Yet,
The Bible also says that the elders who rule well are worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. The Bible also teaches to share with teachers. And of those who preach the Gospel, it says that they that preach the Gospel should live of the gospel. The context was talking about apostles like Paul, Barnabas, and also the Lord's brethren. Paul and Barnabas would travel to people who had not yet believed the Gospel and preach the Gospel to them. They didn't just 'preach the Gospel' by teaching the faithful week after week on Sunday morning.
What is it mean when it says that elders are worthy of double honor? The context before it is about honoring widows, and it seems pretty obvious that they were being materially supported. In Jerusalem, there was a daily distribution of food for them. The elders that rule well are worthy of double honor.
Can honor mean financial provision? I took a course in Classics class in college, and there were a few bits of information that actually helped me. In the Illiad, Achilles was upset because his honor was taken from him. What was his honor? His honor was the spoils of war that were given to him to honor him. He spoke up against the general, who took a girl from him who shared his bed, a girl he'd received as part of his 'honor'-- the portion of the spoils of war divided to him to honor him. So 'honor' referred to compensation to give to honor someone, even back 300 years before the New Testament. In both cases the word time is used (pronounced something like 'tea may' probably with long vowels and without the English dipthongs on the y's).
So we do see Paul working with his own hands to support himself, even though he actually had the right to full support for preaching the Gospel. He pointed to his own example of self-support when exhorting the elders. Might not the elders also have a right to full support? At the very least, it is not wrong to give to them and support them, and indeed a church should, especially if they rule well. I don't think this has to take the form of a salary from a budget. People can give gifts as well.
IMO, in the US, it's best to give a gift to an individual and say it's a personal gift, the kind they don't have to pay taxes on. You can also write that on a note on an envelope. If you aren't even going to itemize, why give money in such a way that 10 to 30% of your gift you want to give to the Lord goes to Uncle Sam to pay for stuff like Planned Parenthood murdering babies?
If someone does ministry in house churches or other churches that don't have a sharp clergy-laity distinction, how to list gifts is really fuzzy. Should someone who ministers like this call himself 'clergy' on his taxes when his belief system is anti-clergy? If someone gives it in response to ministry, do you count it as income from activities not engaged in for profit? But if they say, this is a personal gift to bless you brother, the kind you don't have to pay taxes on, then it's all clear. If it's less than 10k or whatever the cut-off is, the brother doesn't have to pay taxes on it, and Caesar doesn't get a cut.
