Unpaid Clergy Isn’t the Flex You Think It Is
Every now and then, we will hear a talk in general conference or the local ward about the merits of “unpaid clergy.” Anyone can serve, they say. Sacrifice is the key to devotion. Our church must be extra true because people don’t even need to get paid to serve in it.
But when compared to the intentional, often extensive process that paid clergy members from other religions go through, the idea of an unpaid clergy starts to lose its appeal.
Other churches require rigorous education, often a master’s degree in divinity. They complete an internship under the supervision of other clergy members. They are interviewed and must agree to a specific standard of practice. And they are able to do all of this because they know they will be paid.
Unpaid, in almost every instance, means untrained. As anyone in the church will acknowledge, bishops, stake presidents, area authorities, and onward are often completely untrained when entering into their leadership callings. They are tasked with the spiritual and mental well-being of their membership, yet such a high-stakes calling is left to the dentist down the road or your aunt’s financial advisor.
Often, the argument for calling untrained clergy is that God will qualify them. We are told that once the mantle of the calling is placed upon them through proper priesthood authority, God will give them the skills, knowledge, and discernment to know how to operate in their leadership capacity.
But the church doesn’t do this with other types of health or well-being. Spiritual and mental well-being is easily sourced through unpaid, untrained leaders whom God can qualify one day to the next, but physical health requires a trained, competent doctor. Apart from fringe members, it’s unlikely you’ll find a leader in the church who tells you to visit a doctor who is unpaid and untrained to help with your physical illness. Instead, we hear talks about the blessings of modern medicine and tout the merits of a prophet who saved countless people’s lives through his extensive knowledge and training in heart surgery.
Beyond the lack of training, the toll that such leadership callings take on the man and the man’s family is staggering. This unpaid position he didn’t ask to fill now requires him to be gone from his family multiple nights a week and all day on Sunday on top of the job he is already working to provide an income. I have heard from many different clients in my therapy practice feelings of an “absent” father due to his excessive obligations to the church. These men who might not have been disconnected from their families otherwise are now forced into disconnection because there simply isn’t enough time in the day.
All of this leads to burnout. Placing a man in a position of responsibility for the well-being of his membership and not paying him or training him leads to burnout. It leads to this man feeling inadequate, stressed, and overworked. It leads to his wife feeling the same. The members who look to this man for support are left with “bishop roulette” because no standard of care or training exists. All they can do is hope they get a “good one.”
From the earliest days of the church, the idea of seeking out trained professionals to help with specific needs was encouraged. Dallin H. Oaks said, “The use of medical science is not at odds with our prayers of faith and our reliance on priesthood blessings. When a person requested a priesthood blessing, Brigham Young would ask, ‘Have you used any remedies?’ To those who said no because ‘we wish the Elders to lay hands upon us, and we have faith that we shall be healed,’ President Young replied: ‘That is very inconsistent according to my faith. If we are sick, and ask the Lord to heal us, and to do all for us that is necessary to be done, according to my understanding of the Gospel of salvation, I might as well ask the Lord to cause my wheat and corn to grow, without my plowing the ground and casting in the seed. It appears consistent to me to apply every remedy that comes within the range of my knowledge, and [then] to ask my Father in Heaven … to sanctify that application to the healing of my body.’”
If we believe that using faith alone to treat physical ailments is “inconsistent according to [our] faith,” why do we believe that faith alone is enough to treat spiritual or mental ailments? Why do we insist that God “qualifying” the leaders of our congregations is enough?
I sometimes wonder if it simply comes back to the money. I wonder if the church doesn’t want to invest the money in paying qualified individuals to do the work. If that’s the case, they need to reexamine the costs. The quality of a bishop’s leadership impacts every facet of a congregation, down to a struggling family’s need for food. If he is burnt out or overwhelmed, his congregation will feel it, and everyone, including his own family, suffers as a result.
