I am very passionate about serving God; therefore, I found the article “Rural Churches Grapple with a Pastor Exodus” extremely disconcerting. I humbly sympathize with the discontentment of the parishioners whose small, rural churches are forced to close their welcoming doors, mostly due to the concept of “money.”
It’s a sad day when the solidarity of a church depends on whether a pastor is willing to pastor the church on a small salary, rather than for the glorification of God. David Van Biema, the writer of the article, explains that areas consisting largely of “farm country, have gotten too small and too poor to attract pastors.” I never considered that location would play such a crucial role in whether a church flourishes or flounders.
My father often reminisces about the small, rural Baptist church his Uncle Alfie pastored when he was growing up. Located in Fountain County, (the area Lew Wallace grew up in), my father remembers that to help make ends meet, his uncle also delivered milk. Some mornings my father accompanied his uncle during his deliveries, amazed at how grateful and kind the country folk were for Pastor Dobbs humility in serving them not only as pastor, but also as milkman. His uncle would often receive payment in food subsidies, but many times gave it away to those that needed it more than he. I realize that this was during the 1960s-1970s, a different era than today, but it further supports my despondency in how our culture has evolved to the concept of helping oneself rather than in helping others.
My father was saved at that church and then later baptized in one of the small rivers surrounding the area (I apologize that I cannot remember the specific body of water. I want to say either Sugar Creek or the Wabash). The church holds a special moment in his life, a pleasant memory of the unselfishness of his uncle. It also demonstrated to my father that serving the Lord is what makes one happy, not monetary accomplishments.
First Baptist Church in Tipton, IN is now celebrating over 100 years of service to the Lord. It began as a rural church, but unlike the areas in Minnesota that Van Biema refers to, Tipton grew into a thriving, modest, town. My mother grew up in this church, and whenever I go to visit relatives in the area, I always attend First Baptist. Everyone knows me because of my mother, and I always feel welcome and at home. It’s not a large church, roughly averaging 200 each Sunday, but it still retains its country roots—the ones in which everyone is treated as family.
Another small, rural Baptist Church I attend when visiting family in Central Indiana is Waynetown Baptist Church (Montgomery County, more of Lew Wallace territory). For those of you that know Northwest Indiana, Waynetown can be equivilated to the town of Kouts. I have relatives that attend the church, and although only about 30 parishioners attend, Waynetown Baptist Church is on fire for God and providing a great service to the Waynetown community.
Although the truth remains that money is a very attractive component, First Baptist Church and Waynetown Baptist Church glorify the teachings of Jesus Christ rather than worshiping metal coins and paper money created by man.
I agree with you that pastors’ main objective should be teaching the word of God, on the other hand, I find it unreasonable to expect them to be something like super humans. Those who devoted their entire lives to study the teaching of God and dedicated themselves to spread his words, have also needs and families to support. They deserve, more than others, to live a decent life. It would be unjust to ask them to accept low wages in a difficult time with increased life demands. I believe it is the responsibility of the community to support the church and thus to afford the pastors’ salaries.
I absolutely agree with you! I agree that it is the community’s responsibility to help support the pastor, but what I find sad is that church, in today’s culture, is not as “popular” as it was in decades past. I did not intend for my post to reflect that they should self-sacrifice their physical needs. From the article (which could be my own misinterpretation) made it sound like the ONLY factor that was attractive to pastors, especially in rural areas, was whether they would make money, not shepherd their flock. With television Envangelists and megachurches, money does seem to be an important element in their particular choice of career. I was just remarking that from even 30 years ago, it is very difficult to choose a career that one would be blissfully happy in because money does seem to be an important commodity in our culture (which it should, but to what extent that it governs our career choices?). I’m just rather disenchanted in the behavior of our culture and the importance placed on serving oneself (or even the dollar) rather than on serving others.
I very much appreciate your comment!
I think that the pastor’s concern about money explains the sudden upheaval of the concept of materialism in the 19th-Century. With the sweep of industrialism, people including pastors, turned after the selfish pursuit of materiel and earthy happiness. It dragged them from self-devotion to the Church service to self-indulgence in material pursuit. The result effected the Church and brought about the deterioration of spiritualism.
The effect of materialism on the human being is still more apparent in our modern life, where most people, either religious or non-religious, pays more attention to monetary satisfaction than to spiritual and moral salvation. The inability of religious people to make a dividing line between their earthy and heavenly pursuits has paved the way to what i can hereby call as “schizophrenia” in their religious behavior.