In my last column I discussed the prevalence of working poverty in areas of our presbytery, as evidenced by the ALICE (asset-limited, income-constrained, employed) report of the United Way. In this column I will talk about the growing problem of working poverty among ministers.

The topic was prompted by an email in which I was informed that in some presbyteries local minimum wage laws are impinging on ministers' salaries, forcing the presbyteries to redefine what is meant by "full-time". To be clear, this is not an issue in Michigan, where ministers are exempted from minimum wage laws.

But the absence of a legal requirement does not release us from the moral requirement to pay ministers fairly. In times past, call forms stated that the pastor's compensation was "to free [them] from worldly concerns so that [they] might devote [themselves] fully to the work of ministry." Frankly, I don't know any ministers who feel "freed from worldly concerns" when it comes to finances. Indeed, as the financial resources of congregations decline, more and more pastors are serving at or below our minimum salary.

Our present minimum salary for full time pastors is $36,144 with a manse; $43,373 without a manse - well below the ALICE standard for a family of four. Pastors with part-time calls or contracts typically receive much less. The presbytery is caught in a bind between raising minimum salaries to ensure a living wage for our pastors and pricing many churches out of full-time (or even part-time) ministry. It also makes it difficult if not impossible for quality candidates to accept calls within our bounds, especially if the candidate has a family.

When you factor in that most new pastors carry significant student loan debt from 7 or 8 years of higher education, our salaries are not able to provide what pastors need to make ends meet. (By comparison the church-wide median salary for full time pastors is $59,100, with an average of $65,262.) This certainly has contributed to both the number of pastoral vacancies in our presbytery and the difficulty in filling those vacancies.

What can we do about this? We cannot simply raise salaries, nor, given the economic stresses in our communities, can we expect congregations to increase their giving. The reality is that many of our churches are moving from full-time to part-time pastoral contracts or are without a pastor for extended periods of time. This is a trend that will not change, regardless of the giftedness of our pastors and congregational leaders. What is called for are new models of being the church that rely less on pastoral leadership and more on congregational initiative; and new models of congregations sharing resources for ministry.

We cannot turn back the clock. The flush days of the 1960s are not returning to Michigan, and they are not returning to our congregations. But we can see the changes we are experiencing as creative opportunities rather than terminal diagnoses. Our present age is more like the age of the apostles, when churches grew significantly without benefit of paid clergy; or perhaps more like the frontier churches of the 19th century when circuit riders itinerated among multiple congregations.

Our Savior divested himself of heavenly majesty in order to assume the role of a servant, and then received his most earnest welcome from those who were themselves impoverished. These are challenging times but they are not the end. The gospel is always good news, and the market for that is very strong indeed. So let's move into that future as those who possess the greatest treasure of all, and who lack for nothing that is truly essential to faithful ministry and mission.

Click here to read and/or download your copies.