NORTH AMERICA YEAR-END MEETINGS
Wage Worries Keynote Speech NAD Actions
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STORY AND PHOTOS BY CARLOS MEDLEY What is fair pay for Adventist pastors in North America? Can the church afford it? Why is it so hard to attract new teachers to the church's colleges and universities? Do Adventist professors need a pay raise? Is the church being bilked by unscrupulous members? What will it take to mount a serious to outreach strategy for reaching North America's cities? These are just some of the burning issues that church administrators, pastors, teachers, and lay members, grappled with at the North American Division (NAD) Year-end Meetings held November 1-3 in Silver Spring, Maryland. The annual business session is where church leaders throughout North America hear reports, vote new policy items, and approve the division budget. Wage Worries Richard Osborn, NAD vice president and education director,
gave an interim report to NAD Executive Committee [NADCOM] members from the division's Higher Education Remuneration
Taskforce. He told the committee that Adventist colleges and universities are facing serious problems from a shortage of
Adventist professors with doctoral degrees. He noted that the average age of tenure-track faculty members
The reasons for this current situation were the high cost of doctoral programs, low numbers of faculty openings, and the shrinking pool of young experienced Adventist teachers from which to draw. He expects that Adventist colleges will need about 500 professors with doctorates in the next 14 years just to replace the retirees, not including administrators, support areas, and other needs. "At the present time, we do not have enough individuals working on doctorates to replace those who will retire over the next decade," he warned. "What will it take for Adventists currently working on doctorates to work for the church?" Osborn also mentioned that Adventist schools, at times, put together pay packages that exceed normal policy in order to attract teachers. "In some cases, the professor has ended up making more than the [college or university] president," he said. The report included several recommendations, as, for example, bringing remuneration levels into parity with similar regionally-based Christian institutions and establishing new performance standards. He said while some staffs are overpaid, full professors and top administrators are being underpaid. Osborn's paper followed an interim report from the Remuneration Strategy Taskforce. This committee is studying pay packages for pastors and other denominational employees. Pacific Union president Thomas Mostert, who chaired the committee, said his group is studying the church's principles of remuneration, the problems in the church's compensation system, and how other organizations approach their wage system. "The committee was still debating whether the church should maintain its traditional 'sacrificial wage' concept or move to a 'community wage' concept," he added. Mostert warned that any new proposals would require additional dollars and his committee would also explore ways of raising the needed funds. In response to both reports some committee members voiced the need for the church to downsize staff so more funds would be available to pay pastors and professors. Gerson Perla, lay person from the Pacific Union, said, "I continue to see organizations throughout the division that do not work efficiently. In an age of voice mail and cell phones, why does everybody have an individual secretary? That's not the way companies run," he said. "We're willing as laypeople to write bigger checks if we see the organization become leaner and more efficient." Robert Fawkes, also from the Pacific Union, said, "with the redoing of the pastoral salaries, that's going to require some cuts. It might not hurt to downsize the number of [education] institutions and consolidate the professorial staff, cutting the cost and providing the same amount of education." Ted Wilson, Review & Herald Publishing Association president, said, "I appreciate the poignant questions that were asked of the taskforce in this report. I appreciate the directed tendency toward a sacrificial approach [to remuneration]. Sacrifice, the spiritual component, and the service factor, have to play a part in the future." NAD president Alfred McClure noted the difficulties that administrators have in changing the church structure. "We call ourselves the Adventist education system. In a loose sense that's true. But in a technical sense that's not true, because most of our colleges are owned by different organizations, with their own constituency. There's no group that has overall control of the colleges. Theoretically it may make sense to do what's been suggested [downsize] but practically it's not possible." Another lay member asserted that the church has not maintained the emphasis on Christian education that it has in the past. "I don't see the emphasis anymore in our churches," says D. Yaret Castro, from the Pacific Union. "I firmly believe in Christian education but the passion for it is not there. How will we get qualified teachers if we don't educate our members at the church level and talk about the importance of it?" Herman Bauman, Arizona Conference president, voiced his
concern for pastors. "The source of all the funding for this church comes from the local
NADCOM voted to receive the two reports. However, no action will be taken to adjust worker salaries until the Remuneration Strategy Taskforce completes its work and presents its final report. Gradual Growth The latest numbers reflect the changing face of the Adventist membership in North America. Seven percent of Adventists are of Hispanic origin; nearly 19 percent are African American. In a seven-year period from 1991 to 1998, tithe contributions from Hispanic congregations increased by more than 60 percent. The tithe increase in the same period from regional (African American) conferences was more than 17 percent. Financially Fit Regional conferences and smaller Anglo conferences led the list of those experiencing tithe gains during 1998, according to Prestol. The Northeastern Conference, headquartered in New York city and serving African-American congregations throughout New York and New England, recorded a remarkable one year tithe gain of 21 percent. Not far behind was the South Atlantic Conference, where tithe increased by 16.1 percent. Montana (3,696 members), Nevada-Utah (5,020), Indiana (5,749) and Arkansas-Louisiana (8,194), and the Lake Region Conference (23,244) all experienced tithe gains of 10 percent or better. Overall, the North American Division experienced a 6.7 percent increase in tithe during 1998, a rate more than 3 times that of inflation. According to Prestol, an average of $17 million is contributed each week in tithe and offerings by church member in North America. Next year's division budget will total $74,817,135, up 5.5 percent from last year. Loss Leaders? Blinci said local congregations receive between $15 to $18 million each week. These funds are handled by 4,750 local treasurers, most of which are volunteers. In the 10-year period from 1990-99 losses caused by volunteer and employee fraud tallied more than $3.5 million. In local churches some losses reached as high as $800,000 in a single case. Many of these losses would have been prevented with proper internal controls, he said. In 1999 alone the church filed claims for $1.6 million in losses, more than double the insurance premiums paid. As a result of the church's unfortunate track record Blinci said it was difficult to obtain adequate insurance coverage. Next year's premiums will reach $950,000, an increase of $240,000 or 33.5 percent. Any future loss coverage will be limited to $3 million with a 25 percent coinsurance provision. Blinci, who also trumpeted his concerns before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee, urged church administrators to educate pastors and church leaders on the importance of internal controls for church members handling money. He also urged conferences leaders to perform timely audits of all churches and schools and deal responsibly with those who have committed fraud and abuses. CARLOS MEDLEY is Adventist Review news editor Homepage photos by Scott Suchman
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has increased
significantly in the past 20 years.
church and the pastor is the one
that's always overlooked. Pastors' salaries have been falling behind the cost of living for years and years. We're going to get
in a situation where we'll encourage more and more churches to go congregational so that they can meet local needs. We must be
careful that we don't turn off the ones who are at the place where the base of the total support [of the church] is."
