After a surprising slam dunk on Cunningham's Labor II final exam, and the new insights he's had as writing his clergy labor supply paper (named, somewhat tongue in cheek, "Left Behind? Relative Wages and the Market for Clergy"), our favorite economics graduate student is nearing the completion of his third semester at the University of Georgia. The principles of macroeconomics class is over; he only has to grade their finals. He got the B he needed to stay alive in his own Macroeconomics class. He had to take an incomplete for his Game Theory class, but that's okay, because so did half the class. All in all, he might actually manage to squeeze a few A's out of this semester, as well as having learned a thing of two about teaching. One thing he definitely learned was that teaching, like justice, is blind - or should be. He feels pangs of sadness at the thought of giving his students C's, D's or gasp, F's, even moreso when he can match a face to a name. But alas, he must continually remind himself that to preserve the value of an A, and a B, he must assign grades according to merit, not love, nor sympathy. Justice, my friends. Justice.
Posted by scott at December 16, 2003 11:31 AM | TrackBackAs painful as it is to write an F for someone you like, pretty much nobody gets an F if they try at all.
Posted by: Ted at December 16, 2003 01:16 PMGlad to hear that things are looking up these days.
I can't believe that you titled your paper Left Behind. God will surely fry you for this one. :-)
p.s. At least two people in this world think that you're brilliant, so chin up, bucko.
Posted by: Wayne at December 16, 2003 03:15 PMFWIW, our Session here tries to peg compensation for its pastors to an equivalent of what an Army chaplain with similar time in service / promotions would be making. This makes sense in this community (an Army town). They haven't always been successful in keeping up with that, but they're trying.
Posted by: John Butler at December 16, 2003 04:17 PMThat's interesting John. Just out of curiousity, but what factors do you see driving salaries for clergy? What effect does the number of children you have, and the amount of education you have, have when the board tries to negotiate the salaries? Also, have you noticed anything like a shortage or a surplus of clergy in your denomination, and if so, what parts of the denomination are most affected by it? And if you do see those things, have you always seen them, or are they more recent phenomenon?
Posted by: scott cunningham at December 16, 2003 04:22 PMI'm glad you like that title, Wayne. It was one of those "I've-been-typing-for-hours-and-its-two-am" kind of genius ideas I'd had. But it kind of fits the topic, because I'm trying to see what effect the increases in returns to education and skill in the secular labor markets might be having on the market for clergy (since that represents their next best alternative). I hope that my teacher gets the joke. He's a Christian, so he might. Hehe.... "Left behind." I love it.
Posted by: scott cunningham at December 16, 2003 04:24 PMHey Wayne, one more thing, Elisabeth told me you guys were getting lunch or something. How was that? Write me and tell me offline at my uga account.
Posted by: scott cunningham at December 16, 2003 04:25 PMMy hero!!
Am I the only one to notice Scott's use of comic-book jargon to relate his exam experience?
Posted by: joseph at December 17, 2003 08:52 PMNo.
Posted by: bob at December 18, 2003 07:09 AMScott,
My experience with clergy compensation in the PCA is rather limited, having only served 2 churches as pastor in 17 years of ordained ministry.
Smaller town and rural churches cannot compete, compensation wise, with large city churches. I am somewhat aghast at the rates of compensation for men just entering the ministry in staff positions at some of our larger churches in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Their cash salary compensation is almost double many of the men in the rural or small town pulpits. Ditto for their housing/utility allowances as well. It is something of a struggle to learn contentment with what the Lord has provided in this part of the fields of service.
The approval of terms of a call to a minister from a congregation must be OK'd by the presbytery. Most PCA presbyteries don't have stated minimums for clergy compensation; they may question whether or not the package may be acceptable to the man or realistically provide adequately for him. We have had cases in the past where a congregation wasn't able to afford health insurance for the man and his family. The presbytery then paid for a catastrophic policy for him and his family, with instruction to the local congregation to relook the matter in a year's time.
I know that in Southern Baptist circles, three little letters, Ph.D., tend to jump you into the $100K+ category in pastorates (but not necessarily in academia).
Posted by: John Owen Butler at December 20, 2003 11:35 AMLove not justice? Love does no harm to neighbor so love fulfills the law. Fake grades are acts of hatred. Honest grading is love.
And I'm not touching compensation issues in a public forum!
Posted by: mark at December 22, 2003 11:58 PM