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Quick Tips on Salary Matters

Quick tips on setting salaries that will serve you and your church well.

The art of merging ministry and money has always been challenging and sensitive. On one hand, we are called to serve God and His kingdom, fully ready and willing to sacrifice worldly riches. On the other hand, church staff, like anyone else, must pay their bills.

Paul wrote, "The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, ’Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,’ and ’The worker deserves his wages’ " (1 Timothy 5:17,18, NIV).

The following quick tips on setting salaries will serve you and your church well:

• Establish a detailed breakdown of salary and benefits in writing during the hiring process.
• Be as generous as you can without skewing salary ranges or allowing your total compensation dollars for all employees to exceed 50 percent of your total general budget.
• Fine-tune your salary setting by collecting salary surveys from similar size churches in your general geographic region.

The more complex matter is the issue of giving raises. The following quick tips will help you reduce headaches and keep morale high.

The wrong reasons to increase compensation include:

• tenure on staff.
• length of time in ministry.
• personal friendship.
• size of family.
• political pressures.
• personality.
• fairness.
• compassion.

The right reasons to increase compensation are an:

• ability to influence people as a spiritual leader for the good of the church and its overall mission.
• ability to organize multiple projects and ministries according to key goals for the year.
• ability to solve problems and work with people.
• ability to think creatively.
• ability to see and seize opportunities.

The bottom line for increasing salary is the staff member’s overall productivity and contribution to the team, in alignment with clear goals, on a year-by-year basis.

Questions that will help you establish salary increases:

• What is the staff member’s overall value to the church?
• What is the staff member’s level of productivity?
• What is the staff member’s level of potential (capacity to grow)?
• What is the level of difficulty to replace the staff member?
• What is the staff member’s level of team play and quality of attitude?

For additional information on this subject, read the Web-based article, "Compensating Your Church Staff," by Ken Godevenos at www.churchbusiness.com/articles/121webx1.html

—Dan M. Reiland, D.Min., Lawrenceville, Georgia.