What's Wrong With Supporting National Pastors?

One mistake we observed while working in Xela for our first 10 months was the great mistake missionaries make by supporting national pastors. This is an accepted practice that most people take for granted. I can't speak to other countries, but in Guatemala this is one of the most disastrous things you can do to a ministry.

First of all, the whole idea of supporting a national is so that the church can be independent of the missionary. The thought is that it is a stepping stone for the pastor and the church. For the pastor in that he can work hard, bring in more people, and have a larger congregation giving to help pay his salary and the church expenses. For the church in that the members may have not been giving very much, knowing that the gringo is in charge, but now they can learn to give as God would have them to.

However, we saw a problem. When the check comes from the missionary, the pastor works for the missionary, not the church. He becomes a hired employee. We'll leave the abuses we saw by missionaries toward their "employees" for another post I'll probably never write, but the point is that pastor should work for the church. When the missionary "hires" a national pastor, he creates in that man a loyalty to the missionary.

What we saw was something we didn't expect, but makes sense economically. The pastor had been in charge of the church with very little influence from the missionary for several years. The missionary would write him a check every month. However, the church never grew. This was blamed on the location, or that the people were "hard-hearted", or that the dreaded Pentecostal churches were stealing away everybody. While these things probably had something to do with it, during our 10 months there we never saw the pastor work to get new people. He never went to visit new people, never had a special activity, not even advertising. He was apathetic towards things we did, not opposing, but not doing anything to help either.

We finally saw what the root cause was. As long as the church stayed small, the pastor got a regular paycheck. He had that security in doing nothing. If the church had grown to the size where it could support a pastor, he would have been dependent on his job performance. He also would have been dependent upon Guatemalan giving, which in reality is not as consistent a Gringo's paycheck.

Many missionaries are more than happy to fall into the rut of cutting a check. Maybe it comes from the power one holds when somebody has to come by to pick up their check. Maybe it is the confidence that they can still count a church as having been started when they tally up their stats. Maybe it is easier than to have to worry about each excuse the pastor will come up with to keep getting money even after he has been "cut off."

It is my opinion that a missionary should NEVER pay a pastor a salary. Either turn over a church that can already support a pastor, or set up the expectation that the pastor be bi-vocational.

Our situation is different from the majority of missionaries in that we are far from civilization. Our men will have to support themselves because even if the entire village attended the church, there wouldn't be the money to support a pastor. Our Pastor's Institute will be set up to teach agricultural skills along with the Bible classes so that a man can feed his family and pastor without ever expecting a pay check for his labors.

I'm interested in your thoughts on this.