This question actually comes up a lot. Who owns the staff time?
In my last issue, I mentioned the illness of my dad. Thanks for your kind words.
And here is this week’s summer classic rerun, originally published two years ago, but a popular question that comes my way.
It has been slightly revised and updated.
And I need your help with something at the very bottom of the post today. Please read and give me the feedback. I will greatly appreciate it.
In part 1 of this two-part series, we covered a question from an executive pastor who had a staff pastor asking permission to work a second job to make ends meet. There were the encouraged, discouraged, and permitted categories.
The church’s pay scale they considered competitive, and the staff member wasn’t complaining. However, some family needs and debt issues led the staff member to explore alternative income sources.
So read part one, and I promised to address a few related questions in part 2. Here we go:
Priorities, seasons, family, and time commitments
In most cases, the church, as an employer, desires to be the top priority for its staff members. It is not your ministry, but the church’s entire ministry, that takes precedence.
Depending on geography, churches experience seasons with natural peaks and valleys. In the peak seasons, all staff are expected to be all in. The church wants priority and to have its entire staff complement. More permission is given in that church’s off-season for more time away for vacation and other commitments. (see this post on seasons in a prior Church Leader Insider)
Family means two things for these churches. First, is the staff member’s family being neglected due to other commitments? Secondly, is whether the “staff family” will be disrupted by the team member’s absence. Does the absence mean rescheduling meetings for other team members or creating hardship for the team? If so, a church will quickly move from more permitted to discouraged categories.
Generally, looking at the various policies, most churches limit the time commitment allowed for other work to leave time, vacation time, and hours generally outside of norming work hours for that church. These time commitments flow into different questions.
A staff pastor as Uber Driver created by Dall-E
Types of “outside” work
Ministry or other work? – A somewhat false distinctive as our faith needs to integrate us as whole persons, but the force of the emphasis is more on “does this involve other churches or compatible with our church’s primary mission” vs. “this is just an income-producing gig for my family.”
Most of the outside work I have observed among church staff involves ministry-related projects. These include speaking, book writing, consulting, songwriting, music production, artwork sales to other churches, creative service consulting, wedding-related services, corporate chaplaincy, online courses for other ministry leaders, and more.
Other work includes everything else, such as real estate sales, retail stores or stalls in a flea market, shared ride services, financial product or insurance sales, carpentry or other building trade, computer code or design, consulting with businesses, writing outside of the ministry field and so on.
Story continues after the ad…..
Another great church in the Senior Pastor Smart Succession process has released its public profile for its next Senior Pastor.
Grace Christian and Missionary Alliance Church is based in Middleburg Heights, Ohio (Cleveland).
For almost a year now, I have been serving this church in a slightly different capacity. Pastor Jonathan Schaeffer and his wife Mary have served this church well for many years. His father was the founding pastor before him.
He served so well that the whole US denomination has just elected him to be the next leader of the Christian and Missionary Alliance.
This case has been different because we did not know until late last month whether he would be chosen. But now that he has, he must depart for this new assignment.
Grace is seeking a fully credentialed CMA worker as their next leader. I know not all of you are in that fellowship, but you may know a great pastor in your area or network that is.
Please review their profile and story here and pass their profile to them. Time is of the essence here.
Grace CMA is a multisite church with three campuses in the Cleveland area.
And don’t forget my friends at Westwood Community
The Founding Pastor of Westwood Community Church, a multisite church west of Minneapolis, will be stepping down later this year.
Pastor Joel Johnson helped launch the church 30 years ago.
See the whole process and profile here: https://www.westwoodcc.org/pastorsearch/
Now it's time to provide them with a resume and a letter describing how you fit the profile.
Westwood is conducting a nationwide search. Please send it to people you know who might be a good fit for this great church.
Story continues…..
Generally, I see more of the former, ministry-related, and less of the latter in current practice.
However, you must carefully review your church’s intellectual property policies and guidelines for use.
One policy explicitly reviewed ruled out any multilevel marketing-type business due to potential conflicts that could arise with attendees. I also observed a rule against a staff member conducting a wedding photography business because it could create undue pressure for church attendees. The same photographer could do other shoots for other purposes, however.
The case of books and music publishing is particularly challenging. Who owns the rights to sermons, songs, and creative works while in the employ of the church?
Many new pastors will cover these items in legal contracts with the church. Care must be taken for staff to ensure that pre-employment agreements have not been overlooked.
Technically, the church owns all that material as a work-for-hire. Various policies have written agreements to either share revenue from these materials or develop ways the church benefits from resource development.
I have not seen policies for online group coaching or online course development established by a single staff member, nor have I seen how the church handles these matters. I imagine they exist, but I haven’t seen them.
Steady, occasional, but frequently occurring, or one-off?
In various documents, a distinction is made between a role, outside job, or gig that is more ongoing, frequently occurring, and one-off.
For example, a one-off could be a trip to give consulting advice to another church. A one-off could be an infrequent guest-speaking role.
In the case of some musicians, doing a side gig for a local concert occasionally was seen as great, but leading in another church regularly was not.
With the advent of the gig economy, ride-sharing services, handyman services, and even graphic artists’ boards, many staff members can earn occasional outside income by selling specialized services.
The particular case of substitute teaching - one leader said they advocate for staff to be on the local public school substitute teacher list to take occasional days inside the schools and get paid for it. They permitted several workdays a month to use in this way, as they felt it was a help to the community with some outreach on the side. They did not permit them to be “super subs,” however. This had to be managed carefully, but they claimed to see benefits from the relationships formed.
Approvals/Permissions/Agreements
In almost all written guidelines, the church requests that team members obtain permission and approvals before engaging in any additional paid involvement. In a few cases, this is even required for significant unpaid involvements, such as serving on a non-profit board.
The most common is supervisor-approved, executive-level, and board-informed.
For executive staff levels, these were carefully considered and subject to board approval.
Limited as to time – Is this a short season or a long exploration moving to a different direction in life?
Some staff need a short-term cash infusion to pay bills or set aside income to help with a purchase. These tend to be short seasons of outside work. However, others may wish to explore a new field as a potential career path.
These understandings should be clarified in conversations with supervisors to preserve good relational health.
Time agreements – Most policies allow for vacation and leave time to engage in outside work. The second most common reason would be unpaid leave for specific circumstances, such as regular outside work. Both were limited to a few weeks a year.
The least common scenario is establishing a regular, ongoing outside work or gig platform to conduct more frequent business or other activities weekly. Again, all this would be understood through prior agreements and understandings at the outset of engaging in the work.
These two parts describe the high-level generalities I have observed on this issue. Each church needs to formulate its own policies well to fit its context, situation, and staff. My hunch is that some fast-growing churches will see staffs desiring more flexibility in these areas in the future.
The help I need! Thanks for reading to the end.
I will be restarting a monthly series of webinars. First Wednesdays at 1 ET, 12 CT, 11 MT, and 10 PT. The survey here is based on some questions I have received in the past 6 months or so.
Before I create the slides, which ones would you find interesting? Please review and select the checkbox. It won’t take more than 30 seconds.
I will get it going and share the first title in my next issue, along with how you can register for these free sessions.
Don’t worry - taking the survey does not put you on some other marketing list.