A mordant observation on this topic, from years ago (but not so many as to be irrelevant, c. 2014). We were, at that time for the church I then served, still assembling, collating, and mailing some 300 newsletters twice a month, with one having an additional calendar page for the next month. I created a web page for us, uploaded the content, worked all I could to get opt-ins for the newsletter and calendar, and weeded the print/postal side down to maybe 240... but 220 was where the bulk mail issue meant we needed to keep at least that many going out to keep the lower rate for mailing.
I tried a number of times to suggest this was not the best use of the secretary's time, my time, the two rotating teams of three volunteers each who did the final stage work before either the secretary or I took them down to the post office. It didn't go anywhere, and the expectation was that we'd still do a twice monthly print, mailed newsletter.
Then I did the math, and presented to the board what it cost if you took 18% of my personnel cost, and 40% of the total secretarial personnel cost, and added it to the (steadily increasing) cost of paper, toner, and copier upkeep. Three things happened after I finished my simple, half-sheet length report on the cost of our current newsletter process.
One: we spent twenty minutes responding to people saying "that can't be right" but the math held up...
Two: the board authorized me to immediately shift to an "opt-in" model for online as the primary means to receive the newsletter and calendar, and only a stack of print copies on the Welcome Center, with copies mailed to shut-ins (which we defined broadly in the transition period).
Three: a few key leaders never forgave me for this, brought it up to the end of my tenure, and stayed mad about it in ways that dogged me right up to COVID which was its own maelstrom of misunderstanding, and led to my departure from full-time ministry in any case.
So yeah, people think salary means "inexhaustible well of time and bother" and challenging that fiscally pushes some interesting buttons. Everything you say here is correct, it's just that the pushback can be complicated and long-lasting.
Increasingly, I'm becoming convinced the only way to avoid the "inexhaustible well of time and bother" stuff is by being a 1099 contractor, which certainly has its downsides too.
What I am (morbidly) fascinated by is how we got from a century of railing against "hireling clergy" to the idea that the minister is an employee and needs to toe the line and fulfill various secular expectations. We created the whole "functional church organization" model to de-fang the old "ruling elder" control over congregational life by a few dominant life-tenured elders, but it morphed into a personnel committee of the whole as the board micromanages clergy with their expectations -- which to be fair, we helped create with the turn to "professionalization" over vocation as our core model for ministry.
But almost every church I've served I've had to struggle with the assumption of the church leadership that the minister and the custodian are both employees of the board who have to be kept firmly in line and nudged towards meeting expectations, even if everyone admits they're different jobs (mostly).
A mordant observation on this topic, from years ago (but not so many as to be irrelevant, c. 2014). We were, at that time for the church I then served, still assembling, collating, and mailing some 300 newsletters twice a month, with one having an additional calendar page for the next month. I created a web page for us, uploaded the content, worked all I could to get opt-ins for the newsletter and calendar, and weeded the print/postal side down to maybe 240... but 220 was where the bulk mail issue meant we needed to keep at least that many going out to keep the lower rate for mailing.
I tried a number of times to suggest this was not the best use of the secretary's time, my time, the two rotating teams of three volunteers each who did the final stage work before either the secretary or I took them down to the post office. It didn't go anywhere, and the expectation was that we'd still do a twice monthly print, mailed newsletter.
Then I did the math, and presented to the board what it cost if you took 18% of my personnel cost, and 40% of the total secretarial personnel cost, and added it to the (steadily increasing) cost of paper, toner, and copier upkeep. Three things happened after I finished my simple, half-sheet length report on the cost of our current newsletter process.
One: we spent twenty minutes responding to people saying "that can't be right" but the math held up...
Two: the board authorized me to immediately shift to an "opt-in" model for online as the primary means to receive the newsletter and calendar, and only a stack of print copies on the Welcome Center, with copies mailed to shut-ins (which we defined broadly in the transition period).
Three: a few key leaders never forgave me for this, brought it up to the end of my tenure, and stayed mad about it in ways that dogged me right up to COVID which was its own maelstrom of misunderstanding, and led to my departure from full-time ministry in any case.
So yeah, people think salary means "inexhaustible well of time and bother" and challenging that fiscally pushes some interesting buttons. Everything you say here is correct, it's just that the pushback can be complicated and long-lasting.
Wow, that is tough. Really tough.
Increasingly, I'm becoming convinced the only way to avoid the "inexhaustible well of time and bother" stuff is by being a 1099 contractor, which certainly has its downsides too.
What I am (morbidly) fascinated by is how we got from a century of railing against "hireling clergy" to the idea that the minister is an employee and needs to toe the line and fulfill various secular expectations. We created the whole "functional church organization" model to de-fang the old "ruling elder" control over congregational life by a few dominant life-tenured elders, but it morphed into a personnel committee of the whole as the board micromanages clergy with their expectations -- which to be fair, we helped create with the turn to "professionalization" over vocation as our core model for ministry.
But almost every church I've served I've had to struggle with the assumption of the church leadership that the minister and the custodian are both employees of the board who have to be kept firmly in line and nudged towards meeting expectations, even if everyone admits they're different jobs (mostly).