C. Matthew McMahon
Christian Preacher
I'm looking for resources that deal with the obligation scripturally for a pastor to Tithe.
I have Turretin and Calamy, but they don't deal with the question. Calamy shows the "Christian parishioners" Tithe to support the minister. Turretin does the same very scripturally.But....
Practically, here is "a" question. Say a congregation has 7 families, and they are slowly growing. They hire a pastor. They say, we want to pay you 30000 a year, but we can only afford, right now, 10000. You might think 30000 is quite low, but bear with this for the illustration. Say the pastor accepts. He has enough money saved up to live off the 10000 and his savings for whatever time period you choose to give him. A year, two, doesn't necessarily matter.
So, he gets a check for 10000 for the year (to make it mathematically easy), and he decides to give 1000 as a Tithe. The church says, wait, we need to pay you 30000, and can only pay 10000, you should keep this 1000. So they give him the 1000. The pastor then decides he needs to Tithe 10% of that. He gives a hundred. It goes around again. 10...1...10 cents, finally down to a penny.
If the pastor is obligated for his 10%, he's done the right thing even though it's a bit odd.
But is he obligated in that way? Thoughts?
Resources?
(Keep in mind that the pastor could come in bivocationally, but that still places him in the same position. He would be giving, with the church still needing to meet the obligation in hiring.)
I have Turretin and Calamy, but they don't deal with the question. Calamy shows the "Christian parishioners" Tithe to support the minister. Turretin does the same very scripturally.But....
Practically, here is "a" question. Say a congregation has 7 families, and they are slowly growing. They hire a pastor. They say, we want to pay you 30000 a year, but we can only afford, right now, 10000. You might think 30000 is quite low, but bear with this for the illustration. Say the pastor accepts. He has enough money saved up to live off the 10000 and his savings for whatever time period you choose to give him. A year, two, doesn't necessarily matter.
So, he gets a check for 10000 for the year (to make it mathematically easy), and he decides to give 1000 as a Tithe. The church says, wait, we need to pay you 30000, and can only pay 10000, you should keep this 1000. So they give him the 1000. The pastor then decides he needs to Tithe 10% of that. He gives a hundred. It goes around again. 10...1...10 cents, finally down to a penny.
If the pastor is obligated for his 10%, he's done the right thing even though it's a bit odd.
But is he obligated in that way? Thoughts?
Resources?
(Keep in mind that the pastor could come in bivocationally, but that still places him in the same position. He would be giving, with the church still needing to meet the obligation in hiring.)