Magyar Egyház, 1981 (60. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1981-09-01 / 9-10. szám

MAGYAR £GYfíAZ

12. oldal

we last pray for our church in our private-quite moments? Or have we prayed at all? Spurgeon the great English speaker was once asked: what is the secret of your success, that so many listen to your sermons? He said nothing, but took the arm of the person and led him to one of the small rooms, where about 40 people were praying. You see, he said, this is the secret.

Within all our prosperous churches one of the most painful experiences for us ministers is, that we do not have praying communities within the church. When we return home from this conference, let us all have sincere “repentance” the elder should not always think about how his minister is, and the minister, how his chief-elder, presbyters, dean and bishop and other superiors are,

but let every one concentrate and look into his or her own heart!

3. What kind of a person am I? Thus I shall realize, that I am the servant, who buried my talent, I am the one, who found excuses like the people in the Bible, who were invited to the Great Feast. Only after with the help of our Lord, I am able to have a sincere repentance, can I step on the third rank of the ladder and say with the prophet Habakkuk: “/ will take my stand at the watchtower and wait to see, what the Lord will say to me!” Then the heavy burden will rest upon my soul as it did on Paul, who addressed these words to all pastors and elders: “Take care of yourself and the flock, where the Holy Spirit made you guardians, that you may lead the church, which He purchased with

His own blood, ”: for the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

To suppliment these workers and place responsible watchmen into the towers of our churches we would like to establish a Hungarian Reformed Theological Seminary. It is very difficult, for there are many obstacles in the way. From the point of view of the future it is indispensable. If so, than it is indifferent, who is working for it. I will stand by him and support him with all my power, because the thought is holy and the realization of this dream is a life-and-death question of the future of our Hungarian Reformed Churches in America.

Thank you for your patience; may God’s blessings be upon every member of this conference and upon all our churches: The Rev. Béla Szabó (Windsor, Canada.)

A Guide for Lay Leaders

Clergy Compensation Planning For 1982

(Continuation from last issue)

A more ideal arrangement is for your congregation to pay a cents-per-mile reimbursement. Have your pastor estimate what it costs to operate his or her car per mile on church business, including reimbursement, and then pay that as the allowance. The pastor tells the treasurer each month how many miles have been driven on church business and the reimbursement is promptly made.

It probably costs your pastor 25 cent or more a mile to operate an automobile. If so, that’s what you ought to pay. IRS may allow only 20 cents a mile automatic deduction, but that’s no assurance that that is the cost of operating a car. If you don’t like the rate your pastor quotes, your congregation can always go out and lease or buy a car for the pastor to use. When the church pays actual costs you will know what it costs to operate car.

You should know that for tax purposes it really makes no difference how much allowance you pay. A tax principle is not applicable here, a reimbursement principle is. Nevertheless, for tax purposes IRS permits (at this writing) a deduction of 20 cents for the first

15,000 miles, 11 cents for each additional mile, except that cars used more than five years in business are permitted only an 11 cents per mile deduction for all business miles.

Any car allowance you pay your pastor is taxable income. But expenses may be deducted, either at the automatic mileage rate noted above or actual expenses. Ministers who are employees will show those deductions on Form 2106. Self-employed persons would list the deduction on Schedule C.

When you are figuring total pay, don’t add the car allowance to salary. It’s not compensation. It’s reimbursement of expenses and should not be added in to the pastor’s income. Of course, it is certainly a cost for having a pastor, but don’t confuse it with salary.

3. Pension plan contributions'. Retirement comes all too quickly for all of us. It does for your pastor, too. Thus, it is important that you be certain your congregation has made adequate plans to fund your pastor’s retirement.

Most denominations have a pension plan program for their clergy. Many of these are self-funded plans by the church pension board; others are handled through an insurance company. Be certain that in whatever plan you are participating, applicable tax benefits (Tax Sheltered and Tax Deferred Annuity accounts) are available to your pastor.

Tax deferred annuities offer clergy an opportunity to accumulate pension dollars while deferring income tax on the contribution and on the interest the fund earns. Such plans are a good supplement to any required pension plan and offer a good tax benefit to clergy who pay income taxes anyway. Such contributions and interest earnings are taxable to your pastor only when finally received in retirement.

4. Health, disability and life insurance. There is no excuse for your pastor’s family to be without health insurance, including a major medical plan and disability benefits. A group term life insurance policy should also be part of that package, since many clergy will not have any or much life insurance on their own.

The cost of being sick is so high that no minister would be able to meet the cost if one of the family were hospitalized for even a short time, much less a longer stay. Since that event is almost always unknown, you