Pilgrimage Ponderings
In Defense of Church Staff
I've been reading an article on CNN.com about job-related stress. It identifies four things that work together to make a job highly stressful. Church staff persons typically have to deal with three of these four:
- Long hours with few or no breaks
- Employees being unable to participate in the decision-making process
- Job insecurity and large amounts of impending chance.
I've left out the fourth, physical danger, because I think it probably only applies to youth workers on ski trips or perhaps nursery workers during Vacation Bible School or similar situations.
The reality is that most people who work on church staffs are committed to getting their work done and go above and beyond the call of duty with regard to hours worked, especially if you look at how much they actually get paid. I think it is also true that compared to the pastor in charge, those on the staff often feel completely disempowered in decision-making processes.
The last one regarding job insecurity and dealing with increasing amounts of change probably varies depending on the person's position on staff. I do know that I worked at a church once where every administrative board meeting began with a financial report indicating that the church was behind in their apportionment payment almost exactly the amount that they were paying me in salary. It was very painful for me to hear that information. I know of many program staff people who work hard to help a church prepare for a new building in order to expand their ministry in the community, only to find themselves out of a job about the time the first mortgage payment comes due. I would say that program staff have a great deal of job insecurity, particularly in a state like ours with no "right to work" laws.
My guess is that office staff persons and some music personnel have to deal with the other part of that last issue, having to deal with lots of change. New technologies in the office and increasing demands for diversity in worship music means that in many churches change can be hard to keep up with in these areas.
So I salute all the wonderful folks who work in local churches. They clearly have a lot of stress to manage. In this Thanksgiving season, why not say thank you to the ones you know!
