Salary Negotiations For The Hesitant

Very few pastors I know have any formal training when it comes to negotiating a compensation package. I know I've made plenty of mistakes along the way in this area of ministry, but here are a few principles that might help you speak with your board prior to the year end.

1. Be candid with your board.

Surveys show that most pastors who ask for a raise usually get it. If you're like me, however, you'll never ask. Be candid and forthright with your board and let them know your financial needs. While there are some boards that are out there to "keep the pastor humble", it's been my experience that most are made up of Godly men who want to bless their pastor and provide for his/her needs. Don't assume they know what you need.

2. Educate your board.

Educate your board on how to set up compensation packages. Much like pastors, boards don't have a clue what to pay their pastor or how to set up a fair salary package. We use the National Association of Church Business Administration (NACBA) survey each year as a guide for compensation and benefits. This survey breaks down salary packages by church size, demographic, location, budget, denomination and much more. In addition, each year I have a friend who pastors a larger church write a letter to my board recommending a compensation package. The letter is incredibly personal and helpful to the board.

3. Finalize your annual budget early.

Your annual budget should be completed in late November or early December. Roughly 40 to 50 percent of your undesignated giving (general tithes and offerings) or 30 to 35 percent of your total giving should be allocated to staff salaries and benefits. Growing churches pay their pastors well and always staff for growth. (1 Tim. 5:17-18)

Leadership or Management?

I found this great article by Pastor James Smith on the difference between leading and managing, and thought it would be worthy of our consideration.

Lead More Manage Less
by James Smith

Causing growth in a church and leading God’s people is a challenge. Looking through the scripture one quickly notices that no leader of God’s people found his role easy.

It often seems that our job as ministers is more reactive than proactive. It’s important to understand that while there will always be a needed degree of reactive management, there also needs to be a healthy measure of proactive leadership.

One doesn’t need to pastor long before he/she finds themselves becoming bogged down with the daily routine of managing a congregation. Your own list of duties preformed regularly would be very comparable to many other Pastors and church leaders. As I communicate more and more with church leaders around the globe, I am surprised to find that even though regions and languages may differ, there are often, very similar “People Problems” that Pastors have to deal with.

Managers organize. They report on what is. Their role is to assign and control people. Leaders on the other hand cast vision. They offer what could be. Their role is to align and motivate people. Notice the difference between these two leadership styles. One is managing what already exists and the other is moving the church forward into new growth and greater increase.

Nearly all pastors and church leaders perform both management and leadership roles. An imbalanced church is often one whose Pastor and leadership team has succumbed to one role or the other. It is the Pastor who has lost his zeal for growth so he simply manages what is already happening. Or it is the Pastor who constantly promotes growth and new programs, but does not provide constant management for the growth that happens.

Have I lost you? Are you already saying, “Now wait a minute. I can’t do it all!” You are right. You can’t. As much as you are talented, gifted, anointed and blessed, you are not Solomon. Moses couldn’t do it all and neither can you. In fact, the church leader that attempts to do all the management themselves will be overridden with the load of caring for God’s people.

This is why our Lord brings us other people into the church. Many Pastors overlook the people resources in their congregation. Since they lack the ability to trust others to a task, many Pastors fail to allow the talents of their congregation to become invested.

Moses had his captains of fifties and thousands. You too have been given certain individuals who can come beside your ministry to assist you in maintaining the growth from the vision you cast.

Do you find yourself routinely doing the job of the church janitor? Did you fix or repair something around the church lately? Are you the office manager? Are you the one who adds ink to the printer? Are you the only one visiting and praying for the sick? Who does the computing and tallying of numbers to record progress?

If you are the person doing any of the above or any question like them, you may be spending too much time managing and not enough leading. While God has called you to your place of ministry to create a well managed work, He did not intend for you to get so bogged down with the management process that your vision casting would be muted.

Without new growth and vision, a church will stagnate. Good management alone may be able to slow the tide of a church’s decline, but it will inevitably become idle without vision casting.

While many people are capable of management roles in the church, few are anointed as the Pastor to promote vision and growth. In fact in many small to mid size churches, he is the only one capable of vision casting. This should cause us to consider our significance as a leader of the congregation and begin to train others to manage it.

Some time back a Pastor of a church with over a thousand people told me that when he is absent from his church for any length of time, his presence is hardly missed. He attributed this to the team of leaders under him who do much of the management of the congregation. Even though he is gone for a week or even a month, his congregation continues to grow in his absence. This man has created such a network of managers within the church structure that his only management role now is to oversee the overseers. Now his full time job is to be the leader (Vision Caster) of the congregation. Would your congregation be better served with you doing less management and more leading?

cited at http://www.preachit.org/newsletter.cfm?record=63&mode=220