An article by Dr Richard S. Taylor found in the "Herald of Holiness" September-October 1950 issue.
"The Pastor's Standard of Living"
Recently in an informal gathering of Nazarene pastors and their wives the question of a minister’s standard of living was raised. Said one pastor: “There is the level of bare necessity. Then there is the level of comfort and convenience. Beyond that, somewhere, is the level of extravagance, which lies close to pride. Where is the dividing line between the temperate and extravagant in the parsonage standard of living?”
In response, several helpful suggestions were made. It was felt by one that the general level of the people whom we were serving and the community in which we were living should be taken into consideration. Others felt that the factor of age and experience should carry some weight.
I went away feeling that here was a very fruitful field for careful thought and self-examination by all of us. My own meditations unearthed what appear to me some very simple, basic principles.
Without question a minister’s standard of living should be within his income. A determination to “keep up with the Joneses” regardless of financial ability is indicative of pride and cannot help leading to disaster. Since when has secondhand furniture, maybe even a bedroom dressing table made out of orange crates covered with cretonne, been a disgrace, except in the eyes of cheap people before whose opinions only other cheap people bow? Adam Clarke advised preachers: “Be ashamed of nothing but sin.” And debt. Second-rate furnishings, clothes, and cars do not bring half as much reproach on the cause as past due, unpaid bills. This does not mean that nothing should ever be bought on the installment plan. But our financial commitments should be kept courageously within the range of our ability to pay. If our determination to maintain a certain standard of appearances should ultimately force us out of the ministry because we find ourselves compelled to make more money, we will face the Judgment with blood on our hands. What will a preacher say then who chose sofas to souls?
Furthermore, a preacher’s standard of living should not involve possessions which entangle him, so that he is not free to serve where and when he is most needed, and where the Lord leads. It is possible to be so tied to a huge supply of expensive furniture that we overstay our usefulness in our pastorate, trying to find another church financially able to move us. In order that they may be free to go at once anywhere, Salvation Army officers are forbidden to have personal possessions at all which would hinder them from moving at a day’s notice. We don’t care to go that far. But after all, it is still true that the word, “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life,” was not spoken just to Salvation Army officers.
A third principle is very basic: Holiness, historically, theologically, and scripturally, in both terminology and experience, has always implied standards of living in keeping with Christian simplicity, economy, and self-sacrifice. No heart can possibly be holy which is not in affinity with this fundamental note of scriptural holiness. Extravagance, luxury, and self-indulgence have always been condemned as absolutely incompatible with true Christian piety. But how does this apply to the pastor? Simply that he is to be an example of the believers at this point as well as every other. How can he preach sacrifice to his people if his people see not the slightest evidence of it in the parsonage? How can he urge simplicity and economy on his people if he and his family are determined to have the best and fanciest that money can buy in autos, furniture, clothes, and food? It becomes apparent that here, as elsewhere, the preacher often finds it obligatory to set patterns rather than follow patterns. If the standard of living among his people is unnecessarily low and shiftless, he should live above them. But if the prevailing standard is extreme in the other direction, he should become a healthy corrective by exhibiting simpler tastes and more conservative expenditures.
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It is still true that the majority of our ministers are not faced with the temptation to extravagance, because their income does not provide the opportunity. But in many quarters the preacher is rapidly coming into his own financially, and he finds that a greatly expanded income permits a more expensive standard of living. Within limits this is right and proper. But it constitutes one of the most subtle dangers that he will ever face! If he loses a wise sense of values, and becomes infected with the materialistic money craze of this age, and begins to swing his new economic independence around in free spending and swanky living, he will become lean in soul and a travesty on the holiness which he professedly represents. There is something shockingly incongruous about a minister of the lowly Nazarene, who in the name of that One urges his people to “give until it hurts,” spending on furniture or car a thousand dollars more than safety, comfort, or respectability would require.
Within the framework of these basic principles, admittedly, there will be differences of opinion as to what is economical. I have always tended to measure economy in clothes by the price tag, but that is not always accurate. Recently a fellow pastor said to me, “How long have you had that suit?” “Two years, and I paid $42 for it.” He replied, “I paid $60 for this. How long do you think I’ve worn it?” Since it still looked good on him (good enough to preach at a convention in), I cautiously suggested what seemed to me a reasonable length of time. Imagine my astonishment when he said six years! Though he paid more cash than I have ever paid for a suit, he was actually more economical than I.
Not only so, but there will be differences of opinion as to what is exemplary. Nor will the right answer be the same in all situations. Whether a man is in the city or country, among prosperous or poor people, serving a large church or small, will unquestionably have definite bearing on what is the proper standard of living for him. Nevertheless, the foregoing principles are universally applicable, and should govern every pastor’s own personal solution. Regardless of differences between parsonages, the people within any given parish should sense that their pastor is setting a Christian example. Even well-to-do-people, if they possess any spiritual discernment whatsoever, will have more respect for a preacher who lives like a servant of Jesus Christ than one who lives like a playboy or a capitalist.
And having said all this, we need to remind ourselves constantly that a Christian definition of the term “standard of living” implies infinitely more than refrigerators and radios, overstuffed chairs and innerspring mattresses, houses and cars, or anything that can be measured statistically. That is a gross worldly conception, utterly materialistic, and its infection we must shun as the plague. The problem has its practical side, surely, and it was that side which the brother had in mind. But as holiness ministers we will never rightly decide the practical side if we for one moment forget that it is the least important side. The true standard of living of any home, intangible but more real, which our forefathers knew better than modern Americans, can be defined only in terms of noble living and high thinking, of fine music and good literature, of cleanliness and orderliness and wholesome conversation, of mutual love and consideration and prayerfulness. True culture is not synonymous with price tags and brand names. Though our people may see only our furniture the first day, they will look for something more important later on, and its presence (or absence) will determine the measure of their lasting respect for us.
Therefore, let us constantly keep our sense of values Christian. Let us have quality fabrics if we can, but exhibit quality anyway. And of course it goes without saying that if we can’t be happy unless our furniture is as nice as that in our brother’s parsonage, we need a trip to the altar. If we saw that kind of false pride and foolish envy in our laymen, we would quickly prepare a sermon on carnality.
Check out these other articles:
Dear Pastor (What every layperson wishes their pastor knew.)
Dear Layperson (What every pastor wishes their lay people knew.)
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