For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it oxen God is concerned about? Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope<\/em>” (I Corinthians 9:9-10). This also is about compensating for work being done. But retirement is drawing funds for work done in the past.<\/p>\nThe only class of people that a church is told to support without compensation for work done are widows above the age of 60 who have no family to care for them and who meet several qualifications (I Timothy 5:8-16).<\/p>\n
So while I’m sympathetic, being a preacher myself, I find no biblical justification for the idea. A man who wishes to stop preaching also stops being paid as a preacher. He either finds another line of work, or he lives off what he has set aside for retirement, or his family supports him in his old age, or he reduces his workload and perhaps the brethren will decide to recompense him for the reduced effort. Me? I hope the Lord grants me the health to serve Him until the end of my time on earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I was reading some articles on your church web site,\u00a0one concerning paying preachers, written by Terry Benton. I was trying to find New Testament scripture for continuing to pay a retired preacher, I guess like retirement for years of service. I am wanting the Bible to be my guide, not my heart. Any thoughts?…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[154,105,1511],"class_list":["post-25397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-church-funds","tag-employment","tag-preachers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":39727,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-the-church-continue-to-support-a-preacher-whose-children-are-already-adults-but-are-not-christians\/","url_meta":{"origin":25397,"position":0},"title":"Should the church continue to support a preacher, whose children are already adults but are not Christians?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I need your advice brother. Should the church continue to support a preacher, whose children are already adults but are not Christians? Answer: There are no requirements in the Bible concerning a preacher's children. It may be a concern that a preacher is not able to persuade his own\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25118,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-elders-responsible-for-the-employment-of-preachers\/","url_meta":{"origin":25397,"position":1},"title":"Are elders responsible for the employment of preachers?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I enjoyed and appreciated your article on\u00a0the work of the evangelist.\u00a0 I find it quite different from many by what you might consider institutional churches of Christ. I am concerned about the final paragraph on the selection of the minister.\u00a0 As I understand first-century history,\u00a0 many preachers were involved\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54626,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-appoints-men-to-be-preachers\/","url_meta":{"origin":25397,"position":2},"title":"Who appoints men to be preachers?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thank you very much for helping not just me but also the churches where there is a slight misunderstanding on this Evangelist subject. Please bear with me in coming to you again, for I want to understand clearly. You said in\u00a0Preachers: Ordination The idea of ordination is to choose\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40667,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/meet-the-preacher\/","url_meta":{"origin":25397,"position":3},"title":"Meet the Preacher","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 14, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Danny Dodd You may know us, but then again you may not. Preachers have a way of hiding behind the pulpit. We can easily be stereotyped. Through experience, we often learn to become very guarded and protective of our hearts and homes. Paradoxically though we often feel obligated to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39212,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/training-young-men-to-preach\/","url_meta":{"origin":25397,"position":4},"title":"Training Young Men to Preach","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 31, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant Each generation passes and another follows. This has been going on\u00a0 -well, ever since Adam and Eve started the cycle. Included in this cycle are those who preach the gospel. Paul mentioned five functions that were assigned to men in the body of Christ - apostles,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16950,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-do-you-start-to-gain-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":25397,"position":5},"title":"Where do you start to gain faith?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, I was really impressed by your web site. I am not quite a believer. I tried a few times to read the Bible but seem to have lots of difficulties in reading in \u201cbetween lines\u201d. The purpose of my email is only to see where I could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}