It makes me mad!

When agreeing to come to my current post, I made my one major concern clear, I was taking a substantial drop in income, something which is never easy and made even harder when you have a family. Since arriving in post we have cut back on spending but each month have found it harder to meet the bills, praise God so far we have but I have had to say to my employers that as things stand I’m not sure I can afford to see out my contract. They were aware from the beginning that the offered salary was not great and did offer a little more than originally advertised. We felt it was the right place for us to be, and still do very much so. When the situation was taken to the PCC recently, apparently one comment was “compared with what others are offering it’s quite a good salary”. This really narks me, The church decided they wanted an experienced, qualified, youth worker and don’t get me wrong most of the church have been great, but it seams there are some who want that but don’t want to pay for it. I’m not trying to be greedy, I don’t want a huge pay increase but I don want to be able to provide for my family, is this too much to ask for someone in ministry? I’m glad I don’t know the person responsible, I have decided to post this here rather than on my own blog as I don’t think this is so likely to get seen by those concerned but I am a bit fed up with this one person and all who think like this. I felt a bit like a hypocrite taking this job in some respects in the first place as I had set a limit as to what I was prepared to accept and this was nowhere near it, I had also given people advice on what should be offered or accepted for a youthwork post but I felt this was the right place. There is one church I have had some links with in the past who are currently advertising a post with a ridiculously low salary, when I saw the post re-advertised I was not at all surprised.
Now I am frustrated cause it’s not about money, if it were I wouldn’t be working in ministry but I can’t help but think of the verse in Luke 10

Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house

. I want to stay where I am I believe this is where I am meant to be, but comments like this make me question it, what if others feel like that, I have started looking more seriously at the job pages, not because I want another job, but because I want to be able to provide for those that God has given me to provide for. When is the church going to wake up, there is a shortage of youth workers, the average time a Youthworker stays a youth worker is 18 months, because too many are employing unqualified inexperienced university leavers and not looking after them, they are cheep labour and for those of us who have taken the time to train and spent some time doing the job, well everyone wants our experience so long t they don’t have to support our families.

Sorry I have two hobby horses and as I’m sure you have now guessed this is one of them, it’s probably a bit all over the place and sorry about that too, but I feel a bit better for having got it off my chest.