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Equitable Compensation Task Force Is Analyzing Data

Posted: January 30 2024 at 12:20 PM
Author: Rev. Matthew Smith


The Equitable Compensation Task Force, established by the 2023 Northern Illinois annual conference session, is well along in completing its work.

Clergywoman Lay

Conference session members established an Equitable Compensation Task Force to do "a deep dive" into clergy compensation and report back to the 2024 annual conference. 

After organizing in September, we on the task force have been working diligently to complete our assigned work: 

  • complete a deep dive into the compensation of all appointed pastors in the NIC  
  • craft relevant legislation for next year’s annual conference 
  • report on our findings 


To date, we have surveyed other annual conferences and received responses and data from 20 of them, have analyzed all relevant data from within the NIC, and are currently working on defining an understanding of “equitable” as it pertains to our task. We have assigned a team to begin drafting legislation and another to review the data to make recommendations for the legislation and for the development of the report. 

We are excited about the progress we have made so far and look forward to sharing our results with the annual conference in June.

Equitable Compensation Task Force Members

Name Clergy/Lay Church District
Rev. Brittany Isaac Clergy District superintendent Lake North
Rev. Ilhan You Clergy Creston UMC/Steward UMC Prairie South
Rev. Matthew Smith Clergy Warren UMC/Red Oak UMC Prairie North
Rev. Dennis Langdon Clergy Trinity UMC/Morgan Park UMC Lake South
Rev. Noemi Meza Clergy El Redentor del Calvario UMC Lake North
Betsy Lovelady-Smith Lay Rochelle UMC Prairie South
Judith Gazaway Lay Oak Park: First UMC Lake North
Karen Newby Lay Princeton UMC

Prairie South

Beth Swanick Lay Evanston: First UMC Lake North
Fe Williams Lay Naperville: Grace UMC Prairie Central

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