While our church leaders were going through the Church Generosity course, the church custodian found water damage in the church’s crawlspace. Contractors then found that our church building had structural damage that would need to be fixed as soon as possible. What we hoped would be an easy fix turned into a $100,000 project. For …
A pastor’s week is filled with early morning meetings, office hours, visitations, counseling, sermon preparation and prayer, evening committee meetings and weekend worship services. Yet research shows the majority of pastors make less than $50,000 per year and do not receive health insurance benefits or retirement contributions from their churches. So, here is a list …
When determining budgets each year, there are usually competing factors to consider. For instance, how does your church handle a downturn in annual giving while seeking to hire new staff? What about an unseen repair to the leaky church basement versus giving well deserved raises? All of these needs are vital to the ministry of …
Pastors are primary agents of Jesus and the gospel in America’s 350,000 churches. But, what if the pastor runs low on hope? The pastor who is tired, stressed, broke and discouraged may be like the car running on empty that can’t make it all the way home. Pastors need hope to give hope. Shepherding people, …
The financial stress that many pastors face can be greatly alleviated when church leadership teams and families discover there are many creative ways to show and share God’s love for their pastors beyond the paycheck. The Bless Your Pastor initiative is an opportunity for your church to take seriously the call to care for your …
The Bless Your Pastor campaign will encourage and equip churches to consider creative ways to bless their pastors and to take up a special appreciation offering for their pastors. Some churches may decide to extend this campaign to church staff members, in addition to their pastors. Brian Kluth, national director of NAE Financial Health and …
Rising Seminary Costs Many blame the problem of pastoral debt on the rising cost of tuition at seminaries. Others pin the problem on the government for making loans too easy for students to access. The loans can be (and in many cases are) used not just for school but for living expenses, such as transportation, …
Appropriate Compensation A lot of ministers consider it unspiritual to negotiate with the search committee concerning their total compensation. I served two churches; in both instances I simply listened to the total package the churches offered and only made suggestions as to the breakdown of the total. According to research from the National Association of …
The allowance, found in section 107(2) of the Internal Revenue Code, allows churches to either provide a parsonage or designate a reasonable part of a minister’s compensation package as a housing allowance that is then excluded from taxable income. According to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, the allowance saves ministers an estimated $700 million …
In this podcast, Randy and Leith discuss: How terms like “cross-cultural” and “multi-ethnic” are distinct; Whether every church should be cross-cultural; How to deal with differing cultural preferences about music, preaching and other things; and Whether there is a certain profile that helps make someone successful as a pastor of a cross-cultural church. Read a Portion …
