A Church treasurer once wrote me an angry letter: "The minister is only the employee of the church." This may be true in some Churches, but it is far from Congregationalism and its traditions. Congregational "economic policy" is described, for example, in a booklet available on the Internet, Evangelical & Congregational:
"It should be noted that a church does not employ a minister. It releases him from the need of secular employment and undertakes properly to maintain him and his family so that he may do the Lord's work among them. He is not a servant of the church but of the Lord who directs his work and who may give him a vocation wider than the narrow interest of a particular congregation. Where there is mutual love in Christ, there will be mutual understanding and support."OBSERVATION: I have seen in this a secular economic theory, too -- that if society were to view labour as a liberation, into one's calling, a lot would be very different today.
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