Only two more weeks, I promise. This series has gone on longer than I anticipated but it’s an important topic and I’ve gotten a good about of feedback about it. We started this series by talking about how to arrive at a fair salary for a pastor or leader on your staff. That process led us to some results that were higher than most of you assumed they would be.
The feedback I got was all in the category of “How am I supposed to be able to pay that much!”. I am not deterred by this response, if anything, I’m encouraged. It means that my methodology makes some sense and that you are open to trying it, but can’t figure out the real-world implications. To that end, I gave you my first bit of advice last week, which was basically, “Only pay the difference makers”. This is a personal philosophy and I don’t have any verses to back it up.
My train of thought is basically this: (1) You have limited resources (2) not all leaders have equal impact on the team (3) pay the people who have outsized impact first (4) don’t pay ordinary people anything, (5) most churches have too many pastors and not enough deacons (6) deacons are cheaper, so pay more of them and fewer elders (7) utilize volunteers as much as possible.
I want to camp on this issue for one more week and provide more context and further insight. I think most churches spend way too much money on elders and not enough on deacons. This is not a theological issue, it's a practical one. Most elders are the breadwinners of their families and thus require breadwinner salaries. These are expensive and should only be given to people who are very good at their jobs.
Deacons, on the other hand, are less likely to be breadwinners. They are second incomes or young people without households. Thus, they are cheaper. You could usually take one elder salary, split it into two, hire two deacons, and get more done. Pastor types are usually not great at getting stuff done, they like people and want to be with people. That’s great and necessary…and you can usually get it for free from lay guys.
You are more likely to find men who feel called to eldership and would do so in a lay capacity at 5ish hours per week for free. Most of the guys we hire full-time would be better off volunteering one day a week to do pastoral care or teach a class, rather than being full-time salaried employees. It is also common to find retired men who don't need a salary but can do much of the eldering/shepherding work for free or nearly free.
Deacons are often responsible for making sure things get done and therefore need the accountability of payment to ensure that it happens. It is rare to find a volunteer who has the time, capacity, and responsibility to fully execute something and make sure nothing gets dropped.
So, how do we pay competitive salaries on a church budget? Here are the principles in bullet form.
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1. Only hire high-performing, high-impact pastors
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2. Utilize the free labor of elders in training, lay elders, and retired pastors
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3. Hire deacons to execute plans, because they are cheaper.
Lastly, and I can't guarantee this but it is my strong opinion (most of my opinions are strong though) that if you only hire really good people at the top and pay them well, your church will grow. Really good preachers, leaders, and worship leaders make churches grow and when they grow, the budget will grow too and you can start to add some middle management to your staff.
But as you do, maintain the discipline of these principles so that you don't bog down your organization with over-paid, mediocre (but otherwise wonderful individuals) employees. Do leadership development, give annual raises, and hire deacons to make sure that all of the many wonderful ideas that your elders have actually get done.
Next week, we’ll wrap this series up with one more thing you can do to make all of this work. This week was the short-term answer, next week is the long one. See you then.
