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So-called 'Team Ministries' with Their Clergy Spouses Receive Zero Financial Benefits

Sharon Cress, an associate in the world church's Ministerial Association, shares Robertson's concern but says it's not surprising that Robertson and others who work in so-called 'team ministries' with their clergy spouses receive zero financial benefits. Cress remembers one particularly troubling incident: a pastor's wife was evicted from her home after her minister husband's death because she couldn't afford the rent. "When I hear stories like that, I realize we're ignoring the New Testament principle of providing a safety net for widows." Cress says offering a retirement benefits package to pastors' spouses would help "right that wrong." But doling out compensation at the end of a spouse's career is neither ideal nor legal, says Del Johnson, Retirement department director for the (Seventh Day-Adventist) church's North American region. A better solution, he says, is to put pastors' spouses on the payroll, "like anyone else working for the church."  (Story originally published in 2007)

Source/Article: http://news.adventist.org/data/2007/1187874106/index.html.en  /  www.adventist.org