The senior pastor or administrator doesn’t support a paid cm staff

Your Question:

“How do I work with a senior pastor or administrator who doesn’t support a paid CM staff?”

The Issues:

You have been hired to serve under, and support, this senior pastor or administrator. This doesn’t mean that you must agree with everything he stands for, but it does mean that you must be respectful while carefully expressing your own views.

Scripture Foundation:

“For the Scripture says, ‘Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,’ and, ‘The worker is worthy of his wages.’”  1Timothy 5:18

Short Answer:

There are “seasons” that a local church goes through. Each of these “seasons” have financial restrictions or benefits. In the early “seasons” of a church’s life, the ministry is performed by a very few people. It might be that those few people are doing what they do as volunteers.  Maybe nobody is being paid.  Then, as the church grows, the church may be able to pay for one or two pastors. The size and growth of a local church will determine whether a CM is able to pay its leaders.

 

Your senior pastor or administrator is the one who ultimately determines if the size of the church would support a paid CM staff.  If the church is large enough, and the senior pastor or administrator still doesn’t support a paid CM staff, then your challenge might be his/her philosophical views about ministry.

 

It is important to remember Who is in charge of the CM and the church!  In Romans 13:1 Paul states, “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.”  If God wants you to have a paid CM staff, He would provide that for you!  This doesn’t mean that you can’t do things that might prepare for that growth when it is the right time.

 

Here are some things you can do with the volunteer CM staff you have:

1) Make sure you are taking good care of your volunteers. Thanking them, encouraging them, training them, listening to them, rotating them, and celebrating them with appreciation banquets.

2) Establish coordinator positions within the volunteer team. These coordinators are over specific children’s age groups. The coordinators share in the leadership and assist with communication among the CM team.  If and when you are permitted to pay people within your CM staff, these are the positions that would be elevated to a paid status.

3) Identify the advancements within the CM vision that would be enhanced with paid CM staff.  This is a foundation for your proposal. If you believe that having paid CM staff would enhance the ministry, and strengthen the church, specifically describe how that would occur. How would having a paid CM staff effect your CM communication, safety, teaching, programming, outreach, team development, etc.? 

4) Create a “baby steps” approach to a paid CM staff.  If you could hire one part-time staff position, who would it be?  If you could hire two part-time positions, what would they be? If you could hire one part-time and one full-time position, what would those positions be?  Creating a “baby steps” process will give you and your senior pastor or administrator a realistic plan to work toward. 

 

Remember that your senior pastor or administrator sees a bigger “picture” of the church than you do.  Maybe he/she has plans for building the church in other ways than the CM.  Ultimately, you must be a good steward of what you do have, and trust that God will bless you with a paid CM staff when it is the right time.

 

Back to the “Working With The Senior Pastor or Administrator” page. 

More help on the “Working With The Senior Pastor or Administrator – APPENDIX”