Should a church planter be paid?

For church planters seeking to plant New Testament churches as they appear in the New Testament (i.e., no buildings, no specialized staff, no denomination and etc.), the critique often goes something like this . .. “why don’t you just get a job and make disciples?” Should a church planter hold a full-time job? I’ve struggled with what’s best/prudent/biblical/pragmatic for my role. It depends a lot on the calling and grace gifting. The biggest determination is whether the planter is really a pastor/shepherd/elder/overseer type or an evangelist type? Will he make disciples, and therefore start a church and take care of the sheep in it or will he make disciples, entrust the oversight to elders and then start more churches. Biblically speaking, there were those who pastored locally and those who were sent to make disciples, equip churches and appoint elders.

We often stress the “Paul making tents” deal and press that on missional guys nowadays (really, I think it would be a blessing to function like that . . . but would missional guys then get accused of not spending enough of their time missionally?). Paul didn’t charge the Corinthians while at Corinth, but the Macedonians supported him. Paul did not want his motives to be misconstrued with the churches he was beginning, so he worked and accepted support from churches behind him. The disheartening reality today is the misconstruing of motives from churches behind.

Another favorite piece of advice put forth to missional guys is the Luke 10 “carry no purse, no bag, no shoes” bit. I admit, I brought my shoes, my wife brought her purse (though there’s not much of value in it) and we are here with about one bag of clothing each. Jesus gave these instructions to be followed while he was present. He then said that He was going to go . . . told them to take purses, bags and swords next time (Luke 22:36) . . . and left. I didn’t bring my sword . . . should I correct this deficiency?

Mature churches should always be willing to send missional guys forward. Look at this concept from a biblical perspective. New Testament writers use the word Pro-pempō nine times. The word means to “send supplied.” After the church at Corinth supposedly matured beyond the point of misconstruing motives, Paul instructed them to send him supplied (1 Cor 16:6) and forthwith instructs them to send an evangelist (i.e., Timothy) supplied (1 Cor 16:11) because he is doing the same work (1 Cor 16:10). Beyond this incident, Paul instructed the Roman church, a church he did not plant and had never even visited, to send him to Spain supplied (Rom 15:24). And, he instructed Titus to send supplied a couple of other missional guys even though one of them was a lawyer (Titus 3:13). Outside of the Pauline corpus, there’s another incident worthy of consideration, 3 John 2-8.

The case is not clear-cut. However, a simple church/house church/organic church pastor/elder/shepherd/overseer does not seem to be a position financially supported by the church, but rather a role played in the life of a local church. On the other hand, it seems that it’s much more likely, though not necessarily 100% of subsistence, for an apostle or evangelist to be supported financially as he is constantly moving to catalyze kingdom growth.