If you must answer, your best response might be something like, “I am happy to entertain an offer that is based on the pre-determined salary range for the position.”  As the ones offering the position, it is their responsibility to lead the conversation regarding compensation.  A common rule of thumb is “Whoever mentions money first, loses.”  They know this; that’s why they are asking you to respond first.

Peter Drucker used to say that your job description (we’ll call it a Performance Agreement from here on out) should be written in such a way that only one person is capable of applying for the job.  The point: it must be precise, clear, and compelling.  It should be written in such a way that it naturally “weeds” out almost every interested applicant, until the one qualified person reads it and knows it was written exactly with them in mind.

Performance Agreements should include the following:

Position Purpose:
Statement of 1-2 sentences describing why the position exists.  Because it is a summary, it is normally the last section to be completed.

The purpose should help the reader quickly understand the basic role of the position within the organization.  It is typically written in a 2-part statement:  a task statement and a purpose for completing the task.

Ministry Team Expectations:
Lists key team members with whom this position works and serves, both internally and externally, and a list of their expectations.

Leadership Roles:
These are roles that a leader plays on a team and is closely related to personal leadership style and gifting.

Leadership Responsibilities:
This is the core of the work that is being required from the person in this position. List in complete sentences and assign a percentage of time that is estimated will be spent in each responsibility.

Qualifications/Education/Experience Required:
This is a brief explanation of the minimal level of education and experience required to perform the position.  Education should be identified by field or equivalent.  Where specific educational requirements exist, these should be stated.  Experience is often stated in a range of years.

Decision Parameters:
This section is used to indicate the level of approval that has been delegated to the position. This can include purchasing authority or approval.  Other non-numerical authorizations can also be listed in terms of approvals and decision-making at the job, or in absence of persons at higher levels of the organization.

Standards of Performance:
This section can be used to list key performance indicators to the organization within the scope of responsibility of this position.  These can be a general list or specific to a given time period for objective setting.  Also included can be objective standards, but non-numeric, for programs or initiatives within the organization.  In other words, what are the ways your performance is measured?  What are the metrics and standards that will be used?

Work To Be Performed In The Next Six Months:
These are strategies or action steps from the annual strategic plan that are “owned” by the leader. This work can also be in the area of personal growth and development that the leader agrees to pursue.

Write it in such a way that it “pops.”  If it doesn’t sound like an exciting opportunity to you, it will not sound like an exciting opportunity to someone else, especially top talent.  The more clear, precise, and compelling you can make the Performance Agreement, the fewer and better qualified applicants you will have.

For most churches, personal compensation is a private issue.  We are not supposed to know what our colleagues earn, but in small organizations, even though no one is supposed to know…everyone knows.

My suspicion for this lack of open dialog is that deep down we know how we compensate people is unjust.  It’s not just because we have no criteria to guide our decisions and it varies from person to person.  Sure, at times we may reward years of experience or education, but we are not sure how much weight these things should carry or if they carry the same amount of weight for every person.  So each person is left to “wheel and deal” on their own, often leaving large gaps in salary for no apparent reason.

The two dominating criteria churches use in determining compensation are personality and power.  Are you liked?  All the better if you are liked by the people who possess power.  Or, do you have the position and power to influence the decision (even if you are not well liked)?  But, woe to you who are not liked by the people who are in power (even if you are very skilled at what you do).

However, there is a just way to compensate and reward the people in your organization.  It’s called JESAP (Job Evaluation Salary Administration Program).  According to the Johanson Group, here is how it works:

1.    Clearly define every role (position) within the organization.
2.    Assign a point total or “weight” to every position based on the level of responsibility included within the role description.
3.    Create a salary range for each and every role description/position within the organization.

JESAP eliminates injustice for both parties in two directions.  For the employee, it takes the guess work out of your salary.  You will know what is expected of you, and what you can expect in return.  The only negotiation that occurs is where in the range you will fall.  It establishes an agreeable wage for a job well done.  This is why many businesses refer to “job descriptions” as “performance agreements” because an agreement between employer and employee is being established.  From the other direction, it protects the organization from either unwarranted or “need-based” requests for “pay-raises.”  More than likely, you will always want to make more than what you earn and needs will always arise.  However, it is not a fair expectation to think that your salary should increase simply because you think it should increase.

On that note, as an employee you have one opportunity per year to negotiate your salary.  It is during your annual review (if your supervisor does not provide this to you already, establish one).  If the expectations for your role are clearly defined and if a salary range is pre-established for the position, and if you agree to do the job for the compensation they are offering you, then it seems right and just to be thankful for the opportunity to contribute, knowing you will be fairly rewarded, and get to work.

Imagine walking down the hallways of your organization without any money “secrets.”   Imagine everyone knowing how every person in the organization was compensated and why.  Imagine everyone knowing exactly what they needed to do in order to earn more.  Imagine everyone knowing when their next pay-increase would occur.  Imagine organizational leadership knowing precisely how much they needed to raise the annual operating budget in order to keep up with inflation.  Imagine no more complaining about being under-paid because everyone in the organization agreed to their salary.  This seems to be the better way.

Note: If you are interested in learning more about JESAP or establishing this program inside your organization, please contact Mark directly.

I find this excerpt from Fredrick Buechner’s Wishful Thinking to be particularly helpful:

To forgive someone is to say one way or another, ‘You have done something unspeakable, and by all rights I should call it quits between us.  Both my pride and my principles demand no less.  However, although I make no guarantees that I will be able to forget what you’ve done and though we both may carry the scars for life, I refuse to let it stand between us.  I still want to be your friend.

The first conversation was with two amazing Young Life V.P.s of Field Ministry, Wiley Scott and Angel Ruiz, who were at Fuller for a day.  I ran into them Tuesday morning and they invited me to coffee that afternoon.  With a tiny bit of schedule juggling, I was able to say yes.

The second conversation was with my good friend, Nancy, who came to my house to pick up her son and ended up staying for an extra hour.  We sat outside and watched our kids swim in my pool and had a really good and honest talk about balancing marriage, motherhood, and ministry.

The third was Wednesday night when Dave and I were going to “drop by” another professor’s home, Dr. Pam King, to check out her driveway as we are in the middle of some construction at our house.  Turns out that Pam’s husband, as well as another Fuller faculty member, Dr. Cynthia Eriksson, and her husband were having dinner together.  So we crashed their party and stayed for an hour, instead of the ten minutes we had assumed.

In all three cases, I had space in my calendar because it wasn’t crammed full.

In our recent Urban Youth Worker Self-Care Tool Kit, Dr. Jude Tiersma Watson and Kimberly Williams write about Jesus’ command to love our neighbors as ourselves:  “If I were to literally love my neighbors in the way I love myself then I probably wouldn’t let them sleep when they were tired, would give them more responsibilities and expectations than they could handle, and deprive them of water when they were thirsty.”

I think if I was loving myself as I would want to love my neighbor, my kids, my husband, or my friends, I wouldn’t jam my schedule so far.  I’d have more room for those God moments and God meetings that aren’t scheduled.  I long for that.

During my last phone call with Chris Coble from the Lilly Endowment, after I explained the great interest that the students we are surveying are expressing in service and justice work, he recommended I read “Acts of Faith” by Eboo Patel.  Patel is an American Muslim from India and the founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core.  In the midst of the conversations and programs coordinated by the Interfaith Youth Core, one of their key emphases is service and charity, for they find those two values cut across religions.

As interesting as the background on the Interfaith Youth Core was, since I finished the book two hours ago I can’t stop thinking about a different theme in the book:   many religions focus on youth for they recognize that youth are both impressionable and behold great power.

At one point, Patel spoke with a teenage friend of Osama bin Laden.  Bin Laden was 14 years old when a P.E. teacher at his school started an afterschool Islamic study group.  Students could play soccer after school if they joined this study group.  The students began memorizing passages from the Qur’an.  After a while, the charismatic and popular P.E. teacher exposed the boys to stories that nudged the group into an acceptance of violence on behalf of Islam.  The former friend of Bin Laden dropped out of the group but others, including Osama, became more and more devoted to a “by any means necessary” approach to restoring Islamic law.

I can’t help but wonder what might have been different for Bin Laden, for Islam, for the U.S., and really much of the world, if Bin Laden had had a different iadult nfluence as a teenager.

If you’re a parent or a youth worker, your work is important.  You never know who might be sitting in front of you at church.

In addition, their generosity is less likely to decline in challenging economic times than that of richer givers.

Those of us who are not-financially-poor have so much to learn.

I hope it stretches and inspires you as it has me.

If we are honest, we must recognize that in many ways, our faith communities have failed in their responsibility to provide sanctuary for our children.  We have not addressed the layers and years of woundedness and hurt that carry on across generations in the lives of many of our young.  When these wounds go unattended they frequently lead to rage, hatred and desires for vengeance.  We see this cycle play out time and time again and this often translates into victims becoming offenders.  However, if justice is about righting wrongs, we can begin to right some of these issues today.

To learn more about the issues surrounding our juvenile justice system and get ideas for ways we can become more involved, visit www.fairsentencingforyouth.org or www.fcfcla.org