By Rev. Matthew Todd, MTS,
MA, DTL
Why do many North
American Chinese Churches have a difficulty retaining English Ministry
Clergy? What church leaders can do to
change this?
One of my research findings is the high turnover rate and
short tenure of pastors serving with English language congregations in Chinese
churches.[1]
Although there is a multifaceted
explanation for short clergy stays and resignations, some factors would
also pertain to any church (e.g., insufficient conflict skills, poor self-care,
poor boundaries, getting out of a perpetual assistant pastor position, etc.); I
want to focus on one particular factor – that of being unable to stay in a pastorate for very long living on a meager
remuneration. Remuneration seems to
often be a taboo topic for pastoral staff to properly address.
Some people may feel this is not an issue since the pastor
is doing God’s work and therefore God will provide. Indeed God will provide and scripture states
that God intends to provide for his servants through His people. First Timothy 5:18 says, "Don’t muzzle a working ox," and
"The worker deserves his pay" (The Message). In 1 Corinthians 9:14 it says, “In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who
preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.”
It has been an observation in the Canadian context with
various Chinese churches that there are many of the local Chinese churches that
do not follow the salary recommendations of their conferences, headquarters
(denominational research), or head office; rather they tend to pay
significantly less (in the denomination I am in many of the Chinese churches
paid salaries that were approximately 20%-40% less than the mainstream pastors
were being paid in the same denomination).
It didn’t matter that the denominational headquarters posted their
salary recommendations for pastors on a public website; the Chinese churches
established their salaries by speaking to other Chinese churches on what they
were paying. This of course represents a
disregard for the wisdom, research, and findings that denominational leaders
are trying to dispense for the betterment of the local church and the longevity
and wellbeing of its ministry, pastoral leadership, and mission. When one looks at the church spread sheets,
the expensive vehicles and middle class housing of the congregants’ one quickly
realizes that the issue is not a financial one but rather a issue of
perspective.
One English pastor recollects during the candidating
process, being misled by the hiring committee, told the church could only
afford to pay the minimum ‘lowball’ in salary, only to later discover this
church had very little debt and congregational giving was approximately
$750,000. per year!
In many cases when a Chinese church pays their English pastors
low wages it can be a tacit statement of the low value of the English pastor’s
role & value in that church. It
fails to recognize that English pastors also pay the same price for their gas,
rice, bananas etc as everyone else in the congregation. It fails to recognize they are pinching the
pastor financially. I once served in
some evangelical forum discussions with a group of English pastors from Chinese
churches where they dialoged with Chinese language pastors and denominational
representation. A key concern they
voiced was feeling squeezed financially while working very long hours in the
ministry. Many of these English pastors
were not married and couldn’t see themselves getting married or being able to
have a family because they were paid so low.
One English pastor had a fridge and stove and car break down in the same
month and hadn’t had a salary cost of living increase in a number of
years. He was living on a very meager
salary. When he approached his executive
lead Chinese pastor to make a request to the church board for a salary increase
based on need he was told that he would be perceived as a “greedy pastor,” and
that his desire for an increase was “Western not Eastern thinking.” The English pastor realized that if his wife
ever lost her job that he would have to immediately leave shepherding the
English language congregation for a better paying job to avert falling into a
poverty situation; given his university and business degrees prior to seminary,
any secular job would have been an instant raise. That English pastor spent time in prayer and
was contemplating leaving the church – God answered his prayer and gave his
wife a job that paid $16,000. more per year.
That pastor stated, “My brothers (the deacon board and executive lead
pastor) at the church did not help me with my basic financial need, however God
did.” This is an exceptional case, more
often former English pastors have reported that they left pastoring in a
Chinese church because they could not afford to stay. I have had English ministry pastors share
with me that they had to supplement their church salary with former old
investments and capital (e.g., RRSP’s, registered investments, etc.) they had acquired before they came to work
for the church – they expressed that it cost them financially to work for the
Chinese church. A number of English
pastors admitted that if their spouse wasn’t working in a marketplace job they
could not afford to serve as a pastor. One
fulltime (40-50 hours per week) English ministry intern was merely paid $1,000.
per month for a year with fulltime working expectations and regular office
hours; he survived by living off money sent to him from his mother who lived
overseas. The church this intern served
in had approximately 500 people in it and no debt – clearly another lowball
financial arrangement. All the churches
being referred too in these statements were financially well off Chinese
churches hence the pastor’s salary circumstances were ‘man-made’ by the church
board officers. The image that is given to the congregation is that the
ministers are properly and fairly remunerated and should suffer for the gospel,
and in that they get a little help from the board. Some feel that because a few families may be
having financial struggle in the church that should be reflected in the pastor’s
salary. The salary recommendations in my
own denomination are placed on their website so that as many people in our
churches can access them and not keep them a secret with just the board members
or a 'power group'. One English pastor
shared:
I know God is generous, but some of his church board leaders have the
idea that to be godly is to be cheap and tight-fisted. I observe their lifestyles, cars, etc. and I
see a double standard - sort of reminds me of a certain group of people in the
bible who said one thing but personally practiced a different standard for
themselves. I hear of their vacation
trips, retreats, holidays, shopping purchases and so forth; I just thank God I
can keep gas in my car.
The more philosophical question is,
'how can God bless such churches when when the church deacons & officers there
is this margin of inequity practiced?' The
crux of the matter comes down to fairness.
How can board leaders indicate they want a pastor 24/7 and say that they
are paying them reasonably when often they are paying less than janitor’s
wages?
In the denomination I am in I recollect the denomination
head office sending a leadership delegate to do an hour presentation to each of
the various Chinese church boards to address the problematic issue of clergy
care and salary. I remember the dead
silence of the board during the presentation and the statement by the board
chair (who was the lead Chinese church pastor) to the pastoral staff after the
denominational leaders left: “I just
laugh at those kinds of presentations; all you pastors knew what kind of salary
you were signing up for when you were hired!”
I want to believe that the denominational leaders urge churches to
obtain their recommendations for implementation based on their concerned
studies about healthy churches, longevity in ministry, and the well-being of
clergy and their families. This is their
endeavor on the matter of justice and fairness.
Those that ignore the discernment of spiritual hierarchy, unless it is
for real financial struggles, do so to the diminishment of the health of the
church, and contribute to the brevity of ministries and potential hardships to
clergy families.
It has been noted in Pulpit and Pew’s research on Asian North
American leaders that “ascertaining the effect of salary on longevity of Asian
Americans in ministry is difficult;”[2]
however many Asian North American trained pastors do not stay in their ethnic
churches after a period of time in part to get away from the more culturally restrictive
environment – anecdotally pastors have cited that includes Chinese church
boards attitudes towards the remuneration for ministry. Kasinitz’s research regarding second
generation Chinese adults has pointed out a general financial finding; the
second generation advantage comes by venturing out of enclaves into mainstream.[3] It is financially regressive for local born
Chinese to remain working in ethnic enclaves.
If second (next) generation Chinese want to move up, “moving up generally
means moving out.”[4] Hence we should not be surprised to discover
many English ministry pastors may eventually move on from Chinese church
bicultural structures and look for more opportunities in other kinds of church
models where there is more financial breathing room. Kasinitz comments “that working in co-ethnic
or co-racial work [contexts can have a] negative impact…”[5]
My point in this article is that things don’t have to be
this way. The Chinese Diaspora church
board and executive leadership can bring their pastoral salaries in line with
North American (or cost of living) standards and alleviate this factor that
contributes to shorter English ministry pastorates. In regards to this
discussion it can be insightful for church board leadership to consider the
downside of high English congregation pastoral turnover:
Several things result on account of high EM[6]
clergy turnover:
A) High volumes of
pulpit supply in the English language congregation – this may have a short
term financial saving, but in the long run extended pulpit supply in the place
of hiring and properly paying a steady EM clergy has some long term losses
because visiting pulpit supply does not disciple, mentor, visit, shepherd, counsel
or strategize growth ministries. My
research[7]
has uncovered reports by Canadian born Chinese on the poor quality of
shepherding and irrelevant life stage ministries because of high turnover of
the EM clergy. English language
congregations can often be left for extended periods of time without proper shepherding
care and attention which contributes to congregational discouragement.
B) A High number of
EM congregants leaving (Silent Exodus) these congregations because of their
life stage shepherding needs being unmet for lengthy periods of time. In many cases the obstacle for various Chinese
churches in obtaining and retaining a pastor for the English language
congregation is that the salary offered is too low for the pastor to sustain
staying in that church. Proverbs 11:24
could apply here, “One person gives freely, yet
gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.”
Several recommendations:
1) Those English pastors negotiating terms of employment
going in to a Chinese church English language congregation should also inquire
of how the board addresses salary matters year after year (e.g., cost of living
increases). One former English pastor in
a large Chinese church of 850 (English congregation 250) people told me he
didn’t get a salary raise in seven years – not even a cost of living increase. In
this regard I agree with Rev Johnny Wong (Edmonton Christian
Community Church)
that “In developing a roadmap to long term ministry commitment the Chinese
church needs to develop the pastoral ecosystem that includes addressing
compensation. The executive pastor can help by speaking up for younger
pastors – lead pastors can pave the future.”[8]
2) The church can establish a recommendation committee to
advocate for the pastoral staff on matters regarding salary and benefit
package. Or an advocate position on the
board can be a regular appointment of someone whom pastors can go to and
express concerns.
3) The church board
should consult their denominational head office for the pastoral salary
indexing and recommendations for the area your church is located in and be
intentional to try to follow that indexing.
4) If the Chinese
church is too small and cannot afford to properly pay a fulltime English
pastor, then why not consider a volunteer
lay pastor title and role for a church worker – it avoids the English
minister being over worked and allows both the church and volunteer servant a
way to be able to retain a more volitional relationship. It allows a church with limited finances to
be able to avoid financial pressures and it empowers the lay pastor to say no
to unreasonable expectations and avoid burnout. The apostle Paul at times served this way: 2
Corinthians 11:7-9 “Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you
by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge? I robbed other churches
by receiving support from them so as to serve you. And when I was with you and
needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia
supplied what I needed. I have kept myself from being a burden to you in any
way, and will continue to do so.”
In conclusion I love the mission and growth potential that
exists with a Chinese churches English language congregation, but I have also
recognize that there are some things that contribute to the erosion and diminishment
of the English ministries; one of those is not properly financially sustaining
the shepherd causing them to leave in order for them to properly care for their
families and basic financial needs. Scripture warns of the domino effect of the
loss of the shepherd in Matthew 26:31 “…strike the shepherd, and the sheep of
the flock will be scattered.”
Dr. Matthew Todd, MTS,
MA, DTL
Matthew has served in
English ministries in bicultural and bilingual settings as a speaker,
vocational youth worker, community service worker and ordained English
ministries associate track lead pastor. He has additionally served in the
executive leadership of the Chinese churches association in his denominational
as a English pastors liaison, in the former Greater Vancouver English
Ministries Fellowship (VCEMF – now called Shepherds Circle), helping to plan
joint ministerial initiatives and next generation Chinese Canadian events in
southern British Columbia. In addition
he has formerly served as a teacher for 13 years with Pacific Life
Bible College
and currently maintains an itinerate speaking ministry. A key focus of his
written work has been towards the mission longevity and health of English
ministry congregations in Chinese bicultural church contexts.
[1] Matthew
R S Todd, The Retention of
English-Speaking Adults in Chinese Diaspora Churches Through Empowerment
(Wipf & Stock Publishers: Eugene,
OR: 2015).
[2] Timothy
Tseng et Al., “Chapter Three: The Second Generation and Beyond,” Pulpit & Pew Research on Pastoral Leadership:
Asian American Religious Leadership Today: A Preliminary inquiry (Duke Divinity
School, Durham, N.C.:
2005), 28.
[3] Philip
Kasinitz, Inheriting the City: The
Children of Immigrants Come of Age (Russell Sage Foundation, NY: 2008),
2002, 16.
[4] Kasinitz,
202.
[5] Ibid.,
199.
[6] From
this point forward EM is the abbreviation for English ministry.
[7] Matthew
RS Todd, The Retention of
English-Speaking Adults in Chinese Diaspora Churches…
[8]
Regeneration Conference held at Carey Theological college, Nov. 2014.
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