Money is not something we talk about easily in churches, especially when it comes to the remuneration of visiting preachers. We have become slightly more open about salaried pastors. But, when it comes to itin-erants a variety of approaches exists.
I am now an itinerant preacher after 45 years in full-time pastorates. In ‘the old days’ the treasurer would either sidle up to me in a conspiratorial manner and slip me an envelope as though doing a street corner drug deal; or he could openly flourish the envelope in public as though it were an award ceremony. Some were discreet.
Either way, a cheque would often be in the preacher’s hand as he made his way home. The compensation varied enormously from nothing for a 620-mile round trip to preach to 300 students at a Northern University to £500 in advance for three Sunday mornings in Shepherds Bush.
