Church Government (a collective body)

[Captain]

I’ve been a part of an otherwise good church that was huge and brought in a lot of money and was ran solely by the pastor, and I’m now a part of small church that is much more board ran though we have a strong pastor that the board cannot simply yank his chain.

Having said that, I think it’s important to have a board but man, boards can ruin a church faster than a good pastor who might wrestle with his ego a little.

People will never agree on what exactly a pastor should be paid but the pastor at the big church was a very good man but was still living so far above the average salary of his congregation that it was a little out of line in my opinion. The little church has ran off a lot of good men over the years because they wouldn’t let the pastor operate with the proper pastoral authority. So balance is the key of course but that’s tough to find on any subject.

And I would add that simply having open books is not a good idea. If the board is set up properly, they will keep the purse strings as they should be kept. Every church has a bitter few that would rather see preachers live in poverty and it’s best to keep those people out of the loop. But that’s 100% opinion.