A new approach to setting salaries for church pastors, educators, and administrators will result in a fairer remuneration system for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America, according to members of the church’s executive committee who last week took the first steps toward adopting a more flexible remuneration plan for church employees.

The plan includes changes that will allow the salaries of local church pastors to reflect greater-than-average levels of responsibility for senior pastors of large churches, or for pastors who carry unusual responsibilities. It will also allow educators with greater responsibilities to advance to slightly higher salary levels. The changes were proposed by the North American Division Remuneration Taskforce, a group composed predominantly of Adventist laypeople.

The new plan recognizes a need to increase salary levels for pastors of larger churches and for educators who carry administrative responsibility, explained Kermit Netteburg, spokesperson for the Adventist Church in North America. He said the plan will bring more flexibility into the system and will result in a slight increase in salaries across the board. 

“These changes don’t alter the church’s commitment to the concept of mission and sacrifice in our wage system,” said Netteburg. “Far from bringing remuneration levels up to community standards, the most significant outcome of these changes will be a salary system that better acknowledges the important role played by pastors and educators in advancing the mission of the church.”

The remuneration changes were voted in principle on October 30 during the North American Division Year-end Meeting.  The remuneration plan will be studied further, and specific implementation steps voted at the 2002 Year-end Meeting, for implementation beginning in 2003.  The new system will be based on a 100 percent salary scale, as opposed to the 150 percent scale currently in place. The Commission’s report, which includes more detailed information about the remuneration changes, will be available the week of November 18 on the North American Division’s Web site, www.nadadventist.org.