Church employees invited to participate in compensation survey

December 21, 2009

DALLAS — The 2010 SBC Church Compensation Survey, provided through the joint efforts of Baptist state conventions, LifeWay Christian Resources and GuideStone Financial Resources, launches again in January. The 2010 survey — available January 5, by visiting www.LifeWay.com/compensationsurvey — studies the pay and benefits of ministers and employees of Southern Baptist churches. All Southern Baptist church employees are encouraged to participate.

Through the survey, church administrators, personnel and finance committees and minister search teams have access to an accurate baseline by which they can compare their own church’s salary and benefits with similar churches across the country.

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 their church’s average weekly worship or Bible study attendance, resident membership and annual budget.

LifeWay and GuideStone are pooling resources to provide the online survey, compile the data and offer an online reporting tool for users to access results. The survey is available through April 30 and results will be released in June.

“Both GuideStone and LifeWay have a mission supporting the churches of our Southern Baptist Convention,” said O.S. Hawkins, president and chief executive officer of GuideStone Financial Resources. “The 2010 SBC Church Compensation Survey 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 bi-annual study in 2008, which included results from more than 7,000 churches and 13,000 individuals.

Southern Baptist church ministers and employees may complete the survey online through April 30. For staff at churches without internet access, a paper copy of the survey may be obtained by contacting their state convention office.