n international commission labored hard to develop a philosophy of remuneration for church employees. Such a philosophy is needed, but issues of church pay ultimately come down to one's own philosophy.
By age 19 I had earned a degree in chemical technology and begun work in industry. A couple of years later, feeling a call to the ministry, I left that employ, went back to school, and eventually joined the working force of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Many years passed before my church pay reached the level I earned as a single young man of 19. That did not bother me: if money had been my primary objective in life, I would never have moved to the ministry. I still feel this conviction, and hold that if a church employee is continually dissatisfied with compensation, he or she should seek other work.
Like Queen Victoria, I find comparisons odious. When I start thinking about what I might receive if I worked elsewhere, and especially when I begin to question why someone in another branch of church service such as health care should receive multiples of my salary, the joy goes out of my work. My focus turns inward and my motives become conflicted. And envy rears its ugly head.
In discussions of church pay the concept of "sacrifice" inevitably surfaces. Here again I find that comparisons mess me up. I have determined that it is not my place to try to figure out who has a greater or lesser spirit of sacrifice. If a worker in another branch of church service receives more or much more than me, they do not necessarily have less of a spirit of sacrifice.
nd certainly none of us in church employ should think that we "sacrifice" more than those not in church employ. God alone knows the hearts of us all. I know laypeople--scores of them--whose commitment and giving truly warrant the description "sacrificial", if anyone's does.
In more than 40 years of church employment I have been fairly and adequately compensated. I have not a twinge of regret. Only one aspect has puzzled me. When we moved to the United States under call of the General Conference, it was explained to us at the outset that Noelene would need to work if we had children in church school--my salary would not suffice.
I think I understand the reasons (financial constraints), but the incongruity remains. Nevertheless, I am not disturbed. The "compensation" I have received cannot be counted in dollars and cents.
