Fletch Answers Questions on Operations

Buildings, Communications, Facility Issues and Information Technology

Buildings & Facility Issues

Raised $10 Million

Hey Fletch … I’m an XP and we just raised $10 million for a new building. Now what?

The simplicity of the question has profound implications. It reminds me of the movie The Candidate. Though Bill McKay (played by Robert Redford) has no hope of winning a Senate race, he succeeds. A final shot is McKay getting into a car and saying, What do we do now? McKay had a plan on running for the Senate but not for being a Senator.

Raising funds for a new building is the first part of the plan. It is like winning the Senate seat. Now you need to consider the master plan for your campus, define the exact use of the building, do a Request For Proposal (RFP) for an architect and builder, survive the building process and then move in. Most Senior Pastors and Executive Pastors are ill-equipped to plan a building and oversee the contractor. To get to that step, you first need an architect who understands your vision and a builder who will construct it.

Get a a great team of advisors, consultants and an owner’s representative. For example, let’s say that you oversaw the contractor on a building project ten years ago. You are now rusty in that discipline and your experience is limited at best. Find a church member or hire someone who will work closely with the contractor. A good owner’s representative can save tens of thousands of dollars and a million headaches. Congratulations and God’s best on your next steps.

Selling Property

Hey Fletch … We don’t have a policy for selling church property. Some staff have given furniture away, sold equipment, or sold things to family members. Do you have a recommendation on the sale or donation of church property?

You have a big problem! Inurement happens when staff give or undervalue items, and those end up with a family member or for personal gain. If the dollar value is high enough, you could land in court or in big trouble with the IRS. You want a fair and easy-to-use policy. Have clear lines of authority and decision-making, along with a good paper trail. You need a policy like this one:

Disposing of Assets Policy

This policy determines our procedures for disposing of a church asset. Church assets generally consist of things like buildings, land, and equipment. Any staff member may recommend the disposal of an asset with a written request. The principle is that whether an item was purchased by the church or donated, the church is the owner of that item. No asset may be given away or sold without permission—this includes old furniture, cell phones or computers. The process of securing permission can be relatively easy, and people have to secure permission before they give away something that does not belong to them. The request for disposing of items goes to the Executive Pastor and should contain:

A clear statement of the item, with serial number if possible: Two Gizmo 8 desktop computers, special sound processing hardware for editing recordings, 64 gigs ram, 1 terabyte hard drive, serial #1234 and #1235. Nokia cell phone, model “6650 fold.” 1932 Rolls Royce Phantom II Continental, mint condition, ID #456abcd.

A simple declaration on why the church does not need the item: The computers are not needed since the same features are now free on our iMacs. Nokia phone is obsolete by 14 years. Maintenance and insurance costs are too high on the 1932 Rolls Royce. We used to have a car show and it was our centerpiece, but we haven’t done a car show for 4 years.

The date of purchase year and price, along with current value. Computers are from October 9, 2019—purchased for $2,000 and now worth $500. Cell phone is from sometime in 2004—who knows the original price? It now serves as a paper weight with no $$ value. Rolls Royce was a donation ten years ago for the car show. At donation, it was valued at $400,000 and now estimated at $1,760,000.

Ideas of how the asset can be disposed, such as sell, donate or trash. This may include a suggestion of who may receive the item and why. If the receiver is family to any church staff member, that must be stated. My brother-in-law has a studio that uses these Gizmo 8 computers and will buy each at $50 over any valid estimate. See the attached to show they currently sell for $500 on ebay. Also, there is a Christian non-profit job training center in town that would like us to donate the computers to them. 10 years old; we need to trash the cell phone and recycle the materials. A professional should market the 1932 Rolls Royce, maximizing the sales price.

The policy for making a decision on disposition of assets should have dollar limits and who can approve the various levels. The decision-maker must be recused if that person is also a buyer or recipient. The next higher authority level would then make that decision. Under $2,000—Based on the documentation, the Executive Pastor can make a decision that best serves the church. Sell the computer to the brother-in-law for $550. Ebay info proved valid sales price. Give the other computer to the non-profit job training center. Recycle the cell phone.

$2,000 to $10,000—Two bids, or their equivalent from internet valuation sites, should be obtained. The XP can make a decision that best serves the church. Staff has a portable sound board with 3 wireless microphones and full speaker set up. We purchased this for picnic meetings in 2018 for $9,500. The staff person who led these meetings has now left. No other staff wants the item. It had lots of use but is in medium condition. See the attached documentation of values for selling this for $2,500 to a local evangelist.

Over $10,000—The XP brings three bids or other written evidence to the Finance Team or Board, along with a recommendation for disposition. The Finance Team or Board will make a decision that best serves the church. For the vacant lot at 550 Elm Street that was owned by the Kreugers, and based on a property analysis in Zillow, the Finance Team recommends that a real estate agent try to sell it for at least $94,500. For the 1932 Rolls Royce Phantom II Continental, with an estimated value of $1.76 million, the XP and Finance Teams recommend that we hire for $5,000 an external professional who is an expert in vintage cars. The expert will get a credible estimate on possible sales prices, inform the Board, then sell at auction, or at or above the estimate. We will then alert original donor and the congregation of the sale and that the $1.7 million fully retired our building debt. Any excess funds from the sale will go into the Benevolence Fund.

Churches should have a list of all capital assets. With your CPA, decide on what dollar level of items to include. Some CPAs want items on the list that are over $100 and others start at $1,000. This list is essential in case of a disaster and you need to show your insurance company what assets the church owned. When you sell or give away an asset, it should be removed from your list. New purchases should go on the list when they enter the church inventory. A good policy prevents cases of inurement, as staff can easily show a paper trail for valid disposition of assets. Yes, you can sell items to family of staff, if you document that is was done fairly! Define who can make what decisions and how those decisions are documented.

Security Cameras in Children’s Ministry

Hey Fletch … Do you have any thoughts on putting security cameras in children’s ministry classrooms? If this is something you recommend, do you have any recommendations as to companies to get quotes? Our first shot at a quote was almost $70,000.

When I researched my book Predators in the Church, I looked into issues like this. Security cameras are a good idea and their cost has come down in the last few years. As one church learned, if you have cameras, they need to be monitored. As to the price, there are so many variables. I would suggest you get at least two bids and would be happiest with three. Compare what you get in terms of equipment, installation and how long you can retain the videos in storage. Predators hate efforts in deterrence. They don’t want to get caught. So do all you can to demonstrate that you watching. Remember that video cameras are just one part of security. Predators are smart and will try to figure out if they are monitored or where the gaps are.

Bonfire & No Permit

Hey Fletch … One of our youth pastors asked his campus pastor if he could have a bonfire at an event on their campus. The campus pastor granted permission. Neither of them realized there is a law that requires them to get a burn permit from the city. Someone showed up and ticketed our youth pastor for the violation. The campus pastor made me aware and asked permission to reimburse the youth pastor for the fine since he had told him it was okay to do this. The executive pastor and I have concerns that this will set an unhealthy precedent. I contacted our insurance agent and he thought this would be a bad precedent. One of his examples is: If we ask a volunteer to drive some youth to a ski trip and his car slips out of control and causes an accident, what will we do? Our insurance will appropriately kick in where applicable but the driver failed to keep control of his/her vehicle and is ticketed. Will we reimburse the volunteer for the fine because “the volunteer wouldn’t have had the accident if we hadn’t asked him/her to drive the youth?” What are your thoughts?

I find this issue an interesting one and my response may surprise you. I would not have the youth pastor pay the fine. The youth pastor got permission for the bonfire from the campus pastor. The responsibility now has shifted to the campus pastor. If anyone is going to pay a fine, it might be the campus pastor. Since you had two staff pastors who were unaware of the local law, I would have the church pay the fine. This is a relatively inexpensive lesson for both staff people. Pastors need to consult with facilities leaders or an executive pastor before doing something unusual at a church event. The tip off should have been, we haven’t done one of these before.

Commercial Drivers License

Hey Fletch … We use vans in our church. Do we need a commercial license for the drivers?

Lots of churches use vans. It used to be that the 15 passenger van was king. Due to safety reasons, you don’t want to be driving that van. To get to your question, what is the largest vehicle you can drive without a special license? Frank Sommerville notes: “The 15-passenger van is so popular because it’s the largest vehicle that can be driven without a special license. But I would caution against using 15-passenger vans. There are too many risks. They are just too unstable on the road. It’s worth mentioning that federal law prohibits school districts from using them.” Check in with your insurance agent on the current state law for a commercial drivers license. Laws frequently change!

DOT Number on Church Bus

Hey Fletch … We have been getting a lot of conflicting opinions about whether churches need to apply for a DOT number for the operation of church buses that require CDL drivers. My best understanding is that when you cross state lines and there is some sort of imbedded charge for transportation (part of the event cost perhaps), that we are required to have a DOT number, but then I saw a list of states that require it even within the state. Are churches exempt from this requirement though? It seems like it would increase our insurance requirements to $5 million and require a drug testing program. So it’s a big step that I don’t want to make needlessly.

Richard Hammer has a good article on the subject and says: “Note that a United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) number is required if you are an interstate PMCP regardless of business or non-business status. No fee is assessed to obtain a USDOT number. You must complete Form MCS-150 (Motor Carrier Identification Report) to obtain a USDOT number. Form MCS-150 can be completed online or you can print a copy of the form to complete and mail to the address indicated. If you do not have access to the Internet, you can call the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s toll-free number at 1-800-832-5660 to have the form mailed to you.”

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has an article entitled, “Faith Based Organization-Related Transportation.” That article validates what you mentioned about insurance levels: “The required level of financial responsibility (insurance or other acceptable security) for for-hire, interstate passenger transportation is determined by the highest seating capacity of your vehicles. Vehicles with a seating capacity of 15 or fewer passengers (including the driver) require $1.5 million of coverage, and $5 million is required for vehicles with a seating capacity of 16 or more passengers (including the driver).” There are some exemptions noted in the article. However, you would want to talk to the FMCSA field office about whether your church fits those exemptions. Contact your local FMCSA field office. If you are exempt, it would do well to get that data in print from FMCSA. Perhaps they would send you a confirmation letter with the regulations and how your church would be exempt. And remember, don’t drive 15 passenger vans for church travel—they can be unsafe.

Emergency Plan

Hey Fletch … Do you provide on XPastor any emergency preparedness plan templates for churches?

We have some information on emergency response plans. Type in emergency in the search bar on XPastor. One great article is Emergency Preparedness for Churches and another is Building Emergency Response Team Policy. These article will give you lots of ideas to chew on. Each church needs to consider common issues to all churches and unique issues. I don’t think that a one-size-fits-all template is a good idea for churches.

Facility Policy

Hey Fletch … I could not find anything on Facility Use policies on XPastor. Can you direct me to some templates?

We have some facility policies on XPastor. It is not our speciality, though. I would recommend Smart Church Solutions. Tim Cool hosts this site and it is devoted to facility management.

Facility Use

Hey Fletch … We’re re-working our policies that deal with who can use our facility, how often, what to charge, if anything. It’s partially a stewardship issue, but also the common perception is that opening up our facility to the community is a good evangelistic tool. The thinking is, the more you can get unchurched people into your building, the more likely they are to attend a service. Do you believe that’s a correct assumption? Is there any data to support it? Also, another church in our community lost their non-profit status by charging people to use their building. Do you have any info on where that line is between when it’s okay to charge and when it isn’t? Thank you!

There are lots of views on this issue. As for the church that lost their non-profit status, I would ‘wager’ that it was more complicated than charging for the use of their building. You can charge for building use and may need to pay UBIT—Unrelated Business Income Tax. You can also allow groups to use your facility for free.

Make sure that you have a good policy about who can and cannot use your facility, especially if you charge for it. What type of weddings will you allow? Alcohol on the premises? Will you allow your local police to hold a police training activity in your gym with armed officers? What types of groups or activities will you exclude? Check in with your insurance agent. They may have both advice and tips for you. Your policy may require the company to be informed if you allow non-members to regularly use your facility.

As for the effectiveness, there is that adage that if someone comes on your campus for a non-religious activity, they are more likely to return for worship. I have doubts about its veracity. People tend to come and stay when there is a personal relationship with one who invites them. Think of it this way. A church down the block is holding a rummage sale and you buy a sweater from them. If the clerk at the cashbox is blasé and unfriendly, would you be likely to return? It reminds me of a saying by my favorite Rabbi, “Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples—if you have love for one another.” John 13:35 NET Bible®.

Followup—Thanks for the quick reply, Fletch. That was so kind of you! Thanks too for the link about UBIT and great advice. I agree about the personal connection. I’ve gone to plenty of meetings in various church buildings and—while I was grateful they offered their space—I never attended one as a result of being allowed to have a meeting there. It did satisfy my curiosity though! Who was that Rabbi again? LOL!

Renting an Office at Church

Hey Fletch … A licensed professional marriage counselor who attends our church wants to rent a room so he can see clients in a location that is on the opposite side of town from his office. Is this an acceptable practice for us as a church? He would be getting office space for a token room rental charge far below the going rate for office space in our city. Also, thanks for your excellent organization!

It’s great to hear from you. I love your church so what a delight to interact with you! Your question has a great heart in wanting to help the marriage counselor. There are some issues.

The first issue is liability. You will want to protect your church against any potential liability, so get a copy of the counselor’s insurance coverage for professional misconduct. Also, if the counselor or patient falls due to ice in the doorway or a broken step, will the church be at risk? The church is becoming a landlord, so you will need to inform your insurance carrier as well. They may have some views or adjustments to your liability coverage. There are also issues about the income that you receive. This is what the IRS calls Unrelated Business Income Tax. As the IRS says “unrelated business income is income from a trade or business, regularly carried on, that is not substantially related to the charitable, educational, or other purpose that is the basis of the organization’s exemption. An exempt organization that has $1,000 or more of gross income from an unrelated business must file Form 990-T.”

While offering free counseling may be a part of your church’s mission, paid counseling most likely qualifies as UBIT. Talk to your church’s CPA about paying UBIT. Like any tax, the more that you take in as income, the more that you will need to pay in tax! Another issue is offering a rate below fair market value for the office. I’m not an attorney or CPA, but I’m seeing some yellow warning lights going on here. Talk to an attorney to see if this will have any implications for your church. Will you offer the same deal to other counselors? Finally, get a simple but descriptive contract in place. You are now a landlord and accepting rent. You may have state or local issues in your new role. Define the term of use, how to renew the contract and how you can cancel the contract. These issues can be worked out but take some time. While the initial concept looks simple, you are getting into new territory here.

Outsource Cleaning

Hey Fletch … We are pondering outsourcing the cleaning of our church facility. Do you have any data on the pros and cons, and the cost savings metrics? I found an article about Germantown Baptist doing it. Have you surveyed XPs about this before?

We haven’t surveyed the XPastor community on the outsourcing issue. However, I know a church that had a great experience in outsourcing its cleaning to a professional firm. The contract was for $225,000 annually to clean the entire facility. The company specialized in churches, so they understood the church’s culture and rhythms: The company worked seamlessly in the background, night and day. The campus sparkled, even older rooms were exceedingly clean. The company cleaned the restrooms during services, so they always looked fresh. It was the cleanest church that I have visited in a long time. The church experienced a high degree of finesse and specialization. Since the company had many large churches and schools, they were experts on the cleaning. They took cleaning to a whole new level with annual and quarterly processes—such as special anti-bacterial applications. They were professionals in cleaning, and the church did not have to re-invent the wheel on best practices.

As a comparison, I visited a government facility. The faucet in the restroom had lost all its chrome and was bare brass. I talked to the owner of the cleaning company about this. He said, “Rookie mistake. They used the wrong cleaner and scrubbed off all the brass.” As for the rest of the government center, it looked like amateurs cleaned it.

The cost needs consideration. The church that I visited was in a state with a high minimum wage. Consider the minimum wages in your state, plus benefits. The medical insurance alone could cost $14,000+ per employee. Let’s assume that the total wages would be $40,000. With a $225,000 cleaning budget, that would allow for 5½ workers. That might be enough people to clean an active church during the week, but not include weekends. Add in the costs the church would pay for the cleaning materials and equipment, whereas the outsourcing firm paid for those. Plus, the church would need a supervisor for those 5½ workers. That saved the church one full-time middle management position plus the HR time in recruiting cleaning staff.

By having 5½ less employees, the church’s Workers’ Compensation insurance was significantly lower. Because of a higher accident rate compared to office workers, facility workers cost more in Workers’ Compensation premiums. The church estimated that it saved about $80,000-120,000 a year when all costs were factored. I would suggest that you get three competitive bids. Compare the bids to the total cost that the church spends on employees, equipment, supplies and management. See if it makes economic sense to outsource the cleaning to professionals.

Communications & Information Technology

Telling Ministry Stories

Hey Fletch … I like your suggestion about getting people’s stories. How do you do that in a church?

One of the best way to measure the effectiveness of your vision statement is to hear stories of ministry. Are people really doing ministry in alignment with your vision statement? Or is everyone doing their own deal? Stories take a great deal of work to collect. It requires a culture of storytelling. Culture can be hard to implement. Once sharing ministry stories is in your church culture, it is powerful and effective. I would suggest asking ministry leaders for their stories. Do this in a personal request, either face-to-face or by email. Have them write up their story and put it in your e-news. Share the story from the stage during the call for the offering. Invite them to put their story on video and post it on the website. Once your key leaders are telling ministry stories, the rest of the congregation will begin to get the idea.

New URL

Hey Fletch … We are wanting to come up with a new url for our church. What are your thoughts on what would be effective?

Many churches go with the name of their church as their url. This gives names like ‘FBC-Megalopolis,’ or ‘Grace-on-Elm-Street.’ These are fine names. However, if you are in a denomination or have a more common church name, those names may be taken. One of the best names that I saw recently was from The River church of Liberty Township, Ohio. They came up with ‘HitTheRiver.com.’ That one struck me as both original and directional. Grace Covenant Church of Austin has, grace360.org. I love that name. It signifies to me that grace is all around. It is also fitting as the church is on Texas State Highway Loop 360. Can you imagine trying to type in the url, ‘grace-covenant-of-austin?’ Try to keep your url short and memorable. Keep it creative without falling into this year’s fad. Next year that fad will be out and you will be stuck with ‘exciting-church-on-the-river.’

Website Trouble

Hey Fletch … We are having some website trouble. It looks great on a desktop monitor but some of our pages are awful on a tablet or cell. Can you take a look at our site and give us some coaching?

We were overseas one summer and a friend went to the doctor with stomach pains. The doctor said, “you’ve got bugs.” Your site has bugs. The banners on your home page are 950 pixels wide and not scaling to smaller sizes. Your staff photos are in a table that has the first column acting like a header column—so one has to scroll in a weird way to see others in that row.

You are missing a Responsive Web Design (RWD)—“an approach to web design which makes web pages render well on a variety of devices and window or screen sizes.” Most sites are built on a theme, where a professional has laid down solid tracks to run on. Purchase a responsive theme and then customize it like crazy. Here’s how to tell if a site is responsive while on a desktop machine. Open a site on Chrome, Safari, Edge or Firefox and make the screen as narrow as it can go—it will look the width of a smartphone. If the page and graphics scale correctly, then you have a responsive theme. I suggest that you ask a web designer in your congregation to volunteer to audit your site or hire a free lancer to do the same. If you want some names, let me know.

Website for a Non-Profit

Hey Fletch … I met you years ago. I continue to read and enjoy the columns and posts at XPastor.org but it’s been a long while since we were in touch. Recently, my husband and I started a 501(c)(3) nonprofit to help poor children and struggling churches in the Philippines. We support sixty small churches, an orphanage, an elementary to high school, and a prison Bible school. Could you take a look at our website and give us some thoughts? Also, could you suggest some best practices on how to get the word out to churches that are looking to partner with a global missions work?

It’s great to hear from you again. Congratulations on the new ministry. This is an exciting work that you have begun. On the website, I loved your quote from Jose Rizal: “Youth is the hope of our motherland.” Many years ago, I enjoyed reading his novel, Noli Me Tángere. The website has plenty of good photos and ministry descriptions. You have covered the ministry well.

When I looked at the site, it didn’t say that the organization was a 501(c)(3) and tax-exempt. You do say tax deductible but need to define that better. Consider joining the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). They have 7 Standards of Responsible Stewardship™ that affirm good governance of churches and non-profits. Their seal of approval would go a long way toward ensuring that your financial policies align with national standards. The site doesn’t list who the leaders are. Most newcomers want to read who is leading it and something about the board. I would encourage adding a page about you and your husband. Give some of your personal story and your passion for doing this work. On another page, list the board members. It would be a good idea to have a page with references and endorsements. Who else likes this ministry and sees the value of it? I love where you are going with this. Good work and keep going.

Follow up by Fletch—Wow, you have really done some great edits and additions to the site.

Website Criteria

Hey Prof … I’m in XPastor’s class on Church Communication—Ops 102 and doing the assignment on church websites. Here are the criteria that I’m using to evaluate a usable website: Staff, Locations & Directions, Service Times, Service Recordings, Live Streaming, Contact Information, Statement of Faith, Social Media Links, Favicon, Search Capability, Events Calendar, Online Giving, Mobile Friendly (responsive or not), Search Engine Results, Updated Content and a Members Portal/App.

Those are fantastic criteria to evaluate a church website. Mama and Papa are looking for those things when they consider a visit to a church. For example, some churches seem to be embarrassed about their staff and have the pages hidden under obscure menu names or buried deep in the site. Great work here! Church Communication—Ops 102 is helping you with a key item in the church, communications!

Suggestions on Apps

Hey Fletch … There are several good articles on XPastor related to website best practices. I am looking for one related to Apps for churches. Apple has changed the rules for Apps and we are learning more from our partner Subsplash. Any help is appreciated.

I can’t be of much help here. I know my limits and you have reached them. You are on a great path as apps for smartphones can further the engagement of your congregation. We used one app at a church I was at, and many loved it. They could get all sorts of information in the app, without having to sort through the website. Let me know what you find out!

Tech Team Job Description

Hey Dr. Fletcher … I’m a pastor in charge of media ministry in our church in Africa. Please, is there a job description for a technical team, video team and multimedia team?

I’m so glad that XPastor is helping you across the ocean and that we get to connect. Let me send you sample job descriptions for a Technical Director and Tech Engineer. They aren’t posted on the site and I hope that you can adapt them for use. God’s best in your work … we are all on the same team serving Christ.

Recording Songs

Hey Fletch … Someone suggested that we record some songs during our worship service and create a CD from them. Any thoughts on this?

Off the top of my head, I can think of three issues. First, you will have to pay royalties if you perform a published song (see a lawyer). If the song was created in-house, you will want to have an IP agreement in place, if you want the composer to be paid. Second, there are plenty of technical challenges. These can be contained in a studio, but your worship space may have mixing and recording issues. Have you thought about noise from the crowd? Third, to sell a CD requires a market that wants to buy it. What will be your unique edge that will encourage someone to pay $9.99 or $14.99 for your music?

Tech Workers Needed

Hey Fletch … We need some über-techs for a short project. Are there super-users or trainers on the following platforms that we could pay to write a key stroke script? The platforms are Shelby Arena, Shelby Next, Shelby V5, ACS, Elexio or Planning Center. We will pay good money for the work and need your help.

I’m not aware of any public internet boards to post this need. It doesn’t fit the XPastor Job Boards which are for full-time jobs. I did forward it to my secret cadre of tech wizards who have a private network. As you are going to create scripts on as many platforms as possible, you may need different specialists. Many churches also have this need on a project-by-project basis. The Hey Fletch column never prints names or locations. If a reader knows an über-tech, they can contact me directly.

Email Responses

Hey Fletch … Some of our junior staff are terrible at responding to emails. They say, “our generation likes texts.” One staff member took a month to get me his annual review.

Well, you could see how fast they respond to an email about a possible raise … milliseconds perhaps? Consider that if they are not responding to you, how will a parent feel about a youth group emergency. Email is the primary means of business communication. Use texts for quick communication. You need to do training on email and text etiquette with your staff. Here are some of my rules for staff. 1) All emails get a response within one business day. 2) Responses can be as brief as “I got it and will get back to you soon.” 3) When people don’t respond to emails, I remind them that they may not be getting a paycheck either. 4) When you go to bed with an empty inbox, you sleep better.

Communications Director

Hey Fletch … We are a church of 1,400. We do not currently have a dedicated communications person. If we explore going to a new hire, who do they typically report to?

That is a perceptive question. Traditionally, a Communication Director reports to the Operations Director. If they do, then the Ministry XP needs to have a very close working relationship with Ops. Things are changing though. My preference is to have Communications be under Ministry, unless Communications also has Information Technology in it. The lines are blurring between traditional communications, computers and worship audio-visual. How we use technology drives our ability to creatively communicate. All three areas center on similar technology of computers, connectedness and signal processing. Look at the bigger picture of how you are using communications, creative design and technology in your church.

Tech Assistant Living with Girlfriend

Hey Fletch … We are hiring a part-timer in the tech area. The candidate is a great person, well qualified and a new believer. The issue is that I think he is living with his girlfriend. If he is, this goes against our staff code of conduct. What should I do?

This is a great discipleship opportunity. Plus, there are some employment issues that need to be considered. Let’s start with those. As to employment, a church can hire people of like faith. You don’t have to accept just any candidate that applies. The term, like faith, applies to both doctrine and practice. Your church’s Code of Conduct is a statement of how you expect your employees to live. The key is to hold all employees to the same standard of conduct. You don’t want to deny employment to this man for living with his girlfriend, but allow it with other employees. You want to fairly apply your standards to every employee.

As to this situation, this is a wonderful time to meet in person with him. Show him your code of conduct. Read through it with him. Explain not only the what but the why of each standard. In this case, carefully describe how you envision God’s best for marriage. Also tell of how you help people whose marriages are not working or have fallen apart. Show God’s path to wholeness and a fulfilled life, as seen in the gospel and your Code of Conduct. You may find that he is not living with his girlfriend. Or, on his own he might point out his live-in situation when you come to the marriage section of your Code of Conduct. This is the opportunity to help. It may be that the couple plans on marrying in a few months. They may need pre-marital coaching from your church. You could provide funds for him to rent a new apartment, or find a room with someone in your church. Talk over his specific issues and how you can help.

If the couple is living together, meet with both of them. Take along a woman who can meet with the girlfriend. See how your church can help on her spiritual journey. The girlfriend may have seen changes in her boyfriend since he became a follower of Christ. She may have questions about what this means and the significance of it. You have a wonderful opportunity to present a wholistic view of the Christian life. Let me know how it goes!

Setting Up a Website

Hey Fletch … Who set up the XPastor website? I’ve explored the XPastor site and like how it is set-up. I’m currently serving on the board of a ministry. They tasked me with finding a designer to bring the site up-to-date. Would you have a contact to get an estimate?

I’m glad that you like the XPastor site and thank you for the compliment. XPastor is done in WordPress. Here’s a few lines from a Wikipedia article: “WordPress is a free and open-source content management system (CMS). Features include a plugin architecture and a template system. It is most associated with blogging, but supports other types of web content including more traditional mailing lists and forums, media galleries, and online stores. WordPress is the most popular website management system in use.” I find that WordPress is easy to set up and extremely easy to run. A key is having great graphics!

In your email you noted that you have “about $750 to get it up and running.” Web designers can be expensive and your budget won’t go very far. Search for a volunteer or teen who is computer savvy who can help! Here is what you will need to host the website: Domain names—You already have .org but also get .com and .net. for $10 a year. Web host—XPastor likes WPEngine and Cloudflare. They do free migration of sites as well. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)—This makes your site safer and is becoming required. Cloudflare offers this for free. Cloudflare also has free caching of images and can stop web threats.

Intellectual Property & Pastor’s Book

Hey Fletch … I found the XPastor page with the intellectual property policy of Christ Community Church of Chicago to be informative. I am a member of a church board, and our pastor is beginning to write books as part of his employment, so we plan on the copyrights being owned by the church. The books will be published by a third party, with royalties first flowing to the church. The board is considering sharing some of those royalties with the pastor, but want to be sure we do not cause any private inurement issues. From the Christ Community Church policy, it looks like they take the licensee and church share first, then pay the rest to the author “as governed by legal requirements.” It sounds like we could pay some percentage of royalties to the author with a cap to ensure his total compensation is reasonable. Is that your understanding? Some other websites make it sound like it could be private inurement to pay an employee any share of royalties on copyrights owned by the church.

There are many ways to handle books by pastors. Anything written off-time and not on church equipment can be considered as belonging to the pastor. The challenges arise when the pastor also speaks on the subject. For example, the pastor writes about “Lessons from Samuel” and then does a sermon series on the topic. This brings in issues of work for hire. Anything that he presents in the pulpit, and writes about, is a confusing issue.

One solution is to have the book owned by the church. You have outlined that well. If the board sets the compensation, you can handle possible inurement issues. Since the church sets reasonable compensation, you can give him a bonus, which may be a percentage of the royalties that are earned. Most books don’t sell thousands of copies, so this may be a reasonable number. The challenge comes when the book becomes a best seller! It’s one thing to receive a $5,000 bonus and another when that number is tenfold higher. You may want to do a compensation study to ensure that you have fair and equitable pay, and that any royalties don’t exceed those amounts. I also do compensation studies for churches, which provide all sorts of material and data for fair salaries.

Another solution is to draft an Intellectual Property agreement. These are detailed agreements that cover salary and IP. Since the church probably didn’t pay for the pastor’s seminary expenses, the pastor has invested quite a bit of their own money in developing their intellectual property. I don’t draft these. If you are interested, I can recommend a nationally-known attorney to help you. Get help from the best attorneys on this! I suggest an IP agreement for any pastor who publishes books, songs or other materials. Whatever path you choose, get the agreements in print and upfront. Have the discussions now, as you are doing. Good work there! Churches should not wait until the material is published and a revenue stream begins. Feelings get hurt when real money, cash, is on the line.

Response—Thanks so much. I appreciate the time you took to help with our situation. This information will be very helpful as our board considers how we approach intellectual property. The option to draft an IP agreement sounds promising, so I’ll discuss that with the rest of the board. I may be in touch if we want help finding a lawyer should we go that route.

Royalties

Hey Fletch … I have a quick question that may require a long answer. If a pastor is writing books, who gets the royalties and why? I’m confident that this question has varying answers depending on terms and conditions. I welcome all answers to all possibilities, if you have enough time.

The general understanding of work for hire laws are if a pastor writes a book on church time, on church computers and possibly uses church employees to help, then the book belongs to the church. That is pretty straightforward. It gets complicated if a pastor writes a book after preaching a sermon series on the topic. Was the book based on research done on church time?

If the pastor writes a book after work hours, and on their own computer, this is generally seen outside of the work for hire laws. Another way to go is if the pastor has an Intellectual Property agreement in place. These are complex documents that require an attorney to prepare. Most books are not best-sellers so many churches ignore the work for hire laws (and I’m not advocating that). However, if a book becomes popular, people in the church begin to ask questions about the royalties. The best time to resolve those issues is before the work is published. I’m a pastor and not an attorney. Consult an attorney before making any decisions or taking action.

Staff Spouse Wants Office

Hey Fletch … I am the XP at a restart church. We have made staff and organizational changes in order to reach our community for Jesus Christ. We just hired a staff member whose spouse works with a parachurch organization. She is requesting an office at the church. I have a number of concerns about giving her an office, such as nepotism, favoritism, and Workers’ Compensation issues. It appears that I am the only one in leadership with theses concerns. Two questions: First, am I overly concerned about this issue? Second, if the leadership approves of the spouse having an office, can you suggest some enforceable and sensible boundaries?

There are lots of issues to work through and you have raised many of them. What kind of procedures does the church need to consider others to use an office space? Will there be insurance or security issues? For example, if the parachurch ministry works with kids and the leader had minors in the church office, are you liable in a case of sexual abuse? You need some policy and procedures in place so that giving the office does not show favoritism. You should be concerned about these things, so I wouldn’t say that you are overly concerned. Others may not have the fiduciary sense that you do, so they don’t see the issues. What does the board think? Is this squarely in line with the mission and vision of the church? Is there a term and a time for reconsideration? None of these issues are insurmountable, but they need to be worked through.