35. Twenty Nineteen (Part 13)

Over the summer of 2019, the church hired a local associational missionary to be the interim music minister. He was an older guy, friendly as could be. He had a good voice, worked well with others, and liked choirs, making the older people very happy. However, the pastor wanted a more modern guy, but there was an issue…

The previous music minister was supposedly making some noise. It could never be determined precisely what or who was doing this. Still, the pastor received word that every music minister we had come in view of a call was getting a phone call from some disgruntled former staff member, warning them not to take a job with this church, that it was a bad place to work.

Keep in mind that everyone in the state who was a part of our association and worked within the system knew what Tree Town Baptist had done; evidently, the music minister had made several friends while he worked at the church. It wasn’t being received well among his fellow music ministers, and the word was even making its way out of the state. To put it simply, no one wanted to come work for the church. The previous music minister had effectively marked it as an unhealthy place, or so the pastor thought.

This part of the story is important because it was during this time that the pastor was playing up the supposed Non-Disclosure Agreement that the music minister had signed. In warning other prospective music ministers about the church, he was in breach of this agreement, disqualifying him from receiving his severance. When I asked the pastor about this, he said it was being discussed that the severance pay should probably be cut off, but if the church did that, it could anger more people and make not only him look bad but the church as well and we couldn’t afford that kind of bad publicity. It’s interesting, isn’t it, that something that was so very important when the music minister was fired was now being overlooked… so much so that the pastor was willing to turn a blind eye. It makes one wonder just what parts of that story the pastor told were true. If this was such a big deal, where was the follow-through?

Another thing the pastor made sure to point out was that the only way the former music minister could know who was coming in view of a call was if the secretary was feeding them the information. He was willing to bet the farm on this. I have since learned that isn’t true at all. But, the pastor was just sure that the former music minister and the secretary were working together to make him miserable and it made him crazy.

He was livid.

It was making him look bad.

I remember one day when my husband and I visited the pastor’s house. We were standing in his driveway discussing the situation, and he said something like…I think I will recommend that the church hire the interim as a permanent part-time music minister. He continued… he isn’t exactly what we are looking for, but the people seem to like him and…

And this is where it gets good…

People in the association have been trying to hire him for years, and he never accepts… if I could hire him, it would look really good for me… coming in here from out of state and snagging someone who no one else could hire…

How many times had I heard him say something about how things made him look?

This interim guy was the only one who was even close to being willing to take the job. The church members were getting burned out by filling in; no one would come in view of a call, the church had to have music, and the pastor had to save face. So this older guy was the immediate answer.

Several members of the band weren’t happy with the idea. One person in particular I remember came out of the sanctuary the night the musicians found out about the hiring, and he was pretty upset about it. He felt like we were settling, and we were… this wasn’t even close to what any of us had in mind as a new music minister. I also clearly remember defending the decision to this man because the pastor had told all of the staff to make sure we spoke only positively and backed him up when people were skeptical. I stood there that night doing my best to convince this man that this was a great idea, that it was a great segway to something more modern, that this man was just what we needed… knowing in my heart the entire time that I didn’t agree… but knowing we were supposed to make sure the pastor looked good in making the decision.

I knew it was as good as done, and I knew the motivations behind it weren’t pure, not even close.

Something else I knew… this guy would definitely make more than I did. There were many reasons.

First, he was a man, and men in this church always made more; this had been proven.

Second, he had more years of experience than I did.

Third, this job was a more high-profile church position.

I also knew this would be hard for me to take after the year I had endured with my evaluation, my raise, and the hush money. So I decided to be proactive in dealing with it. I talked to my counselor. He agreed with my reasoning and said they would likely start his pay higher than mine. 

I was mentally prepared… I thought I was anyway…  

This would be the first time since I had been on staff that there would be another part-time employee; this would be the first comparison. So I was a little concerned.

During that staff meeting on September 30th, the pastor confirmed that he would indeed be recommending this to the church.

Call it divine intervention, but for whatever reason, my husband missed the email the pastor sent out. He didn’t see the email that came through on September 26th, which laid out the pastor’s plan for this recommendation.

Some of these following details overlap, so I will try to make them make sense.

Sunday morning, October 6th, 2019, we had Kids Worship, so none of my family was in the morning worship service.

On Sunday night, October 6th, 2019, me, my kids, the pastor’s wife, and their kids went to see For King and Country. I knew a few of their songs, but not many. The concert was amazing (I’m still not sure how we pulled off not being at church on a Sunday night), and those songs would hugely impact me during the next several weeks.  

This was the night that the church heard the recommendation, so I wasn’t there when that piece of business was brought up. My husband was working that night, so he also wasn’t there. 

Monday morning, October 7th, 2019… me, my daughter and my husband headed to Nashville, so I could attend a Children’s Ministry Conference. In all honesty, this conference was my last-ditch effort to convince myself to keep my job. However, I was beginning to feel the weight deeply. God was working on me. I couldn’t even describe it to anyone, but I felt heavily burdened that God wanted me to quit my job.  

This conference always energized me. I got new ideas, met with other people in the ministry, attended break-out sessions, heard excellent sermons… and this year, one of my favorite people was speaking… Louie Giglio.  

I sat in that service expecting God to show me something; I expected Him to reenergize me and give me a new love for the ministry. God did show me something… Louie began to speak.. he said he felt moved to share something different than he had planned…. He began to tell about the ministry he started in Waco, Texas, on the Baylor campus… how he loved it, nurtured it, grew it… he thought he would be there forever… then his dad got sick. He needed to move to the Atlanta area to be near him… but how could God want him to leave something he loved so much, something he had worked so hard to build and felt so connected to… but he listened. He moved to Atlanta, and even through years of heartache and depression, God had raised up Passion City Church… something bigger than Louie could’ve ever imagined… God had a plan, Louie said… and it didn’t look like his own….

It felt like I had been hit between the eyes. Had God brought me here to hear this message…Louie’s story was similar to mine in so many ways. I loved the Children’s Ministry at Tree Town Baptist; I had no desire to give it up. I had loved it, nurtured it, and watched it grow… Did God have a different plan for me… something different than my own?

By this point, I was about 70 percent sure that I needed to quit my job… but I wasn’t ready to admit it. If I could pray about it some more, surely God would restore me.

We were driving home a couple of days later. I pulled up my work email to catch up on what I had missed. My husband and I also had a shared email. This is the email the pastor used to correspond with my husband about Personnel Committee things. I saw an unopened email from the pastor to my husband as a Personnel Committee member… I opened it… I will just leave it here…. I have redacted the names…

Good morning. I need your response on a few items. First, I am adding the basic info we need to add to the personnel manual in regards to *****'* unique situation. Please read thru it and let me know if anything needs to change. Specifically, the final paragraph labeled “Other.”

Second, the personnel committee needs to recommend a salary to the finance committee for approval. I am suggesting you recommend an annual salary of $27,500 with the option for ***** to set it up however he needs to for tax purposes. The last time ****** Baptist hired a worship pastor, he was hired for a full-time salary of $61,020. This roughly comes to $29/hour for a 40 hour work week. ***** would be hired as a part-time employee and would not be expected to attend Sunday night services each week. If we reduce the hourly wage by $2.50 to compensate for the Sunday night service and base his pay on a 20 hour work week, we arrive at $27,560 for an annual salary. Because I like round numbers, I “cut” him $60 and am suggesting a starting salary of $27,500. Please let me know your thoughts on the salary.

Finally, I talked with ***** and little more after the meeting. He plans to talk with the musicians on Wednesday, October 2nd. I will inform the church of the coming recommendation on Sunday morning, October 6th and ***** will stay around after the service to answer any questions people may have. That evening (October 6th) we will have a special called business meeting to vote on *****. Our by-laws say a special called meeting must be announced in the Sunday morning service preceding the meeting. So we will be within our by-laws by having the meeting that evening. 

Again, please respond and let me know what you think about all of this as soon as possible. I need to get this information to the finance committee so they can meet before ***** talks with the musicians. 

Part-Time Salaried Employee. (Special Circumstances for ***** ******)

The following information is provided specifically for the employment of ***** ****** as ****** Baptist’s permanent part-time salaried worship pastor. This information does not apply to other staff positions.

Work Expectations

   a. Office Hours: One day each week will be spent in the church office attending staff meeting, preparing the worship sets for the week, and accomplishing other necessary ministry obligations.

   b. Rehearsals: Will lead weekly rehearsals and special rehearsals as the need arises.

   c. Worship Leadership: Will lead Sunday morning worship services and Wednesday evening Bible study worship. Will not be expected to lead/attend each Sunday evening. Will lead special Sunday evening services when planned and scheduled.

   d. Pastoral Duties: Will assist the pastor and staff in providing for the spiritual needs of the church congregation by visiting the sick, connecting with church guests, and leading the congregation in spiritual growth. Will agree to uphold staff expectations as listed in the personnel manual.

2. Absences

   a. Illness and unplanned absences: Absences from the normal work schedule must be approved in advance, if possible, with the pastor. When unplanned absences occur, the pastor should be notified as soon as possible.

   b. Holidays: Will not be expected to work on the church holidays as listed in the personnel manual.

   c. Vacation: Will be allowed two weeks of paid vacation each year. Arrangements are to be made to have normal duties covered and vacations should be approved by the pastor.

   d. Other: Due to the nature of the position, Sunday night absences are not expected. Sunday morning and Wednesday night absences are likely to occur from time to time. The church acknowledges this possibility and will work with the worship pastor to ensure his full-time ministry position is first priority. In the event of Sunday morning absences due to associational work, ****** Baptist will pay the regular weekly salary since duties of planning, preparing and scheduling are still being completed by part-time worship pastor.

I have so many feelings about this email.  

When I read that email, something inside of me died. I don’t even think I can describe it as anger; it was deep hurt, down to the bottom of my soul. I couldn’t even speak. When I was finally able to catch my breath and find my voice, I read the email in its entirety to my husband, and then he was speechless as well.

The pastor was again hand-selecting the church staff, and now he was also deciding their salary.

You can say all day that these things were “recommendations,” but when a precedent has been set, and the Personnel Committee has been groomed to follow anything the pastor requests and the Finance Committee as well… it’s not a recommendation. What the pastor “recommends” is as good as done. He hand selected the last two staff members… this was number three. The pastor’s power over things was growing by the day… the position he was setting himself up to have was not an accident… he was becoming a one-man show and offered no apologies.

I expected this new part-time music minister to make more than me, but not this much. Especially when the church wouldn’t even offer me a 3 percent raise, and their secret thank you hush money check was a measly $300.

I had never done this job for the money; if you asked me, I would say I loved it so much I would do it for free… but this was becoming ridiculous.

I started to feel like God was using something I could see to bring my attention to things I couldn’t.

That sentence above might be the most important one in this whole post. God was using something I could see to bring my attention to things I couldn’t. The feelings I had and still have about this are strong, and there’s still some anger there, but when I look back on things, I know that God used all of this to show me the bigger picture. He was rescuing me from a situation; He was pulling me out of a toxic environment. He was breaking me to restore me later. He was in every moment, every twist and turn… He was guiding me. I see it clearly now, but at the time, I couldn’t see anything but hurt.

$27,500 for a part-time position was bad enough, but did you catch the job description part? His list of responsibilities didn’t even fill a page, and mine was a book. He was only required to come to the office for the staff meetings, he didn’t have to stay, and he didn’t have to be in the office any other day of the week.
Where did the argument go that the pastor had made for a “team” workplace feeling? Wasn’t this why I was now required to be in the office two days each week.

What about his church attendance? There was a typo in this email… one time, the pastor says the music minister will not be expected to attend Sunday evening services, and later in the email, he says Sunday night absences are not expected… I left it there so its authenticity can’t be questioned. However, when it was later printed for the church, it was made clear that the new music minister wasn’t required to attend any Sunday evening service… were those the same Sunday evening services that I received a 2 on my evaluation for??? I do believe they were.

Let’s also consider the fact that this man worked a full-time job for the local association in addition to this new part-time position at Tree Town Baptist.
A job that the pastor himself told me on several occasions paid him a 6 figure salary.

This hiring was done for these reasons:

First and foremost… to feed the ego of the pastor…

But also to quiet the church on hiring a full-time person… to permanently hire a part-time person made it appear that the position had been filled… freeing up the pastor to look for other options with no one looking over his shoulder.

To hide the fact that his forcing the previous music minister to resign had caused the church to have a black eye…

To remove the microscope from himself…

The high salary was given to ensure it was too good to pass up…

And the job description was given so that the job was doable along with his man’s other full-time position for the association.

It was all calculated.

Never forget the pastor’s comment to my husband and me… if I can pull off hiring him, it will make me look good,

I think back to God’s timing…

I was at the For King and Country concert the night the church voted to hire him… I didn’t hear the salary amount… My husband didn’t read the email… he didn’t know the salary amount… I went to that conference looking for a renewal… had I known before, my heart would’ve been much harder. Instead, it was open… after hearing Louie Giglio’s message, I was almost positive I needed to quit… I found the email after that… it was just the right time.

It hit just like it needed to. It was the confirmation I needed.

The pastor could tell I wasn’t happy when I returned home from the conference. He could tell something was bothering me, so he asked outright if it was the music minister’s salary…

I asked him how in the world that wasn’t supposed to affect me, especially after the year I’d had.

Do you know what he did? He looked me right in the eyes and lied.

I didn’t even realize it at the time.

The email clearly says, “I am suggesting that you recommend a salary of $27,500″… I, I, I, I, I…he said I…..

It was his recommendation. Yet, he looked me right in the face and said, I told the finance committee that they shouldn’t do that; if they were going to pay him that much, they should compensate you as well.

Pardon me…YOU made the recommendation.

Because I was the only part-time employee, my job was the only precedent up until this… yet here he was, making over $10,000 more per year than me from the very beginning of his tenure with very few responsibilities.

It was gut-wrenching.

It hurt so bad, and it wasn’t the money. It was that I was being used, and the pain was incredible.

Each staff member had a section in a stackable file in the main office. My slot and the new music minister’s slot were next to one another. I was in the office by myself, and I’m just going to be straight-up honest… I wanted to know… I opened his and looked; when I opened it, I saw his weekly take-home pay… $520 per week… I was making $260

Until Next Time,

Whitney