• Calculating Kidmin Salaries
It seems to be common practice among churches to use the local school system for comps for determining the salaries of children’s ministers. I guess, I understand how this happens for beginning positions. But as the work grows and the children’s ministry becomes more established, the salary comparison needs to be revised because the comparison of the job begins to fall apart.
Most teachers do not have the same administrative issues that are comparable to Children’s Pastors. For example: recruiting numerous volunteers, working with diverse constituencies, supervision of the Sunday school (0-12), developing and producing large events, curriculum selection for multi-age levels, being a team player with administration, boards, staff and representing the ministry to the larger community. Further, CP’s are not dealing with a compulsory attendance system, but a voluntary system where creating motivation for attendance is built into the whole church experience.
At some point, the comparison should be the Principle’s or the Assistant Principle’s salary. So where is that line? You are right to hold out years of tenure, advanced education, growth of numbers, new infrastructure, advanced training programs, successful outreach programs, diverse job description, the volume of volunteers, additional paid staff, and your own financial needs. When you add expertise, mega church/regional church components, church growth, and job satisfaction (by the church), and good job reviews, these factors should influence the salary profile. So as the work grows, the conditions for determining salary should change too. So you want a raise?
Here are My Fifteen Things to consider before asking for a raise:
1. Keep good records to document any growth in your children’s program. Your Budget should reflect this growth.
2. Collect a list of comments and stories in areas that you have shown expertise.
3. Be sure that your annual job reviews reflect your job description, which you also should review every year.
4. Document new families within their church whose children now are a vital part of your ministry?
5. Chart the involvement of volunteers over your tenure.
6. Describe the new infrastructure that you have added during your tenure.
7. Document volunteer training and in-service training programs that you offer your leaders.
8. Highlight the outreach programs with results that your ministry offers.
9. Evaluate your financial needs and the cost of living adjustments in your area.
10. Describe changes in numeric growth: i.e., attendance, visitors, decisions, baptisms, membership, and programs.
11. Demonstrate that you are maintaining a continuing education program for self improvement: i.e., conferences, classes, workshops, seminars, networking and coaching.
12. Watch the general growth of the church. Are you growing with it? Then, you should be compensated in line with that growth, showing that the children’s ministry is a contributing factor.
13. Intangibles: atmosphere, visitors, up beat, energy, customer satisfaction, no complaints and leadership enthusiasm.
14. Consider adding to your credentials either a Ministerial License or Ordination. This could help your financial profile significantly and give you a housing allowance.
15. Note: that your benefit package is part of your overall salary package. You can obtain a substantial increase in your remuneration package by negotiating benefits.
4 Responses to “• Calculating Kidmin Salaries”
April 11th, 2011 at 9:18 pm
Hi there Barney,
Love how you are adding great content to the web through your blog! Thank you!
I suggest taking into consideration market forces as well. The church could be growing, but tithing could be down for a variety of reasons. Also, membership decline does not necessarily reflect on the performance of the support staff, although that is usually who gets scrutinized as a result. Lots of churches are cutting down on staff, especially in the areas of children, youth, and family ministry.
In my case at my previous church, the CM grew through gaining a bunch of unchurched kids, but their parents didn’t come (usually because they didn’t speak English) and there was no net gain in tithe dollars. So in one sense my team was performing well, but with respect to adding to the financial bottom line by making the church attractive to prospective tithers I was not performing quite as well. Not that I thought about that while in the midst of that role, but hindsight provides interesting opportunities to think about such things.
April 11th, 2011 at 10:50 pm
Obviously, Glen you are right to comment about the market forces. Most of my students are quite aware of the market forces, some have been forced out because of it. However, I should have qualified this discussion, in hindsight. However, I was trying to enlarge the discussion and observe that there are aspects of this issue that has to do with our performance and how we position ourselves in the dialogue, everything else being equal. Thanks for the comment, it is well received, I enjoy hearing your insights, even by hindsight.
April 11th, 2011 at 11:08 pm
Sorry Barney, I didn’t realize this was written specifically for your students. 🙂
April 11th, 2011 at 11:46 pm
Not a problem Glen, this is a good reminder that when I write for my students (every Monday morning Coach’s Huddle) and choose to post the same article here with pictures, I should adjust the article for this more public setting.
Leave a Comment