Most full-time church workers are regarded as employees of the church in which they served. That includes the pastor since he draws a salary from the church and has to seek Session approval before he can go on annual leave. In the plain and legal sense, a pastor or full-time worker is an employee of the church. However, to consider them merely as employees of the church may promote a hireling mentality unknowingly, if one is not careful.

We are convicted and grounded in the Scripture enough to know that a pastor who is genuinely called by God should not and must not be a hireling. Jesus Himself has set the perfect example of a good shepherd. Our Lord said, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:11-15). We thank God that Jesus is our good Shepherd. And every pastor is the undershepherd who ought to follow the example of the good Shepherd. Therefore a pastor must be prepared to give his own life for the sheep in which God has placed under his care. As for a hireling, he will not care what happens to the sheep. He will be the first to run for his life when danger comes. He will more likely care about how much he will be paid for the work he does. The late Rev Timothy Tow had always warned his students in FEBC about the hireling’s attitude: “More money, more preach; Less money, less preach; No money, no preach.” No church should tolerate such pastors or full-time workers who work only to fill their stomachs and put priority on themselves more than the spiritual needs of the flock of God. No respect should be given to them who prove themselves to be hirelings, and they must be expelled from the ministry immediately before they do more “damage” to God’s people.

In several of his epistles in the New Testament, Apostle Paul almost always referred himself and his co-labourers as servants of Jesus Christ. In the same manner, pastors and full-time church workers are rightly to be regarded as servants of Jesus Christ, and not strictly as paid employees of the church. And also the reason why they are called full-time workers is because they have been called to give their whole life fully to the Lord. It is not a 9-to-5 job. It is literally a 24-hour commitment and service surrendered to the Lord. A pastor must never say, “Sorry, please do not call me after office hours” or “I am on my annual leave, please do not disturb me.” If he were to say that, he has revealed his true colour as a hireling. He is on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, and all the years of his life until the Lord calls him home. This is unlike army soldiers, doctors, etc who are given notice as to when they will be on call for a period of time. But for pastors and full-time workers, as long as they live, it is expected of them to be on call all the time. That is why there is no retirement plan for them. They are to serve till the day they are called home to glory.

There must be mutual trust and understanding among the full-time workers and the church in which they serve. It is important that the church values and honours the full-time workers because they are servants of God. They have responded in obedience to God’s highest call to give of their entire life to serve Him. And they must serve faithfully and diligently whether they are paid or not. All full-time workers are accountable to God and to the church in which they are serving. They are to serve as the Spirit leads them, and not according to their own whim and fancy. They must always remember the Lord’s calling for them to be godly examples and good stewards of the time and money that God has blessed them. May God help us. Amen.

(The above is extracted from the pastoral exhortation of Truth BPC Sunday Bulletin 22 September 2013.)