How to Present an Honorarium

    From time to time, churches (and other organizations) have a guest speaker join them as part of their ministry or cause. In such cases, it is customary to present your guest with an "honorarium" (some kind of compensation for their time and effort).   I will speak just to the church side of things (but those in other organizations can learn from some of my experience also) as I have been on both the giving and receiving side of honorariums for the better part of 30 years. I have seen good practices and I have seen this done terribly. Most of the time it is done poorly.

    If you invite someone to come and provide a service for your church (especially the Sunday morning sermon or a special all-church event), you are making a “big ask.” It is an important assignment and one that should add to the momentum of your church or organization. Here are some things to consider before presenting an honorarium: 

1) You are asking someone to come in and provide a professional service (speaking in a church on a Sunday is a professional service) so be prepared to pay a professional price. If you’re not bringing in someone who can provide “professional” quality, you might want to reconsider who you are asking. So, what does that professional service cost? I rarely give the same message twice. I know many others who do so and I don’t blame them or fault them at all. It takes me about 10-20 hours to put together a good message. Then I have the travel time to and from the venue, the time there and the time back home. That’s usually 5-6 hours (if in our same city) and considerably more if I fly somewhere! My wife is a nurse and a skilled professional. Her hospital pays her about $55/hour. They pay her that even when she is taking future training, attending meetings on off-days, or scheduling from home. If a church paid me to speak on a Sunday the same way my wife is compensated, I would expect a church to pay me between $750-1000. That never happens. Even if your speaker is using a “canned” message you should probably be thinking in the $250-500 range. 

2) It’s perfectly appropriate to say something like this to your audience on a day with a special guest: “Hey, we want to take good care of our speaker this morning so this would be great time to practice some extra generosity.” That one line probably pays for your speaker especially if he or she has done a good job. 

3) Sometimes churches are just barely making it and simply cannot afford a generous honorarium. In those rare cases, I think you communicate that to the speaker. Something like, “Hey, we would love to have you speak for us but we are really tight. We plan to give you a lot of love, our rapt attention and a $100 gift card to a nice restaurant. Will that be OK?” If you do that, then your speaker can budget his time to perhaps use material he has used before. I am not in the habit of asking what compensation people are going to give me for my service. I know others who are the opposite and I sometimes wonder if they are not wiser than I. But I feel like I am trusting the Lord and He will be my rewarder. I wish I knew better what churches were going to do beforehand. It’s funny, if you ask a Christian “artist” to come to your church, you have to sign a contract, send a deposit, prepare a green room and fulfill a “rider”- all the setup, equipment, catering, hospitality and electronics needed for a good show. These artists regularly charge $5,000 or more per performance. Only the “top” Christian speakers require these kinds of things. But what’s more important, the preaching and teaching of the Word of God or the music? Hmmm. 

4) When you present ANY honorarium of ANY amount do it EXACTLY like this: 

a) After the service in a quiet place, hand the speaker an ENVELOPE with a hand-signed card of thanks with any compensation (check, cash, gift cards or all of the above). ALWAYS include a thank you card. 

b) NEVER present an honorarium check by itself. Your guest has provided a service but it’s a gift from you and your church to him or her. Package it like a gift!! It’s embarrassing as a guest speaker to be standing there and have someone come up (especially in the sight of others!!) and be presented with a check. It makes me feel like a hireling. 

c) The less you are compensating your guest, the more love you need to include. If you’re paying your guest speaker $100 to come in on a Sunday….put it in a BIG bag with a dozen other small thank you notes from people in the congregation. Notes of appreciation are as important to a guest speaker as cash. Well, almost as important- let’s be honest. 

d) Give your guest a heartfelt, eye-to-eye thank you on behalf of your lead team and congregation. 

      One other item: if you are compensating your guest(s) in the amount of more than $600 (or it totals that amount for the year- in the case they are your guest serves you more than once- then you are required to give them an IRS Form 1099 for that calendar year.  Your guest is required to fill out an IRS form W-4 also.  It is a good practice to put a W-4 form in the honorarium envelope and ask your guest to fill that out at their convenience and then return it to your administrative office.  Your finance manager or key volunteer should be tracking that kind of expense so you correctly issue 1099's.  Caesar will appreciate it.  

I hope these tips help you. I would so highly encourage you to put the systems in place above. Your invited guest(s) will love you for it, you will look like a high-quality ministry or organization and most of all, God will be honored by your doing so.