Stewarding Finances Wisely Begins With an Expert Partner

“What I tell guys is: call RBI.” That’s what Fritz Games, pastor of Redeemer PCA in Louisville, Kentucky, says about the advice he gives to fellow pastors who are working with the church session on their pastor compensation structure.
After commissioning a survey of PCA pastors, we found many pastors need help understanding and building their salary and benefits package when they join a church. In response, RBI developed and now offers call package consulting.
Pastor Games learned the value of RBI’s consulting first hand when he and his session worked with Rev. Ed Dunnington, now President of RBI, to build his compensation package. Much of the work and financial know-how in their small church came from the generosity of volunteers, so it was helpful to have an expert on hand to help them manage this part of Games’s call.
As a husband and father, with a child in college, Games had a unique financial situation. When Ed came alongside the Redeemer session and Games, he took all the particulars into account, recommending a call package based on someone with Games’s age, experience, and cost of living. At one point Ed met alone with the church’s session on Games’s behalf.
As a group, they built a three-year plan for Games’s salary, insurance, and benefits. But that wasn’t the only result. Bringing a third-party in provided accountability, a system of checks and balances between the pastor, the session, and the presbytery that leans in the best ways on our denominational structure.
“We can get congregational quickly,” Games notes, explaining that using a PCA resource like RBI in session—and even presbytery—meetings makes sense for Presbyterians with our version of church governance. In addition, RBI understands the importance of stewarding a church’s finances in a way that serves both the congregation and the church servants, including the pastor, in the most responsible way. 
Pastors can often feel it is difficult to talk about money with their session. However, as they are often the primary providers for their families, it’s important that they be able to talk productively about their financial needs with their church leaders. That’s why Games has one piece of advice for pastors—as well as church administrators, personnel officers, and the presbyteries who approve their call packages. “Call RBI. You don’t have to do this on your own.”
To learn more about call package consulting and speak with one of RBI’s experienced financial advisors, visit us online at www.genevabenefits.org/retirement-services/.