Southern Baptists for many years proudly said, "We pay our people and they don't have to go around begging for money for their salaries."
In the area of college ministry, many nondenominational campus ministry groups have been raising their salaries for years. And.....much of their money was coming from individual Southern Baptists. In recent years, as giving has declined and expenses have soared, some Southern Baptist State Conventions have cut back on their number of BCM College Ministers. Declining offerings and increasing insurance costs, etc are not a good combination. So, we have seen the cutback of the number of BCM College Ministers in different states.
Did you know that Texas Baptist Student Ministry has 126 college ministry staffers raising all or part of their salaries? As a result, there over 200 people doing college ministry in Texas. They still have people who receive their salary (about 40) without fund raising. But, as college campuses have grown and more and more young adults have not confessed faith in Christ or are stepping away from church involvement, the need for college ministry has only increased.
Why are we afraid or reluctant to let college ministry staffers raise their own salaries?
1. For Southern Baptists one of the main concerns is that it will affect people's giving to their local church, which will in turn affect the Cooperative Program and simply cause ministry funding to decline even more. That is a logical argument. Yet, some who have studied that issue say it is not accurate. One factor is that more and more people today want to give some of their money directly to things they care about and see the need it is meeting. So, they are going to do it and we can choose whether or not to offer them a channel or let them go elsewhere with their gifts.
2. If people raise their own salaries, they are not answerable to anyone or "you can't control them." Again, this is a reasonable argument. I know the day I drove by a car wash and saw a sign that said it was raising money for the BSU Gospel Choir. Yikes!! I did not know anything about that. But, many places outside of the south have been allowing Baptist Collegiate Ministers to raise their salaries and have established excellent working parameters and partnerships that have benefitted all. It can be done.
3. They can raise some outlandish crazy salary. Somebody please point me to a College Minister who is getting rich raising their salary. Surely, there is at least one. Somebody point him or her out. Usually, those who are working in conjunction with a Baptist ministry, their salary figure is set in accord with a formula. And, many are working with only a part of their salary figure raised. In those situations they are usually required to have a certain percentage raised before they can start work or be full time.
4. “But, we have a Baptist College Minister on our campus” is one response. Hooray! Glad that is true. How large is your campus? How many students are there? Did you know that nondenominational ministries that do fund raising for salaries sometimes have as many as 15-20 staffers on a large campus? One large denominational ministry (not Baptist) in Georgia that has as many as 75 Interns raising their salary for one year of service has had as many as 1500 students at their weekly worship event. The number of staffers with a solid strategy has a direct proportional effect on the number of students being reached. Are you satisfied with the number of students that are being reached on your campus or in your state?
It is time for Southern Baptists, as a whole, to have a healthy conversation about fund raising for college ministry salaries. It is uncomfortable, but NECESSARY!
Arliss Dickerson writes some college ministry books that a few read and find helpful. If you might be one of those, go to Amazon.com/dp/B0BZ6Q7HSV and you can start there.
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