Charismatic churches must take good care of their pastors

Reverend Daniel Nii Aboagye Aryeh, Dean, School of Theology, Perez University College has recommended to the Council of Charismatic Churches of Ghana to institute special offering in the church to cater for the salaries and retirement of Pastors.

This, he explained would go a long way to reduce the frequency of division and the subsequent springing up of contemporary charismatic and prophetic churches.

Speaking at a public lecture on the topic “The Pastor and Welfare in the fourth sector of the economy: The Role of the Church Council”, Rev. Aboagye Aryeh stated that the fourth sector required that churches took the welfare of pastors seriously.

The Lecture, which was organised by students of the School of Theology was on the theme “Improving the Finances of the Church: The Role of Church Leaders and Pastors”.

It was attended by Ministers of the Gospel, Church leaders, Fellowship representatives and Financial Managers and churches in Effutu and the catchment area of the university.

According to Rev. Aboagye Aryeh, the pastor’s work was sacrificial and therefore did not make any profit aside from the basic allowances, adding that the economic conditions of pastors were lower than their peers employed in other sectors of the economy.

“Checks conducted at some leading charismatic churches in the country shows that newly engaged pastors receive monthly salaries ranging between GHC 750.00 and GHC900.00 and it was not based on the entry qualification of the pastor,” he noted.

He said there was the desire for Non-profit religious and societal organisations to also work to make some profit to sustain the work and effectively remunerate their staff accordingly.

Rev. Aboagye Aryeh stressed that traditional economic systems and business model had become outmoded although tremendous progress were made in the form of Corporate Social Responsibility Interventions from the public, private and non- profit organisations, the scale and urgency of the world’s biggest challenges had grown at an alarming rate.

This, he said called for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) approach to provide practical direction for the future.

Rev. Mac Danark Arkoh, Registrar of the University, in his open address told the gathering that the event was to school church leaders, Pastors, Financial Managers and others to explore new financial avenues for the church.

He said it was also to help them transform their finances towards the growth of the church in a way that would enable them to embark on evangelical activities to win more souls to the glory of God.