Unrealistic Expectations in Salary
It seems for the last few weeks, I have talked with some friends in ministry that are making moves in ministerial location. These ministers are looking for a position to serve a congregation. My heart really goes out to these men because of the struggles in finding a place that could provide for a family with an appropriate income. I have not be in ministry long, but in all of the previous preaching positions that I had, my family was always taken care of financially. We are now and have been. The leaders that I have worked with and are presently working with understand that I have a family which takes money to support. A minister that is working to get rich through the church might exist, but are rare. Mostly these men just want to provide for the family in a manner which is the average for the rest of the congregation. A lot of the most talented men that I have known have left ministry because of not the desire to get rich but because of the desire to be able to go to the hospital and have health insurance. They did not want to go in debt more and more every month. A friend went to law school instead of stay in ministry, not because of passion for money but because he was in a hospital room with his little child and he had no health insurance, and he realized he never would be able to pay off this bill with his present salary. As I talk with these men, I am realizing the salaries that are offered are low, low, low. It is really wrong for a church to expect a man to work full time for these salaries. It is sad that these men will have master’s degrees and college degrees and make as much as a McDonald’s worker. Nothing wrong in working for McDonald’s, but hard to support a family on this money. I worked for KFC full time for a year and realized that I could not afford a car and an apartment at the same time. I know some congregations cannot afford to pay a large salary. There is nothing wrong with this, it just seems wrong for a man to come and support his family on what the church can offer. A congregation must accept that he might have to have another job to provide for the family. Money is always a odd issue in churches. A congregation has to realize that a minister did not take a vow to be a monk. He just wants to be a average guy feeling good about providing for those he loves.
Related posts:
- EXPECTATIONS FOR ELDERS
- Expectations
- Elder’s Expectations of a Minister
- Expectations in Ministry
- Expectations of Elders
About The Author
Just trying to create awareness.
http://www.acu.edu/academics/cbs/centers-services/churchrelations/resources/salarysurvey/index.html
The link is to the survey regarding churches and minister salaries in the CoC. It was conducted by Abilene Christian University and I think it is a helpful guide for both churches and ministers to decide what is a reasonable and fair salary.
Grace and peace,
Rex
Most of the years I was in full time ministry I was supported adequately in a financial way but I sure didn’t get rich. The greatest difficulty I faced was not being provided with health insurance and similar benefits, retirement etc, I had to foot all these myself while most of the membership worked for companies where these were provided, Another real difficulty was when the church provided the housing. This was usually counted as part of my salary but it was a portion over which I had no control and when I moved I took no ecquity with me it really was me helping the church to pay for a house for which I would receive no benefit.
I did see a survey several years ago where actually ministers among churches of Christ were paid better than ministers in some of the leading denominational groups.
In my unscientific observations, it seems like ministers in the Churches of Christ are generally supported finacially a little better than those in the Independent Christian Churches. I’m not sure why that is, if that is indeed true.
Grace and peace,
Rex
Just a thought, I heard through the grapevine that ministers in churches of Christ typically have a higher education level than those in Christian Churches. How do I know this, I do not, just think I heard it once. Also, for those in the denominational world, those in smaller churches I believe do better than those in the COC of the same size because of the domination supporting the health insurance and perks. Just a thought.
I know that in the CoC, both ACU and HUGSR have offered the M.Div (formerly M.Th) degrees for sometime which is the standard seminary degree. While there are some Christian Church (CC) institutions that now offer the M.Div as well, I believe they are much younger programs. The CC still has many “Bible Schools” to educate their ministers and the Bible Schools seem to be the equivalent of the Preaching Schools in the CoC (of course many of our preaching schools are changing their name to something like “School of Biblical Studies” which is perfectly acceptable too).
Grace and peace,
Rex
I went to IBC now HCU with a brother that left the C’s of C for the C.C. His words were they paid better. Maybe just one case.