Actscelerate.com

wayne

I am a pastor

Acts Enthusiast Posts: 1274 **1/6/16 8:42 am**

Brother James,
In this day and age, it is wise to disclose all finances to the congregation. Since the beginning of the church I pastor, we have always disclosed every penny that is spent and that includes salaries every month. The congregation has always responded well to this information and the giving has continually increased over the years. They are at ease when it comes to money in the church.
As a DO for my area, I have already had to deal with members and churches where the pastor will not disclose the finances of the church. To me this causes the congregation to hold back if they don't know how much is being paid out and how much the pastor is being paid.

brotherjames

Well with all due respect

Acts-celerater Posts: 935 **1/6/16 9:42 am**

To you both, I humbly disagree. My situation is hardly in the realm of Furtik (sp) and Elevation church. I make less than the avg. Principal of a local school. I live in a nice home but before I went into the ministry I made a 6 figure income in the 80's and I invested well and I have told curious people that as they have driven psst my house to check out my standard of living. I drive a 10 yr old car too as does.my wife. In fact back in 2010 as a result of the recession my entire staff and I had our salaries cut in order to meet our other obligations and we let the congregation know it. Since the I have restored staff salaries to their former status but not mine and let the congregation know it. Our income has always gone up over the last 15 yrs I have been here except 2009-10 during the recession. Here is one problem I have encountered in the past. We used to publish salaries and one day my new young youth pastor told me he didn't feel he was getting paid enough ( he was) and after I shared there was no more available funds even if I was inclined to raise his oay, he suggested that since I was making x I should reduce my salary and give the difference to him. If I had been paying him poverty wages I might actually have done that but I wasn't. He was really judging me for what I was being paid. This is more of the problem. My church has never indicated they want to know salaries and frankly when you take the total salaries reported and divvy it out between 10 people it's pretty obvious no e of us are living too high on the hog. I disagree adamantly with several of the points made in the blog Bonnie. They might apply to a mega church like elevation but I also think they don't apply to the avg small to medium size church. I remember my own mother complaining about her methodist church pastor getting a new parsonage once. It was nearly the same house she lived in and I said why shouldn't he have a decent home like you? He had a PhD and was making a modest income. She replied and this is why I don't report my income, I pay his salary and he's making too much now. As I said, if you don't trust the church with the finances leave it but I've never had anyone leave over that.

bonnie knox

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 14803 **1/6/16 10:11 am**

brotherjames

Comparing

Acts-celerater Posts: 935 **1/6/16 10:52 am**

because one of the reference points many use to determine salaries is public school teachers/administrators because of similar education, responsibilities and locally determined salaries. Some have suggested a pastor should be paid the equivalent of a local principal or other administrator (supt) when possible as it is a reasonably fair indicator of local values. As to other pastors on here advocating for FULL transparency is fine but I might suggest that they could possibly be in a lower strata financially (although I have no way of knowing) and some are bi-vocational. I started out that way and even then, my Board suggested it wasn't necessary to reveal our salaries. I have found wisdom in their suggestions over the years. I did have one man who was adamant that i reveal my salary, as a result i privately told him. His issue was that he had the impression I was woefully underpaid (he was right at the time) and he became an advocate to increase my pay. But that is not generally the situation. Usually, people are just nosy and it just adds a level of issues that in my opinion are unnecessary.

Quiet Wyatt

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 12809 **1/6/16 11:01 am**

I have never heard any truly good reason to keep anything secret with regard to local church finances. An arrogant staff member demanding more money just needs to be firmly put in his place or perhaps let go.

Cojak

01000001 01100011 01110100 01110011 Posts: 24282 **1/6/16 11:08 am**

brotherjames

Wyatt

Acts-celerater Posts: 935 **1/6/16 11:11 am**

Aaron Scott

Aaron Scott · Hon. Dr. in Acts-celeratology Posts: 6039 **1/6/16 11:22 am**

c6thplayer1

Hon. Dr. in Acts-celeratology Posts: 6385 **1/6/16 11:33 am**

I guess when John doe starts asking for more money because so and so gets a lot more than him or we have a secular comparison of different professions , it is then we should as ourselves; " Are we Merchants or Servants of our Lord ?"

brotherjames

not sure what ou mean exactly but

Acts-celerater Posts: 935 **1/6/16 12:01 pm**

1Tim 5:17-18 KJV Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine. (18 For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.

c6thplayer1

Hon. Dr. in Acts-celeratology Posts: 6385 **1/6/16 12:20 pm**

We recently moved to a new larger location. Every month we have a business meeting where full disclosure of our finances are passed out to everyone.

I noticed that our janitor was being paid the same as she was in our old building. Our new building has twice the area to clean. I made a motion that we increase her pay. The motion passed by everyone.

Had we not published a detailed list of our finances this definitely would have been over looked. So there are definite advantages of full disclosure that far surpass pleasing some naysayer. It just takes someone to stand up for what is right.

Nature Boy Florida

Re: I didn't misread the post

Nature Boy Florida · Acts-pert Poster Posts: 16637 **1/6/16 2:28 pm**

brotherjames

Hey nbf

Acts-celerater Posts: 935 **1/6/16 3:11 pm**

wayne

Acts Enthusiast Posts: 1274 **1/6/16 3:30 pm**