New on Bellevue's problem handling...

[William Thornton]

In a megachurch (Bellevue Baptist Church) various issues (pay, personality, staff changes, financial, leadership style...) arise over the new pastor (Steve Gaines). Members, dissatistifed and upset, feeling their questions have not been answered and they have been mistreated, blog about it and . There are other sites. These seem to be the two main ones.

Cricitism abounds of the pastor, staff policy. Reactionary criticism abounds of the critics. The pastor attempts to answer questions in an open church meeting but this is a failure and he travels up the road and unwisely talks about how he handled the critics at another church. Criticism continues and grows.

The church (1) says contact one of the 180 or so deacons if you have a question. Some deacons, when contacted react in an unhelpful manner, (2) establishes a committee to handle communications, which committee is available at the church before or after services and which committee will also field written questions. This seems not to do much to blunt the critics or to answer their questions, so, (3) The communications committee establishes their own which is available for all to view. Included in the site are postings of church policies, and most interestingly answers to frequently asked questions that covers accusations about the pastor's use of church credit cards and other things.

After a couple of months of the critics' blogs where questions are raised, rumors are sounded, and accusations are made, where hundreds of thousands of page views are made by church members and visitors alike, BBC decides that they need to put it out in the open and respond in such a way that everyone can hear the answers; hence, their own website that handles the rumors, the accusations, the criticism.

Some questions are answered (the credit card charges). Some questions are not (pastor's salary).

Church life in the 21st century?

[Randy]

[Ed Pettibone]

[Norm]

[William Thornton]

[Haruo]

[Randy]

[William Thornton]

[Norm]

Bellevue's rationale for concealing salaries:

It has been Bellevue's practice for many years to keep salary information confidential. This policy is based upon practices and experiences of other large churches and similar organizations. This policy serves two purposes: 1. The protection of sensitive and private employee information. 2. The preservation of staff and congregation unity. Frequently, salary disclosure results in dividing the staff and congregation. Individuals not involved with the salary process do not have information on job qualifications, job responsibilities, and the labor market to properly determine if a salary is adequate or inadequate. Our Budget Planning Committee is equipped with this information to make fully informed decisions.

Observations

What cannot be understood concerning job qualifications, job responsibilities, and salaries for similar duties in the labor market? Until this information was researched and created, it was unknown to everyone in the congregation (including the committee and consultant). It need not remain so for others not involved in its generation. The committee could, shall we say, share the information with the congregation. Do members of the Budget Planning Committee receive special wisdom once elected to the committee to enable them to understand this information?

The first response given for concealing salaries is: because we do. The second response is: because others do.

Concerning the purposes of protection of sensitive information and staff morale:. Such would only be a problem if equity is in question. Absent equity issues, there is no basis for morale problems due to salary (and let us keep in mind that job dissatisfaction related to pay is not always discernable from one’s performance). Actually, absence of information is very likely to cause tension (intra- and interindividual). Research findings: peers tend to overestimate peer salary, but underestimate supervisor’s salary. Thus, keep ‘em divided by questioning each other so that they will not unite to question those with power over them. If there are equity issues then the congregation needs to know of such; it has an ethical, a Christian responsibility to ensure the highest integrity of its personnel policies, processes, and procedures. The congregation cannot ensure anything that it has no knowledge of or information about. The information desired is a reasonable request. Denying it is not a reasonable response. The stated Bellevue response above is inadequate. It does not quell opposition; it causes more concern.

Bellevue, the books, please. Bellevue, open the books.

[Sandy]

Non-disclosure of the pastor's and staff salaries is just one more good reason, among many, why I wouldn't attend a megachurch.

If you are in the ministry, you have to know up front that what you make, especially in a Baptist church, is something that the congregation needs to decide by concensus and vote on. If I can't see the figure, then I vote against whatever it is. I think there is as much disunity and "gossip" if the figure is not disclosed than there is when it can be seen, and it is an obscene amount of money.

[Ed Pettibone]

[Cathy]

[William Thornton]

[Cathy]

[Jonathan]

[Chris]

[Cathy]

[William Thornton]

[Dave Roberts]

[Jim1964]

[Ed Pettibone]

[Chris]

[Ed Pettibone]

[Haruo]

[Ed Pettibone]