Should pastors be paid for funerals and weddings? A longtime pastor makes the case that they should.
Longtime Southern Baptist pastor Joe McKeever wrote an article recently on Crosswalk.com that said pastors should not be expected to perform weddings and funerals “out of love” as some suggest.
McKeever wrote, “If a pastor displayed a rate schedule in which he charged so much for weddings, another amount for funerals, and so forth, one would be justified in questioning his motives. And we all know what the Lord had to say the difference in hirelings and shepherds.
The pastor is not a hireling. He does not enter the ministry for the money. If he does, he ought to have his head examined. He will quickly decide he could make better money doing 10,000 other jobs and save himself a lot of headaches in doing so.”
He then asks, “Why do we pay the preacher?”
“Good question”, McKeever writes, “After all, there are a few denominations, most of them tiny, which make an issue of not paying the ministers at all. They have been known to boast about the superior quality of service they render since money does not enter the discussion. The only thing wrong with that is it goes directly against Scripture. The Apostle Paul made a case for paying the ministers. And in doing so, he cited Old Testament Scriptures. So, Scripture is consistent on this subject.
And like everyone else on the planet, pastors have to live and provide for their families.