Money is never a particularly good reason to make a decision. In an ideal world, none of us would make our biggest life choices on the basis of what they mean for our bank balance. Love, vision, or a sense of calling are all much better motivators, and given the option, most of us would respond to them in the first instance. It’s not always that simple however, and it certainly doesn’t seem so when those direct debits slowly trickle from your account. Money is tight when you’re in youth ministry; it’s not a well-paid profession, and while none of us got into it for the financial incentives, we’d all like to earn enough to feel a little more comfortable.
Salaries in youth ministry vary wildly; given how many ‘how much should I pay?’ calls I fielded while editor of this magazine, it’s fair to say that few employers have a well-thought-out wage structure in place. Some people are working for £10,000 plus simple accommodation, but I also know of one church youth work post which pays over £30k and includes a lavish house to boot. Sometimes, but not always, the employer takes the cost of living in an area into account. In some cases, there’s a thought-through pay structure in place which allows for incremental increases over time.
At 22, fresh out of university and hopefully still led more by vision than financial reality, these figures don’t seem too bad. The problems tend to come when we start to move into more expensive phases of life: getting married, having kids, perhaps looking to buy our own home. Suddenly the numbers don’t work any more; the ‘gift’ of free accommodation suddenly becomes an obstacle to joining the property ladder or the reality of going down to a single salary during times of maternity or a partner’s redundancy begins to bite hard. Simply put, many youth work jobs simply don’t pay enough to enable life to work.
Money is a strange thing among youth workers. We rarely talk about it, yet it’s a major pressure for most of us. It’s a dangerously unspoken issue which routinely leads to either financial hardship, or to gifted people feeling that they can no longer work in the profession. It’s time to take a more grownup approach to money in youth ministry. I want to suggest three starting points.
Employers must try to pay more
I’m not naive; as one of the leaders of an organisation which employs a lot of youth workers and specialists, I realise the huge financial pressures that churches and organisations are under. For some employers, and particularly churches, the meagre youth work salary they pay is all they can afford without breaking the bank. For many others though, the capacity to pay more does exist, and churches are simply paying what they can ‘get away with.’ If a church truly values its youth worker, and wants them to stay around longterm, then the salary they pay should reflect this, and enable the worker to put down roots. Housing is a crucial issue here too. Many churches own properties and lend them to youth workers as part-payment, while also earning from its accrued value in a rising market. What if instead, churches helped their youth workers to buy their own homes? Some innovative thinking around this issue is desperately needed.
Churches should enable ‘tent-making’
Some employers discourage gaining additional income through a second or freelance job. I believe they should be actively encouraging it. Faced with the economic reality of a profession which can’t pay enough, a worker who is seeking extra income isn’t being greedy; he or she, but is actually helping to fix the financial problem the employer has created. Of course one can’t interfere with the other (you can’t miss youth group because you’ve got a cleaning shift), and youth workers shouldn’t overburden themselves with a seven-day working week, but a bit of Pauline tent-making could make all the difference. And here’s a really radical idea: could churches reduce youth worker hours (but still pay the same salary), in order to make space for this?
Faith needs to trump pragmatism
The answer to this isn’t always, ‘we need more money’; sometimes it’s ‘we need more faith’. In situations where employers are doing all they can but the sums don’t add up, we should rely on God’s input. If he has called us, he will enable that calling (that won’t often mean ‘miracle money’ dropping into bank accounts). None of us should leave a job because of money before we’ve sought God for another solution.
Instead of being scared to talk about money, let’s have an open discussion in our churches about how we enable longer-term youth ministry through proper pay. And for our part, let’s try to make our career choices based on more than the bottom line.
