A few weeks ago I heard that a church pastor was being investigated for possible benefit fraud. There was talk of him being on payroll and also in receipt of jobseekers' allowance. I recall hearing about another church which was paying off debt which the pastor had incurred, but not treating the payments as taxable earnings. Oh dear: there might be innocent explanations for all this, but it seems to me that if anyone must be above reproach it must be church ministers. Sadly, with a few notable and worthy exceptions, our MPs voted into Parliament to serve their constituents, set very low standards of probity and transparency, but that doesn't mean we should follow their examples.

Church trustees, where there are paid leaders, look after them properly so they can pay their bills. Leaders, if your church isn't able to pay you enough to live on you have 3 options: Get a job full or part time, write down a strategy to grow your church and then go and do it, and teach your flock consistently about the biblical principles of giving and finance generally. The next few years are going to be tough for most of us. This is a time when we need strong churches full of ordinary people being salt and light to struggling communities. Have a good Christmas and a good New Year.