Psychic Paychecks

Here are a couple of my responses to discussion posts concerning non profit compensation policies from my Strategic Human Resources Management class I'm taking at WMU right now. Would love some feedback on feelings surrounding the pay of preachers.

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Post 1

Sarah, I’m also involved in church ministry and a have actually just taken the lead pastor position in a church plant. This idea of compensation in the church is of great interest to me and ties into one of the core values I’m working on articulating for our particular gathering—generosity and an “others-centric” focus in our finances. I want our people to be good stewards, as you mentioned. As leaders in the church, the staff should model this attitude. Paul reminds Timothy that elders or deacons need to be “free from the love of money” and not addicted to “sordid gain” (1 Timothy 3:3, 8 New American Standard Bible). In my opinion, there are few things more unsettling to me than preachers getting rich off the church. So I will be experimenting with a volunteer staff and will be unpaid myself, working bi-vocationally. Paul set this example with his tent-making gig; he had the right to be paid but didn’t want to put any obstacle in Corinthians’ way. As you mentioned, my compensation is the joy and honor of working in the church, pursuing the mission and loving others.

But the reality is, my family and I need to eat, too. Paul, also in 1 Timothy, says that “elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor [good pay?], especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching” followed by the reference to Deuteronomy 25:4 that “You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing” (1 Timothy 5:17, 18). Sounds a bit like a merit-based system according to Pynes, where “individuals should be paid according to their contributions” (2009, pg. 266), though I don’t see an emphasis on results but more on effort in these references. My situation allows me to keep the church position voluntary at this point in time, but that may not be feasible in the future.

Here’s another way to approach the idea of compensation in the church: should the organization be the one to limit the greediness of the staff by instituting a lag system, which forces the staff to be focused on more intrinsic rewards or should the church “bless” its workers for their efforts and allow them the freedom to choose between being greedy or being generous?

Post 2

Patrick, I liked the "psychic income" term from Manzo. As someone immersed in the non profit lifestyle, I admit I feel this way even about my own pay, that I need to focus less on cash and more on cognitive compensation. Why do I feel this way? Times when I've made better money (usually in brief jaunts into the secular business world), I've felt like I was stealing. I also identify with the community members who write in and challenge the pay of nonprofit workers. It's especially hard when donors see NPO executives making more than they do. Why should they give their hard earned money, even to a good cause, if the workers of the organization make more than they do?, their thinking goes. Admittedly, I think there are cases of abuse that support their fears. Not that this is one of them, but as I was researching Executive Director salaries for assignment 8, I looked up Richard Stearn's pay (ED of World Vision). He operates a global organization with a budget of hundreds of millions and I still thought, "Really? 400k? That seems a little high."

I think I need to be okay with my salary making its way out of my head and into my pocket.

Do four jobs make a living (sacrifice)?

In accordance with my theme of walking with God, I sit here tonight wondering if God is into heading down multiple paths, an act easily handled by an omnipresent diety but rough on a regular flesh and bone guy like me; I feel I'm being quartered. Picture God running down my job trail, which suddenly splits into a four-pronged fork. He does His God thing and divides while I try and hold on (or is He grabbing me?). I don't break but I stretch like one of those cartoons where the character gets pulled like taffy into a paper thin line. I have yet to break but I'm wondering if I'll snap back.

I can say confidently that I feel I'm trying to follow where God leads. I leave room to be corrected on selfishness, pride, work addiction, etc., but I think my intentions are honorable in taking on each. My current jobs/responsibilities are Sales & Marketing Director at Miracle Camp (20 hours), Executive Director of Orphan Justice Mission (20 hours), Lead Pastor of Life Point Community Church (10 hours) and grad school (10 hours). Don't forget family, friends and an hour or two to chill out. Each tends to run over a bit, with some give and take between categories, so I usually end up with a 70 - 80 hour work week, which could be worse, I know. Yet, as I think back on how I ended up at each, I think, "yeah, God was going there." I just said "yes" to going for the walk. Each is a good cause, each fits my personality and giftings and I think I'm seeing fruit from each not to mention that this strange career combination is paying the bills (though barely). Taking any one component out (maybe with the exception of grad school) creates financial difficulty.

So am I dumb or is this what being a living sacrifice is all about? Am I killing myself to fulfill some twisted need to succeed, to do the impossible, to show my family and friends (ahem, BC) that, yes, I can keep all the balls in the air? Or is the act of giving myself fully to God, to be used up, consumed and totally spent in someway similar (though much, much less grand) to what the Lamb of God went through?

Larry Osbourne in his book The Contrarian's Guide to Spirituality says we should live up to our calling and not our potential. I'm still digging that bullet out from between my eyes, but I'm curious to know if Larry would allow God to call us down diverging paths simultaneously? If so, then maybe getting stretched (be it even cartoon thin) is how we really grow and the only realistic way for me to fulfill my calling. If not, then I pray I figure out which path I'm supposed to be on because I'm not very good at doing the splits.

Developing My Selfopolis

I had a thought while attending one of the workshops at the Exponential 09 National New Church Conference in Orlando, FL, back in April. It was the realization of the similarity between community development and personal development. The speaker, Efram Smith, was talking about burnout in church planting. He shared his personal experience with burnout as a pastor of a blossoming inner city church plant. The church was growing, people were coming to Christ, but he was emotionally drained and frustrated. He noticed he was becoming bitter at people, short-tempered and consumed with quitting. Everything culminated in a tearful breakdown after a service. Upon reflection, he realized there were some areas of spiritual and emotional immaturity (poverty?) in his life, areas that he had allowed to atrophy through inattention. His solution was to create a personal development plan—a set of weekly, monthly, and yearly goals that he asked several other key people in his life to hold him accountable for accomplishing.

What struck me was his use of "development plan." My work with Orphan Justice Mission and my current graduate studies (I'm pursuing my Masters in International Development Administration and just finished a paper on partnership and paternalism between non-governmental organizations) have re-connotated the word "development plan" for me. I have recently been thinking of it in terms of a community developing a vision for itself, then strategically laying out the immediate, middle, and long-term steps needed to attain that vision, often with assistance. For example, my organization Orphan Justice Mission has assisted a Ugandan NGO in developing a vision for a community that is healthy enough to care for the orphans in its midst. Health for the community is identified as being able to meet certain minimum standards of care in five different areas (Business, Education, Family, Health and Spirituality). This is a holistic approach based on the observation that each of those areas is interrelated; each supports the others and they grow in relative balance. For example, in order for a school to provide a quality education, it may need financial support from the community, mainly in terms of tuition. Yet, without an education, the ability of workers and entrepreneurs to earn an paycheck and pay for their kids to go to school is significantly hindered. Getting a few key business people educated increases their chance of success, which may bring jobs to the community and eventually uniforms and school supplies to the children. Balance across the development areas and prioritization are key; the prime concern is determining what elements should be implemented first to open up possibilities for further growth.

I'm thinking that personal development and community development could be approached in similar ways. If I imagine my self as a city (let's call it Selfopolis), I should have a strategic plan for my life and understand the steps for accomplishing it. The plan should fit the terrain and the demographic makeup of the area (my personality, giftings, interests). I should identify the foundational areas of growth that will open me up for future success and work to achieve those first. At times, I may have to make an investment in infrastructure (education?) so that Selfopolis might take on greater activities. Development should be balanced in order to be sustainable. I can't build factories or skyscrapers without gas stations and parks and grocery stores. And it would probably be a good idea to elect a High Commissioner who can manage the whole process.

I could belabor this metaphor, but I'll resist and make one last mildly related point: I think community development (the real one, not my metaphorical version) is really people development. What if city planners and development workers took their eyes off the buildings and put it on the people? Building Selfopolis's is a different gig than building Metropolis's (Metropoli?). I've come to realize this is what I'm attempting in my work in Africa–building people. My desire is not to develop people so they can develop their community, but to use community development (vision, cooperation, skill-building, philanthropy and volunteerism) to develop the hearts of people. It may be my pastor's perspective, but if we're not concerned with people first in our development work, we're not really concerned with development and we won't know when to stop building the buildings.

Revisiting Effectiveness

One of the joys of my Sales and Marketing Directorship at Miracle Camp & Retreat Center is the shared role of mentor to our group of interns. We, the full-time staff, want their year long foray into the world of Christian camping to be a growing one, both experientially and spiritually, and besides time spent rubbing shoulders in the office (and hopefully rubbing off character by example), we intentionally take time to work through topics like personal budgeting, leadership, spiritual maturity, and self-management. We generally meet every two weeks and for the months of December and January, I'm teaching the book "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen R. Covey.

I was first introduced to this book in the year 2000, my first year in youth ministry. Taking on a new new ministry job, working through my undergrad at WMU and being newly married forced me to take personal management seriously and Franklin Covey's "What Matters Most" seminar was recommended to me by my pastor. I was thrilled by the course, initially by the free organizer, but secondly and mostly by the vision of a highly organized, not-stressed, principle-driven me that our presenter made sound totally achievable. It was an ideal I would drag with me through the next eight eventful years of my life. 

Each job change (there were three in these past eight years) brought another opportunity to identify my core values, define my existence and articulate a personal mission statement. My commitment to those statements ebbed and flowed, but even at my weakest, most scattered moments,  I knew I should be putting "first things first", and "working in Quadrant II", and "going for Win/Win". At times, it was just a calendaring system, but in the back of my mind was the theme of spending my time, intentionally, on what matters most, that not only should I be doing things well but that I should be doing the right things.

As we knock on the door of 2009, I'm still at Miracle Camp but have also taken on the Executive Director role of Orphan Justice Mission. Once again, I'm revisiting my mission, working through who I am, what I do (and what I don't do), and how I want to do it. My responsibilities are broader and my schedule is tighter than ever before. I need to be more intentional, more efficient, more focused on the important things in order to succeed in my roles (and avoid a nasty case of burnout). The timing couldn't have been better for my chance to teach the interns, because the act of teaching is one of the best opportunities to learn (or recommit). I've reread the book, I've rewritten my mission statement, and I'm feeling stronger than ever in my calling, in my purpose, and my ability to execute it.

 

It's just another ride around the circle of internalization, a further solidification of a system of self-management and maturity. I pray that it's something that God uses both in my life and the interns' lives to shape us into the people He desires us to be. 

Welcome to my walk.

Okay, I'm trying to stay un-sappy about this, but my natural urge is to wax eloquent. No, attempt to wax eloquent. Notice even my blog title: "Taking a walk." A little cheesy, a little romantic. Maybe an abused metaphor. But, here in this first ever blog, let me explain that title and establish my reason for writing this word-chain of my life.

In the Bible, in early Genesis, it is separately said of two men that they "walked with God." Genesis 5:24 - "Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him." And in Genesis 6:9 - "Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God." Every once in awhile, I come across something, some description of life or unique view of the world and I think, "Yep. That's it." That's what I thought when I heard of a man "walking with God." In my mind I saw two friends strolling together down a path, walking and talking. It was a time out from the hectic-ness; intentional fellowship. I heard understanding for the difficulty of life, congratulation for successes, questions of interest and questions of admonishment. I heard humor and I heard silence. I saw acceptance through proximity and the realization that these friends were not alone because they had each other. I thought, "That's what I want."

When we walk with God, we go where He goes. We do what He does. We get to participate in His activity in the world and we get to know His thoughts. We get to enjoy His company and benefit from His radiant love, grace, and holiness. He goes to strange lands, though. I'm afraid that I too often reply to His invitation to follow with "Hey, I'll catch up with you later." So, trust me, this is an ideal I have yet to maintain. In no way am I an Enoch or Noah, or a Moses who the Lord used to speak to "face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend." (Exodus 33:11) But I unapologetically confess that I want to be like those guys; I want to walk with God.

So this blog, I hope, will be a small glimpse into where I'm walking and if nothing else, might encourage others to join in (via my successes or failures), to take the invitation God is extending, and go for a stroll (or a crawl, as the case may be).