Recently, a group of Wesleyan pastors and students at Asbury Seminary were discussing the issue of some Wesleyan churches who are considering moving towards a pastor performance based salary. There were a variety of comments made with some seeing the positives in it, while others being disgusted with the whole concept. For instance:
-If a church is in decline, should that be enough to validate a reduction of salary purely because of quantitative numbers?
-Can the pastor lose the prophetic voice because total attendance could decrease if the truth were boldly proclaimed?
-As one rewards countable numbers like baptisms or new members, how would we measure discipleship and assess spiritual growth?
-Would these bonuses also apply to staff pastors (youth, worship, and so forth)?
-Is this way of analyzing and rewarding a pastor biblical, or have we gone to far in allowing the corporate and capitalistic philosophies to enter into our churches?
So…What do you think about churches moving towards a performance based salary (i.e., church grows by 50, $1,000 bonus; church grows by 100, $2,500 bonus)?
Any thoughts, questions, or conerns?
14 comments:
God help us if we every move towards running the church as if it were Enron. In an age where the pastor is already losing her/his prophetic role and voice due to an increasing push to be fulfill a CEO type role, I think this bonus thing would only push us to an unhealthy limit. You also run into the problem of pastors who serve faithfully but have extremely tough assignments (yes, I believe that some assignments are tougher than otheres) and therefore may not have substantial and quick growth. With performance based pay, you've just turned the pastor into a spiritual bounty hunter who brings in the souls to cash in on the reward.
I'm forwarding the link for this post to my senior pastor/boss ;-)
attendance=compensation
baptisms=bonus
souls=money
scary thoughts that anybody could reduce spiritual and church growth to money.
would this mean if a lay person invited a friend, then they would also be entitled to a bonus as well?
I'm about #'s because they represent souls....BUT I would never take a position in a church who had decided on the "performance based" salary. My rewards are in heaven, not in my pocket!!
Not that I think the church is a ton better than this right now, but it would be sad to think that Pastors would be driven to save souls for financial gain. In your scenario can the pastors then charge church members when they sin. Say a member is caught cussing and it's like 10 bucks, on a porn site it's like 100 and so on. If they tithe less than 10% we get 11. Anyways whatever
I'm actually in the middle on this. Obviously I don't agree with monetary compensation for strictly numerical growth; however I do think that past performance and solid leadership should be honored within the Church, just as it is within the (gasp) business world.
I am all in favor of relocating or just no longer employing ineffective pastors, and I definitely think dying churches should be closed down and our efforts and resources should be put in more effective areas. I hear about the lack of quality pastors, but maybe the quality pastors are in ineffective churches. Evaluate, liquidate, and consolidate. I probably can never become a DS after this statement.
Anyone know how this idea panned out for the few states that instituted this idea in their Educational systems?
Ask my mom...
It ain't pretty...It has basically ended up like our entire nation. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer
There are a lot of problems with compensating a pastor based on the attendence of a worship service or Bible study, but I do think pastors need to be evaluated on a annual basis. I think the majority of lead/seniors are given too much grace when having their performance assessed. Whether is be a board, current staff or D.S...a lead pastor and their staff must be evaluated yearly if only to serve as accountability.
Yo, sorry I hadn't read the comments of that one blog...its nightlightfilms also at blogspot, I have another linked off of that one. Glory days were good times that I miss.
tim
I think there is an even bigger issue here: How do we define success? I've made a few comments about this at http://pastorrod.blogspot.com/2006/02/how-do-we-define-success.html.
Rod
I don't know that we'd call it that now, but I wouldn't say we're NOT there currently... at least in places I'm relatively familiar with (don't take that as a direct reflection of where I'm at right now). It's being thought of because it's kind of happening. I think that people are making a mental connection that this might be somewhere to go because it's visible now in practice though maybe not in name.
Hi all,
this is a bit of an aside. However,it is a related issue and I would value your views.
I'm having discussions with a small church at the moment with a view to taking up a full time pastorate with them. The church is concerned about the size of the pot of money it has, and its anticipated income stream (assuming numbers were to remainis as they are). `It could run out in about three years', is the comment. The suggestion that is being made is that they offer any incoming pastor a fixed term contract for three years, to be reviewed at the end of that period. My view is that this church certainly needs the help of a pastor since there is an issue of faith and committment. I am keen to serve. However, I feel that this church are undervaluing ministry in this fixed term contract idea and I'm disinclined to let them away with it. Thoughts.........
Hi all,
this is a bit of an aside. However,it is a related issue and I would value your views.
I'm having discussions with a small church at the moment with a view to taking up a full time pastorate with them. The church is concerned about the size of the pot of money it has, and its anticipated income stream (assuming numbers were to remainis as they are). `It could run out in about three years', is the comment. The suggestion that is being made is that they offer any incoming pastor a fixed term contract for three years, to be reviewed at the end of that period. My view is that this church certainly needs the help of a pastor since there is an issue of faith and committment. I am keen to serve. However, I feel that this church are undervaluing ministry in this fixed term contract idea and I'm disinclined to let them away with it. Thoughts.........
good post!!!
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