Get Your Strategy On
I’m Thinking About Telling You What I Make…
May252005 Filed under: Ministry Questions Author: Tony MorganI received another question about compensation in the ole’ mail bag this past week. I’m going to take a couple more days to formulate my response on how we set salaries before I post the answer on my blog. In the mean time, I’m thinking about telling you what I make. Do you want to know? Why? Better yet, how much do you think I’m worth?
I think I’ll post the answer on Friday. That seems like a good day to do it. That way you have the whole weekend to talk about it at the donut shop and in your Sunday school class. I think my boss is going to be out of town beginning on Friday. Since he’s reading my blog, I better wait until he’s not around. I don’t think he likes it when I tell other people about these types of details. It’s just a blog, though. No one’s reading this, are they? And, really, who cares what the Pastor of Administrative Services at Granger Community Church makes?
Friday it is.
13 Responses to “I’m Thinking About Telling You What I Make…”
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Tony Morgan is a pastor and the Chief Strategic Officer at NewSpring Church where he develops creative solutions for communications, technology and NewSpring Ministries--the church's ministry that equips other church leaders.
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Jason Powell
May 25th, 2005 at 2:43 am
You mean they pay you!
Brad Hinman
May 25th, 2005 at 12:46 pm
This is a great idea (at least from my perspective). I’d like to know. It has got to be like $700,000, right? Maybe per decade.
I read somewhere that if you can’t pay your employees well, then you have too many employees. Or something like that. Sounds like good advice to me.
Jim
May 25th, 2005 at 5:43 pm
ok, I’m caving, I read this last night and have resisted all day, but I’ll bite.
Do I want to know how much you make? sure, why not, especially if you’re willing to give the info up. I’m skeptical, I don’t think you will answer as directly as it sounds.
As far as why do I want to know, I’m nosy, just like everyone else.
What do I think your worth? no clue….I’m not even sure what I’m worth.
The Other Simply Strategic Guy
May 25th, 2005 at 6:25 pm
If you decide to tell people how much you make, you should change the wording to say, “This is how much I made…” A minor difference, albeit more accurate :).
Tony Morgan
May 25th, 2005 at 6:36 pm
Wow, I was really expecting a lot more conversation than this. Maybe money isn’t as big a deal as I thought. Maybe I need to delay beyond Friday and give everyone a chance to consider whether or not they really want to hear what I make. Hmmmm… Let me think about that for a moment… Nope. I’m still on for Friday.
Tony Morgan
May 25th, 2005 at 6:40 pm
Wait a second. The “boss-man” finally chimed in. See that? He’s threatening to cut me loose if I reveal the information. Now it’s getting interesting…but I’m still on for Friday.
Sarge
May 25th, 2005 at 6:58 pm
it would be interesting to know..
Jim
May 25th, 2005 at 11:33 pm
ok, Tony, I’ll jump in there with you, on Friday, you reveal how much your church pays you and I’ll reveal how much my church pays me.
Paughnee
May 26th, 2005 at 11:41 am
My gut reaction to this is “no way.” Why does anyone (outside your church’s board of directors) need to know your salary? I can’t imagine why someone even asked you to reveal this information (unless it was a member of your church, which is a different case).
Whether you reveal this information or not, I’d be interested in your motivation in considering to do so.
Maybe I feel strongly about this because my dad is a pastor. Granted, he is not in as visible a role as you are, but I don’t see any benefit in sharing salary information in such a public forum as the internet.
Tim Stevens
May 26th, 2005 at 1:06 pm
You asked, “How much do you think I’m worth?” I figure that everyone else will just be guessing, but I may be one of the only ones who know the real answer to that question. As your friend, comrade in ministry, boss, co-author, and fellow journeyer in this thing we call “life,” I know you are worth at least twice as much as we are paying you. The value you add to the church and to my life is impossible to put a pricetag on.
Brad Hinman
May 26th, 2005 at 2:47 pm
Why is it so important to keep salary information confidential? I work for a large company. I speculate that upper management wants it kept confidential because they don’t want me to know that the guy who sits across from me makes more (or vice versa). What someone makes is not a reflection of their worth. Many people take a pay cut in order to do what they love and to me it seems these indviduals are probably worth more to their organization.
Jami Ruth
May 26th, 2005 at 5:00 pm
Wow, Tim’s reponse was warm and fuzzy…that’s intereting…guess the threats didn’t work…
Kem Meyer
May 26th, 2005 at 11:31 pm
Looks like you may be in a pickle… you share what you make, you’re axed…you don’t share what you make…you discredit yourself by violating the blogging “code” (using a trick gimmick). What to do, what to do… I guess I’ll sit back and watch the master navigate through…