Baptist Ministers Historically Unpaid
Recently, I began reading Religious Revolutionaries by Robert C. Fuller. Its a simplified history of religion in America. Fuller does an excellent job of simplifying and presenting the development of religion in America in an easy to read, yet logically organized manner. Best of all, the book includes little bits of American religious trivia, like the Pilgrims stealing food and crafts from local natives. One bit of trivia that surfaces in chapter 3, Sectarian Heyday, is:
"Baptists often paid their ministers nothing at all."
Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather. Living deep in the Baptist Bible Belt as I do and reading all the Baptist blog discussions on the proper selection and hiring of ministers, this long forgotten fact seemed almost like heresy. Baptist ministers were unpaid! Shocking!
Fuller informs us:
"Baptists and Methodists, on the other hand, relied upon clergy who were 'of the people.' They characteristically had little education, received little or no pay, and spoke in plain but forceful language."
Fuller follows a bit later with:
"Baptist ministers typically earned their living just like other members of the congregation six days a week and then voluntarily preached on the Sabbath."
Fuller then explains that this low overhead is what made the expansion of Baptists and Methodists through the frontier possible. I believe this has implications on the recent discussions among Baptists regarding their problem of declining baptisms and and shrinking membership. Just as a paid clergy was a drag on the early American Anglican and Congregationalist churches and led to their decline as majority denominations, so too the modern Baptist tradition of a paid clergy seems to be hampering Baptist evangelism and contributing to that denominations decline.
Personally, I have long seen a professional, paid clergy as somewhat unbiblical. Never in the New Testament do I ever find search committees, minister interviews, or mention of salaries. Nor do I ever find discussion of the same among the early Ante-Nicean Christians in the centuries that follow.
If any CAS readers are aware of any Baptist, or other Christian, apologetics for a paid clergy, please comment below. I particularly would be interested in the proof texts that support the modern Tradition of a paid clergy.
Source: Religious Revolutionaries
"Baptists often paid their ministers nothing at all."
Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather. Living deep in the Baptist Bible Belt as I do and reading all the Baptist blog discussions on the proper selection and hiring of ministers, this long forgotten fact seemed almost like heresy. Baptist ministers were unpaid! Shocking!
Fuller informs us:
"Baptists and Methodists, on the other hand, relied upon clergy who were 'of the people.' They characteristically had little education, received little or no pay, and spoke in plain but forceful language."
Fuller follows a bit later with:
"Baptist ministers typically earned their living just like other members of the congregation six days a week and then voluntarily preached on the Sabbath."
Fuller then explains that this low overhead is what made the expansion of Baptists and Methodists through the frontier possible. I believe this has implications on the recent discussions among Baptists regarding their problem of declining baptisms and and shrinking membership. Just as a paid clergy was a drag on the early American Anglican and Congregationalist churches and led to their decline as majority denominations, so too the modern Baptist tradition of a paid clergy seems to be hampering Baptist evangelism and contributing to that denominations decline.
Personally, I have long seen a professional, paid clergy as somewhat unbiblical. Never in the New Testament do I ever find search committees, minister interviews, or mention of salaries. Nor do I ever find discussion of the same among the early Ante-Nicean Christians in the centuries that follow.
If any CAS readers are aware of any Baptist, or other Christian, apologetics for a paid clergy, please comment below. I particularly would be interested in the proof texts that support the modern Tradition of a paid clergy.
Source: Religious Revolutionaries
1 Comments:
I don't know about a full scale defense of the practice, but here are the usual texts used to support it:
Luke 10:5-7
1 Cor 9:4-12
And 1 Tim 5:17,18
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