Tag Archive for: compensation

Called Worker Compensation Bible Study

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If you are a called worker or church leader responsible for called worker compensation, you’ve probably heard about the newly released Called Worker Compensation Calculator. In fact, last month I wrote a brief ministry resource blog post on the topic. What maybe wasn’t clear are the great resources that have been created around the whole topic of compensating those who have dedicated their lives to full time ministry. The most recent offering is a brief video Bible study that can be used by calling bodies to think properly and biblically about the entire process of support called workers. The video is embedded at the bottom of this post.

A summary of the Bible study reads:

This brief Bible study on called worker compensation focuses on a few key passages, reminding calling bodies of God’s grace in providing public ministers of the gospel and their God-given responsibilities toward those who minister to and with them. The study offers guidance to congregations and schools regarding a process to follow and tools available to assist them in a careful, prayerful, and thoughtful approach to compensation.

The PowerPoint slides that Professor Treptow shared with the study is also available. Used together the video and PowerPoint slides would be a great tool for a church council and/or school board to work through before the budgeting season begins. What a great way to prayerfully approach the important work of called worker care.

Related resources

 

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WELS Called Worker Compensation Calculator

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For years churches, schools and their called workers have struggled to make sense of the official WELS salary matrix. At this year’s synod convention that all changed. The delegates approved the use of a new tool called the Called Worker Compensation Calculator. It’s really rather simple…which is the whole point. Someone can visit the calculator site at

wels.net/cwcompcalc

and after entering information, see the recommended salary range for any given called worker. The calculator fields include: Name, Sex, Years of Service, Position, Year, COLA, Housing Allowance, Health Insurance, Sec 105 Employer Contribution, Long Term Disability, Accidental Death & Dismemberment, Education, Responsibilities, and Other (where you can add your own components in). Once the data has been entered it provides a nicely formatted print out of the total compensation for a called worker. This can be used as a guideline, or a worksheet from which to begin compensation discussions.

In an effort to make it even easier to use, most fields have an information icon that can clicked on to learn more about that compensation component. “Smart fields” are also built into the form to give warnings when numbers entered don’t seem to make sense…for instance entering a monthly housing allowance number rather than an annual one. The calculator does all the addition, subtraction, multiplication and division for you, but “shows it’s work” so you know how all the numbers were arrived at. Finally there is an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section that gives some of the rational for some of the recommendations and calculations. It should be a great tool for anybody responsible for or interested in the compensation process.

This mobile-friendly calculator will be improved upon over time based on feedback. Give it a try and tell us what you think! See a demo video below for a quick walk through.

 

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508 – Synod Convention 2017 Special

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WELSTech is back, and Martin and Sallie are side-by-side in Watertown, WI to continue our biennial tradition of special coverage at WELS Synod Convention. We’ve got a great lineup of interesting interviews to give you an insider’s look at different topics related to convention.

The interviews:

Prof. Earle Treptow is on the faculty at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and serves as the chairman of the WELS Compensation Review Committee. He presented to the convention delegates several recommendations from the committee as well as debuted the recently developed Called Worker Compensation Calculator (wels.net/cwcompcalc).

Dr. Jeff Wiechman is Vice President for Academics at Martin Luther College as well as chairman of the convention Elections Committee. He explains why that role makes him a frequent visitor to the speaker podium. Plus we get an update on the state of technology at MLC.

Mr. Lee Hitter serves as WELS Director of Communications, and his responsibilities not only include ongoing synod communication efforts but also the complete coverage of Synod Convention. He shares details on the many communication platforms in play as well as the effort that goes into sharing the convention experience with the entire WELS membership. You can learn more about the convention, and watch live streaming coverage and regular video updates at wels.net/2017synodconvention.

Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 509 – Ministry resources take center stage once again next week. Tune in! Release date: Wednesday, August 9.

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