Non-Self-Supporting Church

Definition and Meaning

A non-self-supporting church (Korean: mijarip gyohoe, 未自立敎會) literally means "a church that does not yet stand on its own." The term refers to a church that cannot pay its senior pastor's living allowance, the rent for its place of worship, and its operating expenses from members' offerings alone and therefore depends on outside assistance. A church that operates on its own finances, by contrast, is called a "self-supporting church."

The criteria for self-support vary from one denomination to another. Common standards include the size of the annual operating budget and the level of the pastor's living allowance. Because some have objected that the term "non-self-supporting" carries a stigma, certain denominations and churches use alternatives such as "future self-supporting church" or "church eligible for self-support assistance."

Biblical and Historical Background

The New Testament records instances of churches sharing financial resources with one another.

• Paul delivered the collection (offering) gathered from the Gentile churches to the church in Jerusalem, which was suffering hardship (2 Corinthians 8–9).
• The church at Philippi supported Paul's ministry on more than one occasion (Philippians 4:15–16).
• Paul also supported himself by working as a tentmaker (Acts 18:3). This passage is frequently cited in present-day discussions of bivocational ministry.

In Korea, the Nevius Mission Policy of the early missionary period established self-support, self-propagation, and self-government as guiding principles for the church. This influence gave rise to a tradition that places great importance on each congregation standing on its own financially. During the era of Korean church growth, many church plants were established. Later, as membership stagnated and then declined, the plight of churches unable to become self-supporting emerged as a major concern for the Korean church.

Practice in the Korean Church

Denominational statistics and surveys by Christian media have repeatedly found that a considerable proportion of all churches are not self-supporting. Such churches are typically small congregations of a few dozen members or fewer, and many are rural or fishing-village churches or urban church plants. In many pastoral families, the pastor's wife or the pastor supplements the household income through other work.

Methods of support differ according to each denomination's form of church polity.

• Presbyterian denominations generally maintain departments at the presbytery and general assembly levels to help churches toward self-support, offering measures such as subsidies for pastors' living allowances.
• In Methodist churches, support is often provided through the annual conference and the district.
• In denominations that emphasize the autonomy of the local congregation, such as Baptist bodies, voluntary partnerships between churches play a large role alongside denominational programs.

Some methods are widely used regardless of denomination:

• A self-supporting church or megachurch establishes a sister-church relationship with a non-self-supporting church and provides monthly support.
• Several churches pool their resources in joint programs to help with rent or pastors' living allowances.

The livelihood of pastors of small churches is also being discussed in connection with debates over permitting bivocational ministry and with questions about various incentive payments that have arisen since the introduction of taxation of clergy.