Gay Guy in Seminary Day 144 (Hebrew, Thou Dost Slay Me)

It's day 3 in the trenches. We've been marching 6 hours a day with no end in sight. The jungle is hot, and the enemy is tricky. Some of the letters are so quiet, you don't even know they're there until they're right on top of you. Then the words are zinging by your head so fast, you don't know what's going on. Right when you think you got a handle on the situation, they're gone. Sneaky bastards have the upper-hand 'cuz we're on their home turf. Spirits are high, but dropping. The onslaught is relentless. Some have resorted to bowling. I try to distract myself with cards. Don't know how much longer I can go on. Orders were to do recon on 1 thru 10 and sector 22 vocab. We have accomplished the objectives; but there'll be more orders tomorrow and we need to report back to the command post what we know. Any mistake will cost us. Tour ends in 3 weeks, but how many of us are gonna make it that far?

Gay Guy in Seminary Day 143 (Pastor's Salary)

I know this post is coming super early, but Hebrew class is kind of slow, so here it is. Plus, I'm not really writing anything, it's just gonna be a copy of fellow blogger's David Gillespie's blog on pastor's salaries that I thought was quite good, plus my response to it. Enjoy!

Southern Fried Faith

wednesday, january 6, 2010

Paying the Preacher

When I graduated from seminary, a time of, put plainly, poverty, I moved to a two-church field in Kingstree, South Carolina, where I would be paid a whopping $12,000 a year (with a manse provided). My first thought after those three lean years in seminary was, How on earth will I ever be able to spend all that money?

The reason that was a two-church field, I was told, was because of a disagreement among parishioners way back in the 1930's over how to pay the preacher. One group wanted to pay him in cash; the other preferred paying in live stock and garden crops. That's what I was told, though who knows the real reason.

Those days of paying religious professionals with chickens and collard greens and potatoes are long gone for the most part. According to a study I read, the average compensation package for a Senior Pastor in the U.S. is now somewhere around $80,000 a year (2009 Compensation Handbook for Church Staff). Of course, a lot depends on the size of the church, and even then, if that's the only income for the household, that really ain't a lot, all things considered. But consider that against the annual personal income per capita in my state of South Carolina in 2005: $28,285 and a median household income in 2005 of a little less that $40,000. Real median household income in the U.S. in 2007 was a little over $50,000; but then, of course, the economy tanked.

I'd hate to think how much preachers at megachurches with 20,000+ members take home; well, I have heard some mind-boggling salaries. One very popular megachurchin my hometown of Anderson reportedly allocates $3 million a year in salaries.

According to a survey done by Your Church Media Group at Christianity Today International, if you're talking about a church with weekly attendance of between 301 and 500 people, the average yearly salary is $102,623. I have some friends in thePCUSA, tall steeple folks, whose compensation packages exceed $150,000. That's a respectable chunk of change. Problem is, in the PCUSA for example, fully 50% of the churches are 100 members or less.

Now, stack those figures up against, say, the salary range for Master's level public school teachers in North Carolina in 2007: $33,000 - 64,000, depending on years experience. Granted, school teachers get a couple of months off in the summer, but I know a bunch of ministers who get more than 2 months off. For example, I knew of a Unitarian Universalist minister who was paid a little more than $70,000 a year, but who had two full months off and, get this, one Sunday per month off. And the office hours of that UU minister generally were 4 hours a week; two hours on two days. Pretty sweet work if you can get it.

Anyway, though I'm an ordained minister, I'm not paid by any church body, so I can with some legitimacy ask, "What do we get for all that money?"

Most tall-steeple church senior pastors I know operate more like CEO's than pastors as defined, say, by the old divine, Richard Baxter. Their job is primarily two fold: preach on Sunday morning and run the church, whatever "run the church" may mean. Some still do "pastoral" work, but not many. And I'm told that megachurch senior pastors don't do any "pastoral work," and my experience as a hospital chaplain generally proved that to be the case.

Lately I've been meeting a bunch of ministers who are, as we used to call them, tent-making ministers. That's to say, they have a day job, a job that pays the bills, and their service to the church is either non-compensated or minimally compensated. Additionally, more and more smaller churches, say in the PCUSA, cannot afford full-time ministers and some, even, are being shut down by their Presbytery. The problem that has to be addressed with "tent-making" ministry is that a number of folks spend 7 years of their lives training for one thing — being a minister — and would find it difficult to find gainful employment in a day job. That raises questions of theological education and how we train ministers.

Now I'm in no way suggesting that the idea of religious professionals being compensated by their churches should be done away with and we all return to "tent-making," (so named for the ministry of the Apostle Paul). But I think some re-thinking is most definitely in order, on all parts. And though I don't really know when the notion of a "religious professional" being compensated came into being. It is, good or bad, a fact of contemporary religious life. It's the way things are now.

Of course, for many, said, of course, jokingly, the preacher still only works one day a week. Well, we all know that's not true. Even if the only "public" appearance of a minister was in the pulpit, hours should (note: should, not necessarily do) go into the preparation of leading the worship and the sermon or homily or lesson — whatever you want to call it. In Protestant circles at least, preaching is still viewed as the primary function of the minister. Churches routinely put "preaching" at the top of the list in the qualifications of potential ministers.

But preachers, ministers, do a lot that may or may not be seen publicly, or at least they should: pastoral counseling, visiting the sick, being the "face" of the church in the local community and for that they should be compensated. How and how much? Tough questions for me.

Do we base it on education, with Th.D's and D.Min's making more than M.Div's? Do we base it on years of experience? Do we base it on church size? Should regional governing bodies, like Presbyteries, mandate minimum's that a church, regardless of its size and demographics, must pay?

Do we raise and lower the salary based on general economic conditions? I know of one Presbyterian church in my town that cut salaries for everyone on the staff. That raises a larger question: How much of a church's budget should be allocated for paying of salaries?

That last question — What percentage of a church's budget should be allocated for paying of salaries? — is, to me, in my present thinking, the most important one and I tend to think most churches approach budget making in a backwards sort of way. Or the larger question: How should churches fund themselves?

Here's a possible starting point: "They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one's need." (Acts 2:42-45)

Now that description of early church life is not normative, it is not proscriptive; but it is informative. I'm going to have to think about this some more. Your thoughts?

Gay Guy in Seminary Day 142 (Lengua)

I am so exhausted right now! 6 hours of Hebrew followed by a hike in the woods (saw some really cool mushrooms; I'll make sure to bring my camera next time) and a massive pile of dishes. But, I think the straw that broke the camel's back was peeling the skin off of the cow tongue.

Ain't she a beauty? This is my first foray into cooking cow tongue, inspired by the most amazing lengua I have EVER eaten when I went to visit my family over the winter break. My brother James introduced us to this place in Thousand Oaks that serves the bestestest Mexican food. It wasn't a restaurant, it was a Mexican grocery store that also sold food that was ready to eat, kind of like the deli you would find at Vons or Albertson's, ONLY ABOUT 100 TIMES BETTER! As you know, I am on a pretty strict budget (the tongue was pilfered from my parents freezer), so I did not go to the grocery store for any ingredients to make this dish. Luckily, I have a pretty well stocked kitchen so I had carrots and onions to help flavor the meat. I also had some frozen jalapenos left over from some other culinary extravaganza...I think it was salsa. Added a couple of bay leaves, some garlic, cumin, salt and pepper and a couple of tablespoons of marinara sauce to make up for my lack of tomatoes (Martha's gonna kill me O_o) Smells pretty good, should turn out okay I think.

Since I have never cooked cow tongue before, I looked up a few recipes on the Internet for so tips before I started. It's a good thing I did, because I was about to cut the sucker up into chunks and toss them into the pot. Apparently, you need to simmer it for about an hour and then peel off the tough and I suppose inedible skin. For those who have never felt the surface of a cow tongue, it is pretty rough. I think they have modified hairs on them to help the cows eat, maybe like a cat's tongue? Anyway, all of the recipes said to cook the tongue, let it cool off and then peel off the skin like it's this totally normal and easy thing to do. So, I cooked it, let it cool and tried to peel the skin off, except that skin was not coming off without a fight! I don't know if I didn't cook it long enough or if I cooked it too long, but this part was much more difficult that the recipes so nonchalantly implied.

BTW, peeling the tongue of a cow is a very strange experience. Also, a cow's tongue is enormous compared to what you're probably thinking of.

The really tough top part came off without too much trouble, but the side parts kept breaking. I finally gave up on peeling and just cut it all off. I cut it up into big chunks and they are now simmering on my stove.

Just tasted the broth. The second jalapeno might have been a mistake @_@

Gay Guy in Seminary Day 141 (Money Trouble)

Today was day one of the Hebrew intensive. As we have a new professor, we spent most of the day doing review so that we could get our brains back into study mode and the professor could get a read on how much Hebrew we know. He seems like he'll be a really good professor. He tells interesting stories about the origins of the words and letters and seems to have a healthy sense of humor. As hard as this term will be, it should be a fairly good time.

On a scarier note, my finances are scarily low. I even brought back about 15 lbs of frozen meat from my parents freezers to tide me over until I can figure out what I'm going to do about my money. I was supposed to be paying my parents back for a loan, but they have stopped collecting for the time being. I also called my sister today to borrow some money and I called Christina to see if we could share books for the class we have together in the Spring. Praise be to God, both said yes. It's good to have so many angels in my life :-)

I'm not sure if this was God's way of getting me to finally start looking for scholarships, but I wrote 6 or 7 letters today requesting scholarship applications and information that I will be sending out tomorrow. I also left a message for the person in charge of financial aid at the Graduate Theological Union to see about possibly getting more student loans. I don't want to keep getting deeper into debt, but I figure it's better than credit cards and I don't really know what else to do. I can't see myself getting a job because I barely have enough time to study as it is. A job will eat up all of the free time that I have, and I know I will burn out if I do that. Pray for me everyone. I know God will take care of this, but I can use all the help I can get!

Gay Guy in Seminary Day 140 (Points North)

After driving back and forth a few times, I have figured out that taking the I-5 from LA to San Francisco (or vice versa) as opposed to the 1 or the 101, will reduce your travel time by approximately 1 hour. Personally, I do not think this makes up for how boring the drive is, however there is an AMAZING Indian restaurant right off the I-5 called "Taste of India", where I was TOTALLY planning to stop at, but as I was not very hungry when I was driving by it and I am experiencing a crippling shortage of cash, I decided not to, THUS eliminating any real reason to take the 5. ALSO, there was traffic on the 5 today, not too much, but it was something that I had NEVER experienced before. I guess there were a lot of people heading back home after the holiday.

I tried an A&W burger for dinner (a poor substitute for Taste of India), and it wasn't half bad. (It wasn't half good either.) I passed up In & Out because I've been eating that pretty frequently and what I really wanted (since Taste of India was no longer an option) was Wendy's, but those are few and far between, so despite my general loathing of fast food, I decided I would try an A&W burger since I had as yet to try one. I really needed to eat something other than cheesy poofs, which I had been munching on during the drive (2 varieties: White Cheddar Corn Puffs and Baked Cheese Crunchies, both from Trader Joe's and both really really good. I also had a bag of crunchy Cheetos, but I couldn't justify opening the bag with the other two bags being open.)

So, now I'm back and blogging after a brief D&D session with Rus, Matthias, Ian & Terra. My back is sore from the drive and I am not looking forward to starting the Hebrew intensive O_o. Should be interesting.

Gay Guy in Seminary Day 139 (Packing, Risk and Pink Berry)

Not much to report today. Started the day by packing. Went to Pink Berry to experience their new chocolate flavor (it's really good!) Just lost a very long game of Risk. Gotta drive home tomorrow O_o.

Gay Guy in Seminary Day 138 (My Life in the Chinappines)

My family and I went to a huge New Year's Eve celebration last night at the Performing Arts Center in Oxnard. All I have to say is that Filipino people really, really, really love line dancing. I'm not talking about spurs and cowboy boots; I'm talking about any fairly recent pop song cover done by some unknown woman, usually a Filipino woman, and dancing in a line. Watching my mother in her sky blue taffeta dress trying to do the steps for the dance was literally one of the funniest moments of 2009.

OMG! I can't believe another year has gone by! Of course, today doesn't feel that different from yesterday, although I did have more fun last night than I have had for a New Year's celebration in a long time. It was a dry party, if you can believe it, so my siblings and I brought some beer in a cooler, and left it in my car. A couple of times during the night, we would excuse ourselves and hang out in the parking lot to have some drinks, as any self-respecting American would do on New Year's Eve. Dianne and Brian also had their flasks with them, Dianne had tequila, Brian had whiskey. I didn't have to much to drink last night, didn't even get a buzz, but it was fun tailgating it out in the parking lot.

As I stood in the courtyard watching the Filipinos line dancing, I remembered once again how strange it is to be Filipino. Not just Filipino, but Chinappino. It is very strange being biracial. While it is strange enough to be privy to witness the oddities of Filipino culture, I'm always reminding myself that almost no matter where I go, I will never really fit in, and it has nothing to do with my sexuality. I'm not saying it was uncomfortable, just an awareness that I was in a very real way different from most of the people there. Most of them were 100% Filipino, or as close as you can be in this world because pretty much every Filipino you meet will have some Spanish blood in them. The members of my family were some of the very few Chinese people that were there. And, when we go to Chinatown, we are some of the very few Filipino people that are there. Of course, you have your requisite white military husbands there, but that is a blog for another day. For some reason, there were very few people there under 40. I guess most of these people's children had better parties to go to. I mean seriously, a dry New Year's Eve party???

At the end of the night, my siblings and I basically went crazy on the dance floor and took all kinds of crazy pictures. It was great! I love my family, XD