August 5, 2002
EDITORIAL:
Ministers deserve adequate compensation for service
___What's a pastor or church staff member worth?
___That's an unfair question, both to ministers and to churches. The calculus of faith and need and economics creates an equation that might derive a number but certainly not a value.
___Lindell Harris, retired professor to generations of ministers-in-training at Hardin-Simmons University, often told his charges: If a minister views his or her calling as a ministry and is passionately devoted to the task, the church can't pay enough. On the other hand, if a minister sees it as just a job and fails to account for his or her time and effort, any compensation is too much.
___Still, we live in a real world with families to feed and bills to pay. The Baptist General Convention of Texas has participated in a nationwide survey of ministerial compensation. An article on the survey is printed on Page 6 of this paper, and details of the survey are available on the Standard's website, www.baptiststandard.com.
___The good news is that ministerial compensation has increased in the past few years, and more churches are doing a respectable job of paying their pastors and church staff. This is biblical. Both Jesus and the Apostle Paul advised believers to support those who serve them. "The worker deserves his wages" (Luke 10:7, 1 Timothy 5:18).
___Unfortunately, too many churches still do not adequately compensate their ministers for the service they provide to the congregations and communities. For example, the average salary and housing allowance for full-time pastors of Texas Baptist churches with resident membership under 100--which accounts for the majority of churches--is less than $32,000. Many of these churches struggle financially, of course, and do not have funds for a large salary. However, the fact remains that raising a family can be quite difficult on a low salary, and it is compounded when churches implicitly expect the pastor's wife not to work outside the home.
___The more telling signs of under-compensation show up when details of pastoral pay are scrutinized closely:
___ 27 percent of full-time BGCT pastors live in parsonages owned by their churches. Some churches own a house and are strapped for cash and feel they cannot pay a pastor enough for him to buy a home. Also, some parsonages are fine homes and on par with most houses in town. But the fact remains that pastors underwrite the expense of a church by living in a parsonage. Over the years, churches save money; meanwhile, pastors approach retirement without any equity in a home. They reach their most vulnerable years needing to begin a process of home ownership most laity begin--and often complete--decades earlier in life.
___ 24 percent of full-time pastors do not receive annuity contributions from their churches. That means one-quarter of our pastors either are not preparing for retirement or must dip into their meager salaries to save up for retirement.
___ Similarly, 76 percent of full-time pastors do not receive Social Security equivalency payments from their churches. Pastors who participate in Social Security are classified as self-employed by the IRS and must pay all their Social Security taxes. Although a few churches compensate them for the employers' half, the vast majority do not. Again, this forces ministers to dig out of their own pockets to pay for a retirement benefit most laity look upon as an entitlement.
___ 22 percent of full-time pastors do not receive insurance coverage from their churches--this in an age when medical costs are exorbitant.
___ Many ministers receive a lump-sum figure for their compensation, from which they must provide not only salary, but also insurance, retirement, travel and resources such as books and continuing education.
___Travel, continuing education and ministry resources are required for the job and never should be viewed as pay. Churches that expect ministers to fund ministry out of "salary" deceive themselves and cheat their servant-ministers.
___Similarly, churches that require ministers to fund retirement and insurance out of lump-sum salaries commit an injustice. Many years, thousands of ministers have taken a pay cut because their insurance premiums climbed faster than their pay, if pay increased at all. Embarrassing.
___Now, surely ministers are not alone in facing financial difficulties. Many church members--especially during an economic slump--also feel financial fingers squeezing their pocketbooks. But this is not just a financial issue. It is a moral, ethical and spiritual cause.
___As a people of God, we will be held accountable for how we treat our clergy. (That treatment encompasses more than just salary, but we'll save that for another day.) We witness to our honor and integrity when we do right by our ministers.
___After all, they can't eat a benediction for breakfast or pay an insurance premium with a prayer.
___ —Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com
The Baptist Standard
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