Pay for performance programs shake up churches

THORNTON, Colo. — Last month, the people of Big Valley Church noticed their pastor dressing nicer, giving more passionate altar calls and making more frequent appeals for volunteers.

What they didn’t know was that the church board had quietly begun using PayPerform, a program that determines how well a pastor is performing in ministry, how much he should be paid, and at what point he should be fired.

"Carrying out the Great Commission is a quantifiable activity," says PayPerform creator Kevin Dolan. "Public companies don’t tolerate sub-par performance. They oust bad CEOs and reward good ones. Why should churches be any different? Our mission is vastly more important."

Programs like the PayPerform Accountability System use in-depth demographic studies to set targets for a specific church’s attendance, conversions and "capture and retention" rates of visitors. It even determines what the average tithe level should be, based on local giving rates.
"We love it," says one church board member. "It gives us something to stand on instead of the soft and mushy goals we used to make up every year out of thin air."

Though Dolan says PayPerform was created to replace "scattershot efforts at evangelism" with hard data and give people a sense of confidence in their mission, PayPerform has hit some churches hard. Pastors don’t like being monitored so closely. Some say it promotes numbers over discipleship, and that the conversion targets are too aggressive.

Some pastors won’t even interview at a church that uses PayPerform.

"How can you build community when you’re looking at everyone as a number and every visitor as a bonus on your next paycheck?" asks one pastor.

Like many pastors, he hasn’t made a public fuss because "it looks bad to oppose accountability." He also admits that he is more deliberate about winning converts and discipling believers than in the past. "It’s like having the sword of Damocles hanging there," he says. "Save people or die."

Jerry Rolloway, pastor of Glen Ridge Church in Leavenworth, Kansas, for the past 13 years, says it was "a little scary when the board adopted a PayPerform system. I thought the targets were too high."

But, desperate to keep his job, he started a new evangelism effort to nearby neighborhoods. Now "I kind of appreciate it," he says. "It lit a fire under me."

PayPerform will soon offer a new program for youth pastors, associate pastors and worship leaders. It will show churches "which staff members add value and which don’t," says Dolan. "People probably will be surprised."

Satire courtesy of Lark News.