dollars fifteen years later, in order to have the same buying power. I quoted him in the article and urged churches to be more generous and faithful in taking care of their visiting ministers.
And now, that truth has come full circle for me.
It was easy to say churches should do the responsible thing when I was serving a rather prosperous county-seat-town church. It gave me a lot of pleasure to hand visiting ministers, particularly revival guests who had spent a week laboring among us, a generous check.
Then, I came to pastor a church in the New Orleans area that had barely survived a split and was struggling to keep its head above the water. The monthly mortgage payments on the huge sanctuary required over half our income. There were times back then–I grieve to remember–when the offerings we gave visiting ministers were far less than they should have been.
For those who read these words, I want them to know I remember. I didn’t forget their faithfulness and the sweet spirit with which they took the small checks and went on to their next assignment.
The prayer of my heart was (and is) that the Lord made it up to them on the next place they served.
These days, as an unemployed retiree I am now the one being handed a check at the end of a day. All in all, I have no complaint. In my case, it really is working out that a low check one time is made up the next time.
In every case–large check or small–I thank them and thank the Lord. The Lord is my Source. I do remember, be assured of that.
I’m leading up to something; bear with me.
Before getting to it, I want to tell you about those full-time evangelists who are being invited to hold revivals in fewer and fewer churches. Now, with Southern Baptists counting over 40,000 congregations, there are still enough doing extended revival meetings to keep several hundred evangelists at it full-time.
But, they cannot make a living from revivals. Does that surprise you?
Just so you’ll know, the typical evangelist has to find friends wtih deep pockets who believe in his/her ministry to help underwrite the work. An evangelist friend said on Facebook the other day (to someone else; I was eavesdropping the way we do on FB) that without the support of his board he would be living at the poverty level.
Figure it out. He can preach no more than 30 to 35 weeks of the year at most, due to his physical limitations, the scheduling difficulties and because churches do not schedule revivals year round, but only at certain seasons. If he makes, say, a thousand dollars per week on average, he’s in big trouble. A great deal of expenses have to come out of that before he can pay his rent and put groceries on the table or buy braces for the children’s teeth.
I don’t read where anyone is saying this any more.
What I see–and this is where I was going with all this in the first place–is how churches want something for nothing. Well, okay, that’s a little strong. They want a lot for a little.
Ask any denominational worker who gets invited to fill the pulpit in the pastor’s absence.
Ask any bi-vocational pastor.
Ask any retired minister who still wants to preach, both out of his sense of call and love for the Lord and His church and because he needs to supplement his income.
Ask me.
I can’t get out of my mind an experience from the early 1970s when a deacon from a former pastorate invited me to drive to South Mississippi–we were living in Jackson at the time–to help him get a youth rally organized. He knew we’d been active in such rallies in Birmingham, New Orleans, and Greenville, MS, where I’d most recently pastored.
My family made the 100 mile drive, spent the afternoon with him and his team of adults who were trying to put the rally together, and then I spoke at the youth meeting at one of their churches. So, now, late that night, dead-tired, my wife and I and our sleepy-headed sons are ready to make the drive back to Jackson. The deacon said, “I don’t owe you anything for this, do I?”
There’s only one answer to that. “Nope. Glad to help.”
And I was. But I felt taken advantage of. I was being poorly paid in the present church staff position and would have been delighted had he offered to pay for my gasoline at least.
That afternoon, in my counsel to his team, I had emphasized that they should take up an offering in each rally to have a worthy gift for the speaker.
“We don’t owe you anything, do we?”
You could carve that in stone and erect it in front of far too many churches as summing up their philosophy of caring for those who labor among them, particularly the visiting guests.
I’m going to do something here which I might think better of later. If that happens, I’ll come back and delete this section and later readers will never know it was here.
As a cartoonist, I love to help churches do block parties and VBS parents nights and such. I get requests to “draw our pastor at his desk doing such-and-such” for his birthday or anniversary and if I can do it, I do.
You’d be surprised how few thank-yous I receive.
And the churches that actually give you something to help pay for your expenses (gasoline, paper, pens, whatever) would be one out of a hundred.
I don’t really know any other people who do this. There aren’t a lot of Southern Baptist cartoonists, in case you haven’t noticed. So it’s not like we get together for gripe sessions. We don’t. We don’t even know one another.
But I’m betting it’s the same with them too.
When a staff member of a large church asked me to do an involved drawing for the cover of a book his church was printing, then asked me to re-draw it and change a couple of things, he eventually e-mailed his thanks and said he’d like to buy my lunch sometime to show appreciation.
I was torn.
Do I tell him? And what do I tell him?
I am not good at this.
I wrote back, “My friend, I have to eat. I’ll always be glad to share a meal with you. But bear in mind that I spent several hours on that drawing. I need to be paid for it. I’d like to suggest you get with the pastor and figure out what would be appropriate.”
A few weeks later–yep, weeks, not days–an envelope arrived with five 20-dollar bills stuffed inside. Not a word with it.
It felt like a rebuff.
The very idea, that I expected to be paid for this.
One of the departments of our SBC publishing house that puts out Sunday School literature has taken what I consider an innovative step. They have a cartoon along with the Sunday School lesson for that particular age group. Since none of the others do that (to my knowledge), I applaud them.
When I received a call from them inviting me to submit cartoons to be considered, at first I was interested. They pay 200 dollars each, which, any religious cartoonist could tell you, is extremely good.
Here’s the problem. They send you all the material about those Sunday School lessons for a full quarter, perhaps a year in advance. You read the stuff, study the main points, and then come up with cartoons. When you finish–remembering there are 13 Sundays in a quarter–you send to their office. They collect all the submissions from all the cartoonists and on a certain date, they open them and go through them and select the ones they want. They inform the artists who then draw finished versions and color them.
The first time they asked me, I begged off. I had a full-time job and felt this would be a great deal of labor for possibly a small or even no payoff.
A few weeks ago, they contacted me and asked me to reconsider, saying they’ve seen my work and like it. Okay, I said. I’m retired now, so I’ll give it a try. I did. And because I was late entering the process, I had 2 weeks only to get everything in.
For the 13 lessons, I probably sent 15 to 20 cartoon ideas. To do that took perhaps that many hours of reading and thinking and sketching.
Yesterday, the department head notified me that they’ve chosen one of my cartoons. Now I’m to draw it and color it and scan and send it to them. I have 10 days to do that. I’m to send an invoice with all kinds of information on it, requesting my 200 dollars.
I’ll do it. But I sent a return note to the supervisor to ask her to “include me out” the next time. The people in her office are super nice and I’m thrilled they are running a cartoon with the lesson, but this is not something I want to do twice. It’s a poor use of my time for the small payoff.
After all, as my wife reminds me sometimes, it’s not like I need something else to do. (Look at my preaching schedule on the home page of www.joemckeever.com. I’m blessed to be staying so busy.)
How I wish I was one of these people who understood his motives better than I do. Wish I could see clearly through the fog of my own desires, ego, love for God, devotion to ministry, and pride. It’s all so mixed up, it’s hard to know where the “strait and narrow”path is sometimes.
Is this ego? Is it righteousness? Is it both?
That’s my dilemma.
These comments are not directed to you personally, but to the church in general. In my experience the preacher
Teena–good one. Oh, wait, were you being serious? Really? How many Sunday School volunteers have masters degrees or doctorates in biblical studies (a Master of Divinity, by the way, is 92 semester hours, as opposed to an MBA, which is 36 hours)? How many Sunday School teachers put in 60+ hours per week, have a church full of people as supervisors, get calls at all hours of the night, and have to deal with difficult people who think they are overpaid? Now, don’t hear what I’m not saying. The church is definitely built on the backs of volunteers. Where would we be without our Sunday School teachers, deacons, ushers, etc.? They sacrifice much for no compensation. But the comparison you make shows that you have absolutely zero idea what pastors and other vocational ministers do for a living. And by the way, we love what we do. We are called by God, and we do it passionately. Most of us couldn’t imagine doing anything else, even though with our eductional levels we could easily make more money doing less work in the secular world (giving us time to volunteer at church). I should also add that my church compensates me quite adequately and really seems to appreciate what I do (don’t want anyone to think I have sour grapes).
This is a really good and timely post, Joe. I actually preached for something one time, and the guy said, “I know there’s no way you would take money for this.” I just smiled.
The more I think about it, the more I like the Jewish approach where rabbis receive a “stipend” rather than a “salary.” Now often we think of a “stipend” as very small — that’s not necessarily so. A stipend could (and in many cases should!) be quite generous but it still has a different connotation. It’s not “payment for services rendered” — because after all who could accept payment for studying God’s word??? — but “here, we will cover your expenses so you don’t have to work a regular job and then your time is freed up for the Lord’s service.” Paul definitely says that the worker deserves his pay — but for a lot of us the idea of Christian ministry and appropriate compensation just seem to not fit together.
And it isn’t just us skinflinty laypeople coming up with excuses to keep our wallets shut — although undoubtedly there’s some of that — I’ve heard several pastors talk about being a “professional Christian” or “paid to love people” and thinking there’s something wrong with this picture.
Although the “not a salary but a stipend” model works better for a congregation’s own pastor than for the sorts of ministry you are describing here. Still I wonder how that idea might be adapted. Hmmm.
I think the Master’s degrees comparison is a little off — perhaps looking at different schools that count their credits in different ways. Every place I’ve seen, an MBA takes two years full-time while an M.Div. takes three years full-time.
But Mike’s point — these people invest a lot in their training and this calling takes tremendous amounts of time and energy — is entirely valid.
Hmmm . . . someone would really have to push it to do an MDiv in 3 years. It can be done, but that’s rare. I went full-time, even summers and intermediate terms between semesters, and it took me 3.5 years. The accrediting agencies determine what a constitutes a semester hour. Of course, I had a family, was pastoring full-time and working 3 part-time jobs at the same time, so I might not be a good example.
Mike – Good one! Oh, wait were you being serious? I know what Jesus did for a living and that he did not have a masters degree or doctorate in biblical studies and isn’t that why the educated people in Jerusalem hated him and conspired to kill him even when they knew that God was with him. Does God ONLY give revelation to men with degrees? If Jesus borrowed a lad’s lunch he returned twelve baskets, if he borrowed a boat he filled it with fish. Jesus compensated the very least of God’s people for their contribution to the ministry, so why does the church feel justified in only compensating the educated?
It’s a sad, dirty little secret among Christians – that so many of us are cheapskates, and use the front of “the church” to assume that everything is being donated to them.
I know a p.r. consultant – a devoutly faithful Christian – who deliberately steers clear of Christian clients who inject their faith into casual conversation, or make any mention at all during contract negotiations of how their faith guides them in business.
You go, Joe. Preach it.
Read Judges 18 and 19 to find out what happened to Israel in the face of vanishing values AND about a corrupt hireling priest.
Keep in mind that a hireling priest is committed to the one who pays him; for if he is corrupt he will corrupt the whole church.
However a true pastor/preacher is committed to the one who calls him, God.
He trust God through His church to take proper care of his needs.
If the church does not it will stand in judgment as a result of what it did not do for the shepherd that God sent.
Timely Joe, and affirming. It is what I am preaching this weekend. Thanks!
Well said, Dr. McKeever, and I hope you won’t decide to delete this later on….many blessings to you, my friend!
Interesting that the compensation thing rattles so many cages. Kristen’s stipend idea is important. We are not paid for what we do, we are paid so we can be free to do it. That includes taking care of our families, and most of our wives also need to work to make ends meet. (Of course, some do it as their own calling and joy.)
BTW, the size of the church makes little dif in the amt of work. It takes as long to prepare well to speak to 25 people as to 250 or 2500. The larger churches have staff to help with hospital visitation and administration. Smaller churches find the pastor constantly moving between hospitals, funeral homes, and the homes of members and prospects. Yes, a man can be bi-vocational, I was at one point, but he cannot do the church job nearly so well.
Note from Joe:
At one point, I actually stepped out of a meeting this week and phoned son Marty asking him to delete that last portion (re: the cartoonist work I do). He was tied up and I left a message. A few min later, I called back and said forget it; leave it on there.
Another friend teased, “So, this means you’re expecting me to pay you for drawing the college kids at my house Friday night?” We laughed. I said, “That’s the very thing I did not want to happen–for people to think I want to be paid for everything!” But I went on to say my price would be two slices of pizza and a cup of Sprite.
Anyway, it’s on here and will stay, I reckon. Thanks for all the input. Oh, the “anonymous” guy above is not all that anonymous. Marty ran the article by a friend to see if he thought that part should be deleted, and the comment is from him.
Dear Joe,
You did it again, you hit the nail with your head. Good job. After I retired, I went back to the first church I pastored 35 years ago and supplied for them for two months. I drove 60 miles one way and preached am and pm. They paid me $200( no mileage). The times that we didn’t have an evening service, I was paid $100. I was thankful for that much. Another retired pastor told me that when churches ask about an amount to pay him that he sometimes asks, “If you were to call a plumber to drive 100 miles, and keep him tied up all day, how much would you pay him?” We aren’t plumbers, but we are worthy of our hire. Yes, God does provide, but sometime we have to speak up. By the way, this church recently called me and asked me about coming back and being their interim. I had taken another interim(where I am being well compensated) and so I was not available. I told the deacon chairman that I wasn’t complaining, but that $300-$400 was probably more in line for an interim. I found out later that the interim(who won’t do funerals or weddings or Wednesday night) is paid $400 per weeek plus mileage. So I feel like I helped out that man.By the way, I recently drove 100 miles one way to do a funeral and I was paid $100. But God takes care of me and I am just glad to minister to people. You sure don’t do it for the money though. God has called us and He will provide our needs.
Keep up the good work, Joe.
JG
Joe, you know I am a Bi-vocational Pastor so I understand fully. I struggle with what should be paid to me, often thinking I dont deserve as much as I am getting, although people laugh when I tell them and then explain the growth and size of my Church. We share in the same internal struggle. Back early in Ministry I committed to God that I would go anywhere to preach to anyone and that I would never address money with them. Last night was a great example, where I traveled a little over an hour away to speak to 7 church student groups combined and got a Mexican Dinner. Now anyone who knows me realizes that that is gold — haha, but you see my point. I’ll pray for you, you pray for me.
Oh yeah, since you are coming up to my neck of the woods for Homecoming and Revival, I don’t owe you anything do I (*wink).
Love you and praying for you!! Brother Bo
Joe:
Great discussion! I bumped into your blog about a year ago and now am a faithful and a grateful reader. I pastor a small rural church in West Texas. West Texans are very generous people from my experience. Here’s my rub. We have a Baptist Camp near here with several of their families in my church. I volunteer by serving as Program Chair and have tried to bring in good, quality speakers for our big events – men’s rallies etc. In our recent past we have had: Calvin Miller; Frank Pollard; Brian Harbour; Richard Jackson; Charles Lowery; Landrum Leavell – you get the idea. The lay people on my committee say: “If these godly men loved the camp as much as we do – they should come for free!” I can’t print my first response – and yes, I am a pastor with expanding lay vocabulary! I literally get ill when I have my meetings – all I hear is: “We’re broke…we can’t afford them…” My point is – bring in someone good and PAY THEM so they’ll want to come back!”
I am trying to practice what I preach here…this summer while I was on vacation – we paid the supply man $150 for a morning message – I’m wondering if I paid him enough? Sorry to drone on – thanks for the discussion.
Joe, I love you. You have a way of communication that expresses the ideas that many of us have but are afraid or unable to express.
I have been on both sides in my life and now am a bi-vocational pastor. The Lord has been extremely good to me, better than I deserve.
As a member in a large church in Springfield, Missouri, I remember the pastor saying that the church should compensate the (full-time)pastor to the level that the average member enjoys. My mind “wiggles” back and forth on that idea depending on the circumstances of the day or week.
As to your extra-pastoral duties, as a prof that teaches business to MBA’s, I would state a charge or stipend for your talents and if it requires a drive, then a mileage charge. Then, in your discernment, waive the charge if warranted. But that is me.
Again, may God bless you as you bless us with your well-thought out communications that lightens our day and expresses the concerns that we all have but are unable to express it as well as you do.
Dr J
A church where I was pastor had a set amount to give evangelists, singers who were invited to minister.
Once we had two outstanding college students to lead our revival. Every service had a large attendance with several visitors.
The church’s policy was not to take up offerings during revivals. Had we done so these young men might have received three times what the church gave them.
I was ashamed at how guest speakers, teachers, preachers or singers were treated. I never succeeded in changing the policy. I am convinced that the reputation of the church suffered because of this.
My great-grandfather was a vocational preacher. He would take the train each week from his home in the Texas Panhandle to the church in New Mexico where he preached. This church would pay him $8, which was exactly the fare for the train.
When the train went up to $12, he asked the church to raise his “salary” to match that. After a short discussion, they informed him that his services were no longer needed since he was “just preaching for the money.”
Grace and peace,
Tim Archer
Joe: A very good article. Leave it as it is. After Pastoring for many years, churches of different sizes, the time has come when churches must begin to face the issue of support for the minister. This should be done from the leaders of the denomination on national, state and local levels.
Teena–you are correct. Jesus didn’t have any degrees. But, . . . ummm . . . He is God. His apostles spent three years with Him–God in flesh–before they were entrusted with the church. Pastors in the early church were required to be steeped in the Scriptures at a level the average lay person was not. And no, His lack of education is not why they killed Him. Have you read the New Testament? Their reasons for killing Him were manifold, including blasphemy and their own jealousy. But His educational level? No.
We are justified in compensating these educated men because the church needs men who can devote their lives full-time to the work of the ministry. I could not possibly do what I do for free and provide for my family. That’s why my heroes are the bivocational pastors–not the megachurch pastors. And I also want to suggest that pastors do need to be educated. In addition to needing business, administration, management, and leadership skills, we need to be competent theologians, linguists, crisis counselors, and public speakers. I can’t believe you would suggest that such men are not needed in the church or that all church volunteers should be remunerated.
Again, my church provides very well for me and shows their appreciation for me in many ways. However, (and I’m really not trying to be ugly) your remarks are degrading to the pastors (and I know a lot of them) who are working 70-80 hours per week, being criticized for every little perceived mistake, being paid very little (when you consider education and hours worked), and have to deal with people who have such erroneous ideas about the Bible that they think the laborer is not worth His wages (and who think that Jesus was killed because He “did not have a masters degree or doctorate in biblical studies”).
I apologize to you, Joe, and anyone else who thinks I’m being harsh. That’s not my intention. I’m just weary of seeing a lot of godly men I know expending themselves for the sake of the Gospel and feeding their families with food stamps (again, not me). It’s exactly this kind of thinking that takes advantage of them and keeps them in the poor house. I find it shameful.
Wow,what a response.
I only have one thing to say about this; the person who stated… “most of our wives also need to work to make ends meet”, I want it known that only three of my ten wives work and we do just fine.
Thoughts brought up by this article.
While a student at seminary in New Orleans, I was amazed and often disappointed in the professors on campus who were serving as interim, part time, and bi-vocational pastors and ministers in local churches. They were full time employees of the seminary and were serving in these paid positions in large or small churches. However, students at the seminary had no opportunity to serve in churches and learn valuable minsitry unless they wanted to drive 4 hours each way to the small, struggling churches that the professors did not feel “called” to lead.
At the very least, these professors and churches could have called these students along side of them and given them the opportunity to serve, preach, and minsiter with a small amount of compensation for their service. As of yet, I still do not see this happening.
Having served as a pastor for seven years now and before that, in various staff positions for 18 years, I have come to believe that pastors often teach their people to be stingy. How is that? The best way I can teach my people how to love and take care of their pastor is by modeling that in the way that I lead them to care for our staff and visiting ministers. When a pastor tells his church to give a small amount to a visiting evangelist or preacher because he fears it will hurt the church’s budget or weekly giving, he is setting an example. We devalue the work that we do when we devalue the work of others on our behalf. I have found that in leading my church to be generous to evangelists and upright and caring to our staff, they have taken fine care of me and my family without me ever having to ask or even mention it. We need to lead!
Mike – I’m sorry if you took my comments personal. They were a general statment on the way the church conducts business in the name of a fair and just God. You are reading something into my comments that was not intended. I believe pastors and all of God’s ministers should be paid and paid well. Brian Bond said it better than I did. “We devalue the work that we do when we devalue the work of others.” When preachers build their ministires on the back of free labor they devalue their own work and teach the church that it is right to work for free. Therefore when preachers are expected to work for free are they not eating the fruit of their own way. If preachers led us by their actions and valued everyones work in the church with fair compensation it might solve the preachers dilemma.
I’m blown away by Teena’s comments, but can see how enough people thinking like that can make the pastor’s compensation issue very difficult indeed. It does show a lack of understanding of the role of the pastor in the life of the congregation and the level of sacrifice that the pastor, and the pastor’s family, make on a regular basis.
I was bivocational for a few years before my secular job began to interfere too greatly with my ever increasing opportunity to minister. I’ve now been full-time in ministry for seven years, and have felt well taken care of by the churches I’ve worked with/for.
A few years ago I was between churches for a few months and was exploring opportunities. A church in the Texas panhandle wanted me and my family of five to travel from southeast Missouri to visit with them. When I asked about travel compensation, they informed me the most they’d ever paid for a “try out” was $50.
I didn’t take them up on their offer to visit.
Well Bro. Joe…you’ve definitely led the charge for “your own kind!” LOL…Now how about a rally for us poor, often misused, and sometimes abused
Joe,
Thank you dear brother for speaking the truth … in love! There are so many facets to this subject. Of course there are those preachers that are in it only for the money, but I suspect there are far fewer of them than some might allege. There are churches that are far too generous and over pay their pastor, although those are probably fewer still. Sadly, the vast majority of churches pay as little as they can get by with. I have found that many churches will buy the finest computer they can afford, the finest lawnmower money can buy, and then pay the person that operates the computer or mows the lawn as little as possible. If people are our most valuable resource, and they are, then we should reflect that as we compensate those who serve the Lord and us.
In my first pastorate, we had a church treasurer who had great wisdom. She had served as a bank vice-president and as the church treasurer for many years. At the first budget planning meeting I attended, she had some sage advice. She said, “Well, I believe we ought to pay our staff as much as we can … and then expect alot out of them.” Well said, Mrs. Ruth. And well, said, Bro. Joe.
As an artist people expect me to do art for free all the time, including murals, but espcially cartooning.My husband ,a PHD, also gets asked for his free input. It’s becoming “a way of the world” [sad]but perhaps a pastor could set up a consulting busness and charge accordingly.
While we are on the subject of ministerial compensation…Why is it that churches think that student ministers are lesser ministers and pay them less…that smacks of an obvious perception problem in our churches of their ministers…do they think that they are any less called or dedicated than the pastor or other staff members?
Great comments — glad I didn’t delete a thing! 🙂
Yogi, I suspect it’s just like everywhere else. A student or intern or someone fresh out of college never gets paid what someone with 20 years of experience can expect.
Dedication will earn you a raise, after you demonstrate it for a period of time. And since all ministers are “called” (or at least claim to be), it’s not something you can put a monetary value on.
There’s my 2 cents anyway. Yeah yeah, you deserve 4 but you’ll take 2 and like it!
Bro. Joe,
I don’t beleve it is always an issue of ego, but as we all know it can be. I believe preaching is a calling from God, but it is also work, and when a person works they should receive compensation. Basing a preacher’s pay on education should be acceptable to everyone, their years of experience merits more pay.
As far as paying the preacher/leaders and not the volunteers, the difference is obvious, the volunteers have paying jobs outside the church during the week, the preachers/leaders work at the church 24/7, thus they are paid by the church.
Many are called but few are chosen. Whether one is a teacher, a preacher or candle stick maker
each one is accountable to God daily. Let the Holy Spirit guide you. Listen to His voice. Walk in the Spirit and you will receive an answer to each dilemma. His listening servant, AJ