A LONG, LONG Vent about my husbands church

[dennis99ss]

4 weeks, even three weeks a year is pretty generous. maybe you should be thankful you get that much free time with your family. I wonder how many other people get three or four weeks paid vacation

 

[Pembo]

deniss--It is customary in the ministry to receive 4 weeks vacation per year. I think that is pretty standard for most ministers.

 

[PammyK]

Four weeks doesn't seem that much when you consider that ministers work on holidays and are normally on call 24/7 for pastoral care/visits. And if the contract doesn't specifically spell out how vacation is accrued then he should get all 4 weeks if that is how they've done it in the past. What a shame they are being so petty about things. It sounds like your husband is getting out of a bad situation and I hope his next one is better for him and for you.

 

[Buckalew]

Well, that is because in my church it a 24 hour a day job 7 days a week! I mean the minister is "on call" all the time. Those weeks of vacation are well deserved.
I was on my church's last "pastor search" committee and adament about raising the pay. I was like at the last pastor's salary. Uncalled for IMO. I don't think that the pastor should live a much different lifestyle than the rest of the congregation. And I won out too.
{{{hugs}}} to you just for being the wife of a minister. I don't think I could do it.
Best wishes to you all for the future in your new church. No where is perfect and churches are filled with imperfect people--but some are better situations than others. I think you have "done your time" so to speak in a bad situation.

 

[Towncrier]

Being a preacher's kid, I've seen this type of behavior before. I can remember one particular church balking at the idea of my dad being a substitute bus driver when we were kids. He was trying to make some "extra" money to put away for college. The council was afraid that he wasn't putting in enough time at his real job, so he started having to keep track of hours.

Other churches have all but run my dad out of town on a rail only to welcome him back for some sort of reunion 10 years later as if nothing had happened.

People who claim to be Christians can be some of the nastiest people that you would ever meet. I suppose it has something to do with believing that God is on their side no matter what. I cannot explain the hatred and backstabbing that I've seen, but thankfully these people have always been the minority. In my life I have witnessed the outpouring of love, kindness, and giving spirit that "real" Christians are capable of.

All I can say to you and your DH is that "this too shall pass". Hang in there Barb.

 

[Disney Doll]

Well, I can tell you having attended several different churches for different celebrations(and not all of them were the dreaded Christian denominations either) that there are nasty, rotten, hypocritical, mean people in all religious denominations, not just Christians.

Thank goodness for you and your DH that the new church he is going to seems so much better.

 

[Buckalew]

This reminds me of the the first several chapters of Revelation where it gives a description of several churches. Those chapters describe churches back then, and now and even us as individual people. God knows all about these situations!!

 

[sharbear]

Pembo,

I am so sorry that you and your family are going thru this. It doesn't matter how much vacation a person gets or how much time they served this year, the problem is that they had a contract and now they don't want to honor it. I wonder how they would react if the tables were turned. I suspect that they would sight the provisions in the contract. That is why they write a contract and they should uphold it. It's very sad and I am glad that you are moving away from this. Ministers and the military are so underpaid for what they do, it is so sad.

I live next door to a so-called very Christian woman. You would be amazed at the gossip and back-stabbing that she calls normal behavior. Yet she is so giving to the church and it's ministries. It's very sad how unhappy she is.