Podcast Episode #199
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We discuss the etiquette and principles related to hosting a guest preacher or speaker at a church. Be sure to listen for the story about the boa constrictor. Needless to say, Jonathan isn’t a fan of snakes.
Some highlights from today’s episode include:
- Host churches should cover the cost of travel and meals for guest preachers.
- Lodging for guest speakers/preachers should be generous and comfortable.
- For a guest preacher, base the honorarium off your pastor’s salary.
- When determining what to pay a guest speaker, take into consideration the full amount of time given up for the event.
- A small gift for a guest speaker’s family is a great way to thank them for sharing their loved one with your church.
The six considerations that we cover for hosting and compensating a guest preacher or speaker at your church are:
- Cover the cost of travel.
- Reimburse for their meals.
- Lodging should be generous and comfortable.
- Base the honorarium off your pastor’s salary (including housing allowance) – half a percent per service.
- Different events call for different levels of compensation.
- Remember the speaker’s family as well.
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Feedback
If you have a question you would like answered on the show, fill out the form on the podcast page here at ThomRainer.com. If we use your question, you’ll receive a free copy of I Will.
In retirement I substitute preach and have been paid from $50 for one service to $250 for two services. Chuch size and budget seem to determine the pay. Why do we call the pay an “honoraria”?
I am a Lay Minister that does pulpit supply in a variety of locations. I would agree with David that church budgets largely determine what I am paid. While half a percent of the pastor’s salary would be a noble goal, I serve some churches where that would be a budget buster. I am paid $50 per service for senior living facilities and $75 to $100 for churches.
The qualifications of the speaker should be considered as well. Higher degree training and exceptional experience that might lend itself to expertise should be additional factors. Churches with class treat guest speakers well, while many other churches can resent the pay for a guest speaker or possibly resent the fact that the pastor is taking time away or are on vacation and the guest speaker “pays” for their poor attitude. Each church should create a policy that predetermines the amount a given guest preacher is paid prior to his coming.
Thanks, Frank.
When I am away on vacation our church pays $75 for the morning service and $50 for the evening service for a guess speaker. Revival services is covered in our budget in which we pay $600 for Sunday through Wednesday, plus we normally we have a church wide meal on Sunday morning of the revival. Most of the ministers we use are within a 50 to 75 mile radius of the church.
If the speaker represents an organization that pays his salary apart from guest speaking in churches, your formula probably works fine. But what about ministers whose full-time work is itinerant ministry? If I’m a pastor who makes $75,000 per year, the formula says I should pay a guest speaker $375 per service. If the guest speaker preaches twice in a week, that would be $750, plus the listed expenses. If your guest speaker is a full-time traveling speaker, that’s only $39,000 a year, assuming he preaches 52 weeks a year at that level. Out of this he has to pay his own salary and, perhaps, an administrative assistant and/or other ministry organization expenses. Our church has been richly blessed by guest speakers who are dependent on much better offerings or honoraria than suggested.
It’s only a suggested guideline, Ed.
Mr. Rainer, who are those participants in a church service that should be paid by the church or are their services go unpaid as their service o GOD?