What Christian conferences pay their speakers

In the wake of the Andrew Wilkie allegations about Hillsong, honoraria or speakers fees at Christian conferences have been in the news. Hillsong paid high-profile speakers high fees and regularly flew them, business class.

The Other Cheek asked some Christian Conferences how they handle overseas speakers. 

City on a Hill (COAH) was the first to respond. “Whilst we don’t want to take part in public criticism of other churches, we are very transparent with our members regarding use of funds, and make our audited financial accounts publicly available,” their executive Pastor Ian Scarborough responded.

City on a Hill’s financial policy applies to staff and “any person who incurs expenditure on the behalf of COAH churches or ministries.”

In addition, the church’s rules say, “Overseas travel may be premium economy fares (subject to approval thresholds), booked at least three months in advance and/or when airlines have specials.” 

And for Honoraria, a table of fees ranges from $250 for one sermon given at one service to $2000 for four talks at a conference or a significant event, with any expenses paid on top of that.

Matt Chandler, Lead Pastor of teaching at the Village Church, Texas, will feature at the City on a Hill conference in May. https://cityonahill.com.au/conference/

Undeceptions, the podcast network led by author and academic John Dickson, recently announced its first conference in partnership with City Bible Forum in July (Sydney) and August (Melbourne).

“I understand the concerns,” John Dickson responded to The Other Cheek’s query.

“Rebecca McLaughlin and Rachel Gilson are doing the two-weekend Undeceptions conferences + midweek speaking in schools and public events for a total work time of 14 days (10 days of speaking + 4 days of prep) and a total honorarium of AUD$13,500 each. We are flying them economy, but because they are both young mothers, we offered to fly their families over, too.

“The whole two-week mission is budgeted to run at a significant loss, which Undeceptions will bear unless we find further sponsorship.”

The Undeceptions conference sign-up pasge is here.

Another conference group supplied details but requested to remain anonymous. Their local and overseas speakers “receive anywhere between $0 and $500 per talk, which we consider reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses. Four is the most talks any speaker would do at one of our conventions.”

Gospel Conversations is touring David Bentley Hart. Tony Golsby-Smith, who runs this group, told The Other Cheek, “We pitch our offers below a business but above churches as we recognise that our speakers are world-leading thinkers.”

The fees are about $A10,000 -$A12,000. By way of illustration, Golsby-Smith points out that a top business consultant would get $A25,000 a day.

“By way of illustration, the wife of one of our speakers burst into tears when she heard the offer!” Golsby Smith said. “They were used to churches offering pittances which amounted to less than you pay a babysitter.”

As for Hillsong, Wilkie’s speech included, “For example, US pastor Joyce Meyer enjoyed honorariums of $160,000, $133,000, $100,000 and $32,000, and US pastor TD Jakes received $71,000 and $120,000, with a staggering $77,000 worth of airfares to and from Australia thrown in.” 

This is one criticism Hillsong has accepted already, announcing that they have adopted a new honoraria policy. So any implied criticism applies to previous practice. 

The full details of a review of Hillsong’s processes are yet to be made public. The Other cheek understands that the release of a third-party review has been delayed for legal reasons, possibly because the Wiklie whistleblower case is still before the federal court.

Photo by israel palacio on Unsplash