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How much should we Pay our Pastor?

How much should we pay our Pastor? It’s a question that gets sent my way quite frequently. Unfortunately the question beneath the question is usually, “How little can we pay our staff to get them and keep them?” You’ve probably heard the old adage “Let the church keep the Pastor poor and God keep him humble.” There seems to be some general fear that if a pastor makes a good or comfortable livelihood that they will somehow be worse at their job. In taking a quick look at national numbers though you’ll see that few pastors are actually paid an unreasonably high salary. But what is reasonable?

When coming up with a salary for your pastoral staff, make sure you consider the size and location of the Church as well as the education and experience of the Staff Member. Other factors that come into play are longevity in the role and overall value to the Church. An overlooked concept that should factor into the salary is the “replacement cost.” If that staff member left, what would it cost to replace them? Another way to think about this is by considering the mean income of the congregants in your church or the mean income level of the board of the church. It would also be worth considering what the income level is like at a similar organization (size, operating budget, number of staff, assets, impact, non-profit) that offers similar services or is under similar circumstances.

Here are three resources that may help along the way:

1. Leadership Network: Large Church Salary Report

2. National Association of Church Business Administration: Ministry Pay Church Salary Survey

3. LifeWay: Southern Baptist Convention Compensation Study

Interested in a customized report for your church? The Vanderbloemen Search Group and Leadership Network would be happy to help you with that project.


Posted in Staffing

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When Evaluation goes Wrong

Socrates is credited with saying, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” If that’s true then there are a lot of churches that are in existence that shouldn’t be. Along those lines this past week I had a great conversation with my Leadership Coaching Network about why evaluation seems to be avoided in church-world. Here are some of the reasons we came up with.

1. Personal Attachment

Often staff members see their sermon or ministry program as an extension of themselves as a result many can’t separate the discussion about a ministry program from their own personality or character.

2. Leading with “No”

Sometimes the evaluation derails when a group picks things a part and can’t get on the solution side of things.

3. Unclear Expectations

Evaluation bogs down when a team member is unclear about what they’re trying to accomplish and when a win is confusing.

4. Addiction to Tradition

The only people who like change are leaders because they’re pushing towards a preferred future. This usually means abandoning past successes or even traditions. Many churches do evaluation poorly because of sacred cows that can’t be touched.

5. Stonewalling

Some churches and staff are simply living in denial and refuse to be sober minded. As a result they stonewall and refuse to deal with their current reality.

6. Fear

Some churches and staff members refuse to approach evaluation seriously not out of a fear of what they may find but rather they may have to work harder or differently to obtain different results.

What would you add to the list? What’s your experience with evaluation in the church-world? Leave a comment!


Posted in Leadership

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November’s Top 5 Posts on Helping Churches Make Vision Real

Thank you! You made these the most popular posts on “Helping Churches Make Vision Real,” during the month of November!

#1 5 Reasons we Started from Scratch with our Website

At Sun Valley we recently just completed a ground up redesign and launch of our website. Here are 5 reasons why we did, and you might want to as well.

#2 Measure What Matters

As churches are in the middle of evaluating 2012 and planning for 2013 there are a 4 critical principles about measurement that we need to keep in mind.

#3 Join me at Ignite 2013

Ignite 2013 is right around the corner and early bird pricing ends in just a month! Ignite is intentionally designed for Church Planters, Planting Teams and Pastors who want to explore planting daughter churches or launching multi-site congregations.

#4 Soul Care and the Leader

We’ve all heard the statistics. And what the statistics are telling us is that beneath the surface of appearances, a majority of pastors are hurting and discouraged. Do a quick Google search on “pastor burnout” and you’ll easily find the following statistics and more! But are we supposed to do about it?

#5 The Blame Game

Catch my interview with Rick Calcutt about his new book “The Blame Game.” It’s a great resource for developing a clear creative process at your church!


Posted in Leadership

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Out of the Box

 

This past weekend at Sun Valley Community Church we announced our plans to bring in $100,000 worth of food this holiday season at our campuses in Gilbert, Tempe and Casa Grande to benefit local food banks. “Out of the Box” is an effort to put feet to requests that have come from both local and state leadership to address issues of chronic hunger in Arizona. Throughout the month of December, people will have the opportunity to pick up a box that has a shopping list attached that was provided by local food banks with staple items that are in demand. The items on the list amount to about $20 worth of food. With a goal of filling 5,000 boxes, that will result in $100,000 worth of food that will feed 360 families for one month.

The theme “Out of the Box” is wrapped around the goal of making the focus of the Christmas season for Sun Valley a “cause” and not just “Christmas as usual.” On invitations that were handed out this weekend, the call to action for attendees was, “It’s our community; it’s OUR responsibility.” Already, as of this past weekend, over 3,500 boxes were handed out at the three campuses! We actually ran out of boxes on one of our campuses…oops! But no worries, more boxes will be distributed over the course of the next two weekends. The message was clear, “At Sun Valley, we want the word community in our name to mean something.”

Want more information? Click here.


Posted in Creative Arts, Spiritual Formation

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I’m Starting a New Coaching Network

While my current Coaching Network is full, I’m excited to let you know that I’m beginning a new West Coast Coaching Network in partnership with TonyMorganLive beginning in March of 2013!

This is an incredible opportunity to not only advance your leadership, but also connect with like minded leaders and build lasting friendships. You’ll participate in six days of coaching sessions spread out over six months. You will receive focused training on a variety of strategic ministry topics including staffing, leadership development, communications, financial stewardship, volunteer team development, weekend services, ministry structure, discipleship, multisite and more. There will be tools, exercises and best practices to implement after every session. You’ll receive several free resources and get access to incredible guest presenters. Many have already expressed interest, so I’d encourage you to get your application in quick.

If you’re considering joining us here are some things to keep in mind…

This is not an opportunity for someone who is looking for inspiration: This coaching network involves work. You can’t just show up. You will have to commit to six months of reading and engaging exercises with the ministry team at your church.

This experience isn’t for people looking for leadership theory: Yes, you’ll learn some leadership skills, but this experience is designed for you to put those skills into action. Every month you will leave with new tools to implement in your ministry environment.

This is not a conference experience: In a conference, you can sit and soak in the teaching without engaging anyone else. In this coaching experience, you will be encouraged and challenged by other leaders who will be counting on you to participate fully.

Here’s what others have said:

Paul Alexander is a natural leader and a great coach. He’s strategic, constantly learning, and has been very helpful to me in my ministry leadership and management.”
– Mike Work, Executive Pastor of Mission Community Church in Gilbert, AZ

“When I have a leadership question Paul is always one of my first calls. He is a gifted leader and strategist. Paul knows how to ask the right questions to properly diagnosis current systems, and the unique capacity to help teams formulate a plan that is both practical and attainable. Working with Paul has been an encouragement and has stirred in me the desire to be a better leader.”
– Aaron McRae, Senior Pastor of Hillside Community Church in Alta Loma, CA

“Paul Alexander is simply brilliant when it comes to helping pastors and churches get laser-focused on their purpose, process and values. I believe he is one of the top strategic thinkers in the church today. After connecting with him, you will be encouraged, inspired and equipped.”
– Kyle Wall, Senior Pastor of Atlantic Shores Baptist Church in Virginia Beach, VA

“Paul is a very talented leader who knows how to form and implement strategic plans, while encouraging and building leaders in the process. He is methodical in planning his approach, and builds his processes to include appropriate goals, steps, budgets, and measurement for completion. During my time working with Paul, he demonstrated how to focus on projects and refocus when scope changed or obstacles rose up. While learning from Paul, he made things “reproducible” which has allowed me to keep my teams on task and lead them to do the same.”
– Kerry Dodd, CFO of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA

This Coaching Network will be limited to no more than 10 leaders, and I’d like you to consider joining us. To get all of the details for the next Coaching Network click here On that page, you’ll see the link to the online application Please only complete the application if you are fully committed. The deadline to apply is Thursday, January 31.


Posted in Leadership