A Reformation in the Pastor’s Study
The following is an excerpt from a paper Pastor Peter Prange presented to the Southeastern Wisconsin District Convention this summer.
Woe to that congregation or member who is heard to say, “Why should we pay our pastor to study? That’s what the seminary was for!” As St. Paul once wrote the Corinthians, so also he writes to you, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously” (2 Corinthians 9:6). If your expressed desire and goal is to have your pastor spend as little time as possible in his study, and if your congregation has resolved that the pennies are just too tight to help facilitate his continuing education, then know this: “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.” You may get yourselves a wham-bam pastor who is out there “hitting the pavement” every day and bringing in new folks hand-over-fist. You may have a financial bottom line that any congregation would envy. But in the end you will likely be spiritually poorer because you will not have a pastor who has taken the time or been given the encouragement to embrace the cross. He will not share the cross with you in all its richness and wonder.
