UNPAID MINISTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20496, 22 February 1930, Page 13

UNPAID MINISTER.

EARNING LIVING IN CITY.

CHURCH WORK IN SPARE TIME,

UNUSUAL CIRCUMSTANCES

The facts that while serving as a minister without salary he would be earning his living in the city and therefore would be able to give to the church only the voluntary margin of his time that any other man could give were made clear by the Rev. George Jackson when speaking at a social gathering h"ld in the Green Lane Congregational Church on Thursday evening for the purpose of extending to him a welcome as the newly-settled minister.

• Mr. Jackson said that he would like to remind the congregation of the somewhat unusual circumstances which affected his position as their minister, in order that they and he might thoroughly understand each other. " 1 have my living to earn in the city," he said. "There is a twofold reason for this. For one thing, the special piece of mission work I was doing last year made it necessary for me to seek employment}- apart from the Community Mission, which, of course, had no funds to pay a minister's stipend. I was successful in securing a business appointment as secretary to a development organisation and T have been employed there since last September. When 1 accepted the call to Green Lane Church I could not resign my position in the city without creating difficulties for those who had employed me, since the work is of a somewhat specialised character, requiring at the present stage my personal supervision.

"In the second place, the financial position of the church is such that it is not receiving sufficient support to enable, it to pay a minister's salary and at the same time meet its liabilities in other directions. I hold strongly that a Christian Church should set a high standard of honourable dealing in regard to its financial obligations, and that its commitments should be fully met and its debts promptly discharged.

" I am therefore relieved that I am able to serve the church without salary, and am hopeful that before long the. church finances will lie placed on a sound footing without any undue appeals for monetary assistance. The whole matter of my continuance in other employment will bo reviewed afc the end of next June, and if the growth of the work demands it, and suitable arrangements can be made, I will bo prepared to consider devoting my whole time to the church. In ihe meantime, however, I want to make it clear that while I am in the position of an ordained minister in full standing with the Congregational Union and with full pastoral charge of this church, I am afc the same time in precisely the same position as any other man who worships here. That is to say. I have to earn my living in the city and all I can give to the church is just the voluntary margin of my time, as any other man here can do."

An appeal for team-work to enable the special circumstances to be met was made bv the minister.

Greetings to the church and minister were received from ail parts of New Zealand, and were also expressed by Mr. C. McGechie, the senior deacon. Sir George Fowlds, w-hose attendance had been prevented by a call to Wellington, sent a letter of good wishes: