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Principles for Christian Leaders - Contents
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    Determining wages

    In this life those engaged in the ministry should receive fitting remuneration for their labor. They give their entire time, thought, and effort to the service of the Master; and it is not in the order of God that the wages paid them should be insufficient to supply the needs of their families. The minister who does his share according to his ability should receive his just due.PCL 257.1

    The men who decide what each worker shall receive are to strive earnestly to meet the mind of God in their decisions. Some who have served on auditing committees have lacked in discrimination and judgment. At times the committee has been composed of men who had no real understanding of the situation of the workers, and who have again and again brought real oppression and want into families by their wrong decisions. Their management has given occasion for the enemy to tempt and discourage the workers, and in some cases has driven them from the field.PCL 257.2

    Scrupulous care should be shown in settling the accounts of the laborers. Those who are chosen to act on the auditing committee should be men of clear perception, acquainted with the work they are handling. They should be “able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness” (Exodus 18:21).PCL 257.3

    The minister should have a margin to work upon, for there are many calls made upon his financial resources.—GW 449 (1915)PCL 257.4

    Those who are bearing administrative burdens in connection with God’s cause, can afford to be fair and true; they can afford to deal on right principles. When in a time of financial stress it is thought that wages must be reduced, let a circular be published setting forth the true situation, and then let those employed by the conference be asked whether, under the circumstances, they could do with less for their support. All the arrangements made with those in God’s service should be regarded as a sacred transaction between man and his fellow man. Men have no right to treat the workers as if they were inanimate objects, with no voice or expression of their own.—GW 452 (1915)PCL 257.5

    The ministers that ought to be encouraged in the field have no inducement. They cannot live upon the small wages allowed them. The Word of God declares, “The hire of your laborers are kept back by fraud” (James 5:4). This is generally understood to apply to wealthy men who employ servants and do not pay them for their labor; but it means more than this; it applies with great force to those that are enlightened by the Spirit of God, who act out and work in any degree upon the same principle that these men do in hiring servants to do their work, and then grind them down to the lowest price.—Letter 6, 1883 (1883)PCL 258.1

    Those who have charge of our institutions, the sanitarium, the college, the publishing house, the missions established in various places, are not to depart from the rules of strict integrity for any bribe or money consideration. There are those working in these institutions who are dependent for bread upon the means they earn. Often these workers labor just as hard and faithfully as the men who are paid three times as much. Be careful not to crowd down the wages of the poor below what their labor is worth. Beware lest any injustice be done them and they cry unto the Lord against you, for you will surely lose every dollar that has been wrongfully withheld from them.PCL 258.2

    More than this, injustice or oppression on your part will lay a stumbling block for their souls. Many are receiving, in our institutions, the training for their life work. Be careful what influences are brought to bear upon them. The managers should carefully guard both the health and the morals of the workers. See that none are urged on, or even allowed, to ruin their physical and mental powers by overwork.PCL 258.3

    It is not sharp reprimands that will keep your workers in the right path. It is the influence of a straightforward, just, unselfish management, that which heaven can commend as “good and faithful” (Matthew 25:21).—Letter 22, 1890 (May 20)PCL 259.1

    Injustice—Those who made and executed the plans appropriating God’s entrusted money in large wages for themselves were not profited thereby in a single instance, although they may imagine that they were. In accepting this money they reveal that they could not be trusted to handle the Lord’s goods. This action will stand against them, revealing that they were actuated by principles that God has not given us any liberty to adopt in His work.PCL 259.2

    The action in this matter instituted in Battle Creek robbed the cause of God of money which He would have employed in advancing the work where the banner of truth has not been uplifted. The payment of such large wages was entirely contrary to the plan of God in any line of His work; it was contrary to the example of Christ in His life. The greatest Teacher the world ever knew gave every institution in our world a pattern of self-denying, self-sacrificing principle.PCL 259.3

    Those who change God’s order of things in order to follow the counsel of selfish men will be prompted to cut down the wages of men whose work is, in the sight of God, of such a character that through Him their influence is bringing means into the treasury to sustain His cause. This action before the universe of heaven and before men reveals the character and disposition of the men who are handling sacred things. And under the inspiration of the same selfish spirit these very men, if they see a chance, will cut down the wages of the laborers in the vineyard of the Lord, without their consent and without understanding their situation. In many cases this action brings families into strait places, and those who have the power in their hands know little what may be the consequences of deducting from the wages of the laborers. It is just as much the right of the ones employed in the cause to have a voice in such transactions as it is of men employed in various branches of trade.PCL 259.4

    God’s cause can afford to be fair and true; it can afford to deal on right principles. When any such work as cutting down wages is contemplated, let a circular be published setting forth the true situation, and then ask those employed by the conference if, under the pressure of lack of means, they could do with less means of support. All the arrangements with those in God’s service should be conducted as a sacred transaction between man and his fellow men. Men have no right to treat the workers together with God as though they were inanimate objects to be handled about without any voice or expression of their own.—Letter 31a, 1894 (October 27)PCL 260.1

    The displeasure of God is kindled against those who claim to be His followers, yet allow consecrated workers to suffer for the necessities of life while engaged in active ministry. These selfish ones will be called to render an account, not only for the misuse of their Lord’s money, but for the depression and heartache which their course has brought upon His faithful servants. Those who are called to the work of the ministry, and at the call of duty give up all to engage in God’s service, should receive for their self-sacrificing efforts wages sufficient to support themselves and their families.—AA 340, 341 (1911)PCL 260.2

    Sanctification through the truth bears fruit to the glory of God. Under its power men are stripped of the ambition that contends for the supremacy, stripped of the selfishness which leads men connected with our institutions to grasp, in their covetousness, all they can obtain from the treasury in large wages, when they know that their brethren, laboring just as hard in fields where the wear and tear is great, and often under heavy pressure of circumstances, do not receive much more than half of what they receive.PCL 261.1

    The men in our institutions who have placed such a high estimate upon their own services are not sanctified by the Holy Spirit. They have not that sanctification which gives them sensitive consciences, leading them to love God supremely and their neighbor as themselves. Their influence and example are detrimental. They do that which they would not wish their brethren to know—they grasp from the treasury. They are blind, and cannot see that by so doing they are depriving others of the wages they should receive. Their selfishness shuts them away from the sanctification of the Spirit of God.—MS 94, 1899 (July 18)PCL 261.2

    Disproportionately high wages—In the early days of the third angel’s message those who established our institutions, and those who labored in them, were actuated by high motives of unselfishness. For their arduous labors they received no more than a mere pittance—barely enough for a meager support. But their hearts were baptized with the ministry of love. The reward of whole-souled liberality was apparent in their close fellowship with the Spirit of the Master Worker. They practiced the closest economy, in order that as many other laborers as possible might be planting the standard of truth in new places.PCL 261.3

    But in time a change came. The spirit of sacrifice was not so manifest. In some of our institutions the wages of a few workers was increased beyond reason. Those who received these wages claimed that they deserved a greater sum than others, because of their superior talents. But who gave them their talents, their ability? With the increase of wages came a steady increase of covetousness, which is idolatry, and a steady decline of spirituality. Gross evils crept in, and God was dishonored. The minds of many who witnessed this grasping after higher and still higher wages were leavened with doubt and unbelief. Strange principles, like evil leaven, permeated nearly the entire body of believers. Many ceased to deny self, and not a few withheld their tithes and offerings. . . .PCL 261.4

    The work of God in all its wide extent is one, and the same principles should control, the same spirit be revealed, in all its branches. It must bear the stamp of missionary work. Every department of the cause is related to all parts of the gospel field, and the spirit that controls one department will be felt throughout the entire field. If a portion of the workers receive large wages, there are others, in different branches of the work, who will call for higher wages, and the spirit of self-sacrifice will gradually be lost sight of. Other institutions and conferences will catch the same spirit, and the Lord’s favor will be removed from them; for He can never sanction selfishness. Thus our aggressive work would come to an end. Only by constant sacrifice can it be carried forward.—RH, January 4, 1906PCL 262.1

    Those in our institutions who grasp at the surplus means disqualify themselves to understand what it means to be a partaker with Christ in His suffering.—MS 94, 1899 (July 18)PCL 262.2

    The high wage plan should never have seen the light of day. Those in charge of our institutions have no greater burdens to carry than have the faithful workers in other parts of the Lord’s vineyard. There will never be an end of the controversy which God has with the men in positions of trust until thorough work is done in cleansing the institutions from the stain which has rested upon them.—MS 154, 1899 (November 18)PCL 262.3

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