God's church model is for everyone in the church to participate in the needs of those in the congregation. Sadly the pew people expect the pulpit people to do all the work because he is being paid.
There is far more to the paid-pastor problem than just receiving a paycheck, the health of the congregation is at stake.
Pew people are just as capable of counseling, serving, and helping as anyone else, as long as they are spiritually minded and well-read in the Word of God.
The problem in our day is that most pew people do not read their Bibles let alone know it well. They depend almost entirely on the pulpit person to do their thinking and work for them.
Pew people tend to be lazy, coming into the gathering once a week and never seeing anyone in the congregation during the week. They give money for others to do the work but will not work themselves to be a blessing to the others in the congregation.
All believers are called to teach, help and provide for the poor as led by the Holy Spirit. Money is needed at times for those who help to have the resources they need to do that help, but it is not a salary and not only a tiny group who do all the work of caring for the brethren.
Acts 4:32 "32 And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them [b]claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them."
No one compelled others to provide for others, the believers saw a need and met it out of their own provisions. Each person gave as they were led by the Holy Spirit and were only commanded by God to provide NEEDS. If they gave more than a need it was up to them not an organized driving force of leaders telling others what to give.
Remember this phrase, it will help you when you are pressured to do anything within the church; "as led by the Holy Spirit." And, the giving was in secret without anyone else being told what was done.
There was no hierarchy monitoring our giving or compelling us to do what others thought we should do.
Acts 2:44-46 "…44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they shared with anyone who was in need. 46 With one accord they continued to meet daily in the temple courts and to break bread from house to house, sharing their meals with gladness and sincerity of heart,…"
The believers did not live communally necessarily but they were aware of the needs of others and gave as they were led by God to give. They shared what God had given them, but it was not always money, it was goods and services.
Remember this too, there were no church rules about the amount to give, that was entirely left up to the Holy Spirit and the individual. No one monitored the giving, in fact it was no one else's business but God's.
Any preacher who spends a lot of time on tithing is disobedient. God never told us to pressure others to give, He told us to hear from the Holy Spirit each and every one of us.
Luke 6:38
"Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
Philippians 4:19
"And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."
2 Corinthians 9:7
"Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."
In this matter of "tithing", there is no such command to the born-again believer. Some people will give one-tenth and others will give more, it is no one's business but the Holy Spirit's.
