A Salary Cap

  I'm probably not the ideal person to write this post, seeing as how I continue to struggle with the role of money in my life.  I know that it's a good thing to struggle with it, and that life is a continuous process of discerning what the Holy Spirit is calling us to do... but money is just a difficult issue for me.  I like having monetary security.  It doesn't help me sleep at night, but I grew up with the ideal of financial security as a goal, and I'd never wrestled seriously with the question of what to do with the question of too much money.  I suppose I'd never thought I'd have what I considered too much money.

  But I've been reading the prophets quite a bit lately, which is always dangerous and often uncomfortable.  The Gospel of Luke has pushed on me as well--particularly the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12, in which a man with full barns tears his barns down to build even bigger ones, believing that his monetary success can purchase him security.

  It can't.

  Now, I'm firmly in the camp of believing that money isn't bad.  I don't think wealth is necessarily bad--the love of it can corrupt the soul, but money isn't evil.  Jesus was financially supported by people who obviously had the ability to earn more money than what they needed.  Evangelists and missionaries need financial support, which supposes that the church have people who have abundant wealth, enough to give freely to support those who don't have money.  So money and wealth aren't bad, as long as the individuals charged with it are able to see that money as a gift and an opportunity to help others.

  But, when I hear that the PC(USA)'s general assembly is discussing a salary cap for ministers, I catch my breath.  Not because I am opposed to it... but more that we even have to have the debate.  I haven't spent much time thinking about it, but what are we, the church of Jesus Christ, doing paying some ministers so much money that we need to debate a salary cap?  I have a hard time imagining what Jesus would say to us when we're compensating our pastors $150,000 a year and more.  Isn't that a bit excessive?  Is it right that someone should get rich serving the church?  Shouldn't much of that money be directed out into the community in terms of mission giving?  Maybe some of those monies could be used to support smaller churches that cannot afford a full-time pastor.

  I know that I don't know anything about this issue, but it's hard for me to picture how outlandish salaries for church servants fits into the Gospel.  Maybe it does.  I know that we need good leadership, and that leaders should be compensated well, but I struggle with the idea of compensating someone over $3,000 a week.  I'm sure I'd feel differently if that type of salary were offered to me.

  I wonder what would happen if the PC(USA) decided to level the playing field.  What if all ministers became employees of the denomination and were paid the same amount.  Say we paid every minister in a full-time ordained position $65,000/year.  What might that look like?  Chaos, probably, since I haven't spent much time thinking about the details of it.  But it seems to me like the work of the pastor of a small town or rural church is worth just as much in the Kingdom of God as the work of the pastor of a tall-steeple megachurch.  Could we adjust it for cost of living?  Sure.  Would pastors riot in the streets over losing giant pay packages?  Perhaps.  Are there 3,000 reasons this would never work?  Yup.

  But shouldn't we be willing to think about alternative ways to how money works in the church?  The idea of pastors growing wealthy by serving the church seems strange to me.  Not that they don't work hard and deserve compensation, but what message do we send to the world by paying such outlandish compensation to pastors?