DALLAS (BP)–The 2008 Compensation Survey for Southern Baptist churches, a joint effort of Baptist state conventions, LifeWay Christian Resources and GuideStone Financial Resources, is now online at www.LifeWay.com/compensationsurvey. All ministers and employees of Southern Baptist churches are encouraged to participate.
Answers to the online survey are kept confidential and are not reported individually. The survey takes, on average, less than 10 minutes to complete. In addition to salary and benefit information, participants in the survey will need to have available their church’s average weekly worship or Bible study attendance, resident membership and annual budget.
LifeWay and GuideStone are pooling resources to conduct the online survey, compile the data and make available an online reporting tool for users to access results. The survey is available through mid-April and results will be released in time for the Southern Baptist Convention in June.
“Both GuideStone and LifeWay have a mission supporting the churches of our Southern Baptist Convention,” said O.S. Hawkins, president of GuideStone Financial Resources. “The 2008 Compensation Survey for churches is another avenue by which we all can work together to serve our churches with information to help them adequately compensate their ministers and employees.”
For more than a decade, GuideStone has teamed with Baptist state conventions to survey Southern Baptist churches concerning their compensation of ministers and church employees. Every state convention participated in the last biannual study in 2006, which included results from more than 7,000 churches and 17,000 individuals. Through the survey, church administrators, personnel and finance committees and minister search teams have access to an accurate baseline for comparing their own church’s salary and benefits with similar churches across the country.
Southern Baptist church ministers and employees may complete the survey through April 15. For staff at churches without Internet access, a paper copy of the survey may be obtained by contacting GuideStone Financial Resources at 1-888-98-GUIDE (1-888-984-8433) or by calling state convention offices.
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Reported by the denominational and public relations services office of GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.
