Umm…Pastoral Aid
Xtra Love for the Pastor?
By: Valerie Carter Smith
SparkBlog 9/1/2021
I became a Christian in a rural Pentecostal church on Long Island when I was 9 years of age. This church saved my life as I tried to navigate a homelife of extreme dysfunction. Being a member of a Pentecostal church back then called for total commitment to what was defined as holiness. Among such things as wearing long dresses, no make-up, not doing worldly things such as going to the movies or to the bowling alley where there was a bar selling alcoholic beverages, we were committed even in giving excessive amounts of money to the church. This was so because we were holy sanctified, and everything belonged to God anyway—my body and my money!
Financial giving also carried over into how we supported our pastor. We did the following:
· Gave to a weekly cash offering and to the “pastors purse” when preaching out so that his needs were met
· Gave sacrificially on special days such as birthdays, graduations, and vacations
· Gave thousands of dollars once a year for the pastor’s anniversary
I would occasionally here non-church folks say, “All the pastor wants is your money!” It must be noted that in many rural Pentecostal churches, the leader started the church, and it could have been years, if ever, where a standard “salary” was given.
It is out of the background in which I have come to the black Baptist church after seminary in 1986. No doubt, I had to learn a lot. One, that pastors were voted in if they hadn’t started the church and that they receive a salary package. I was still convinced that we had to “bless the pastor and spouse” regularly. This meant giving liberally at anniversaries and birthdays, as well as “blessing” the pastor periodically because she/he watches over your soul and feeds you with the bread of life!
Well, I have had my challenges in understanding the “Black Baptist Way,” if you will! I have stepped on landmines pushing for the “extra love” to be shown to the pastor and his family only to be reprimanded most of the time, nominally heard, and mostly ignored. I am not arguing that the Pentecostal tradition had it totally right either as there are issues related to social class that must be factored in. Studies clearly show that poor people give more percentage of their income to religious organizations than other socio-economic groups. So, there is certainly a dynamic that needs to be explored here. But for our purposes, in the quest to understand this dynamic in the black Baptist church, I have designed a survey to learn about the perceptions and practices in the black Baptist church related to pastoral aid. In some more modern five-fold ministry Baptist churches the pastor’s aid committee may be called the pastor’s armor bearers.
So that MissioSpark can learn more about the black Baptist church and pastoral aid, a survey will be deployed soon. To take the survey, one must be a participating member or a former participating member of a black Baptist church. Participating means that you attended on average at least once a month and that you gave financially in regular intervals throughout the year.
Survey coming soon at Facebook @missiospark on Pastoral Aid in the Black Baptist Church: Perceptions and Practices