In many churches, the pastor’s salary is a quiet issue. There is a sense of discomfort from both the pastor and the members when the topic is broached. Such discomfort is unfortunate, however, because a number of churches will not seek every year to make certain the pastor is paid fairly.
A couple of prefatory comments are in order. First, we all know of the extreme examples of pastors living lavishly or mismanaging money. Those stories, though true, represent a small minority. Most pastors are not overpaid. And most pastors manage their limited finances well. Second, I am aware that many people are unemployed and that anyone who has a job should be grateful. That is still not a good reason to pay a pastor unfairly. As a final note, this brief article is relevant to all paid church staff, though my focus is here on the pastor.
In my 25 years of consulting and working with churches, I have discovered five common issues that are not always known by most church members. And lack of awareness of any one of these issues can have a detrimental impact on fair compensation for the pastor.
- A pay or compensation package is not the same as a salary. I cringe when I hear churches state a package to be the pay for the pastor. The package includes benefits such as health insurance and expense reimbursements such as business use of the automobile. No worker in a secular company adds their benefits and expenses and calls it their pay. Anything other than the cash payment (before taxes) the pastor receives should be reported in a totally separate category.
- There are many resources to find out what the fair compensation for a pastor should be. Many denominations provide their own compensation studies. But you can do an Internet search for “pastor pay” and see a plethora of resources that are available. And as a rule of thumb, you could seek to estimate what the mean income is for families in the church, and use that as a basis for compensation for the pastor. Churches that do not do their homework on pastoral compensation tend to underpay their pastors.
- Many pastors request no raises but would still appreciate one. Some pastors simply don’t want to deal with a critic who might question any raise given to a pastor. Others feel extremely uncomfortable talking about money in general, and use the “no raise” request to deflect further conversation. Some think it’s just the noble thing to do. But most pastors, in reality, would appreciate a fair raise to keep up with growing expenses. Don’t accept their requests as the last word.
- Many pastors are under extreme stress because they do not have adequate income to meet their financial obligations. Like anyone else who is under heavy financial burdens, a pastor can find his thoughts consumed with worry. Because he is so distracted, he naturally is less effective in his ministry. Both he and his family feel the pressure.
- Some pastors leave their churches because of pay issues. You will not likely hear a pastor announce in his resignation that he is leaving because of financial pressures. The reality is that, for a number of pastors, the issue of compensation is a major push from one church to another, or from the church to a secular vocation. It’s not that the pastor is in his job for the money; it’s that the compensation for his vocation is insufficient to meet his family’s needs.
Paul wrote these words to his young protégé, Timothy, in 1 Timothy 5:17-18: “The elders who are good leaders should be considered worthy of an ample honorarium, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, ‘Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain and, the worker is worthy of his wages’” (HCSB).
It is unfortunate that the few indulgent pastors who live lavish lifestyles get most of the attention. The reality is that most of the some 400,000 pastors in America are not overpaid; indeed many are underpaid. Those are the pastors who need our attention.
Posted on December 17, 2012
With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
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522 Comments
I worked for 7 years as an Assistant Pastor in a large church. After being asked by the Sr. Pastor when being hired from the congregation to pray about what I would need for a salary, I was led to give him a figure of 40,000. I had been a Deacon and lay leader for over a dozen years, graduated from the same Bible college as our pastor and knew he made 109,000 and the other assistants both made between 55,000 and 70,000, so I thought my request presented a humble start and left reasonable room for increase. For some reason unknown to me, he crossed out my 40,000 with his pen and wrote 36,000 saying “This is all I can do.” (I thought it was a test.) I spent 7 long years 24/7 at his beck and call, cancelled family vacations 3 years in a row because he said “You can’t go” and NEVER got a raise. When I brought it up after my 5th year, he accused me of being a hirlling. He had began treating me with personal cruelty and became unbearable in private. Our church treated my wife like an outsider because she worked outside of the home and helped pay the bills. We recently moved away- the pastor made like we were going to start a new work and coerced me into repeating the line “for the good of the ministry” so that the people wouldn’t know the difficulty between us. Everyone of our friends thought I made way over 50,000 and that my wife just worked for a little spending money. I love those people and that church, but something is rotten in the pastor’s office.
I was there all the time, all day Sunday, teach Monday night often, teach Tuesday night, service on Wed night, oversee Thur night, run Fri night group, attend Sat night mens group, plus the regular office hours, plus the Special Meetings. plus visits, hospital, jail, etc. I grew to feel hated by my pastor and God, He brought another assistant on staff part-time and paid him 30,000 for 2 days a week plus some youth activities he had been doing already as a lay leader. None of the deacons could raise the the issue of staff salaries because it was disloyal to the CEO sr pastor. Because there are over 1000 people who could be hurt by this, I chose to leave and move away and would like to remain the Anonymous Pastor
This kind of “A-typical” church administration is, fortunately, quickly becoming the norm of the past. Slowly but surely the attitude toward Sr. & Jr. pastors is changing simply because these pastors are changing. It’s not only the congregants who want more from their ministers, but the ministers themselves are desiring more from the Lord; a ministry similar to that of Jesus’ ministry. Finally. Once that begins to take place within the local church, we’ll see the attitude of ministers and congregants alike change for the better.
You sound like a gem that our church would love to have. Our part-time Pastor gets $40,000. for 20 hours a week. He charges members $400 for funerals, advent and Lent services are extra also. We have around 55 a Sunday, most are over 65.His wife was friendly till He got established and a member now she is only there on Sunday, does nothing for or with the church women. We are having trouble making budget, having money for oil heating. I have a question, He works for us, can’t we ask and receive an accounting of how he spends our time?
Many times you say a pastors pay…ours decides how his is broken down, housing $32,000, salary under $1,000, pension, He opted out of SS, and so on. So don’t say to me, how little we pay, he qualifies for food stamps. Many of us are worse off them Him.
Very sorry about your experience, but you make my point. Many pastors treat others (paid or unpaid) like hirelings. I know of a pastor whose church hosts a large couples retreat every year. and every year at the end of the retreat an offering is taken for him and his wife. The truth is many people in his church contribute/volunteer hours upon hours to make this retreat possible and he walks away with the cash on top of what he is paid when he could put a stop to it and say enough is enough. It is embarrassing for people in his church. Now he has decided to put a man in the church (a wannabe pastor) over the retreat event so he has more time to speak as an evangelist in other churches (of course accepting a purse every time he preaches). I have learned over the years that pastors are their worst enemies. By the way this pastor is always talking about how giving he is. How that his family likes to give. A few years back the church bought him a very nice vehicle he then “sold” his old beater to a fairly needy family in the church. I could have fallen over when I heard it.
Many pastors find themselves performing the role of counsellor, which I don’t think should be in their job description unless they have formal education credentials in the counselling field. Of course, additional salary is most definitely needed for this type of work. Pastors frequently burn-out from the stresses and emotional toll of counselling, particularly in small churches where there are no other pastors on staff. I would suggest that counselling be done by a professional other than a pastor, whether in the context of a church or outside agency. To me, being counselled by a pastor and then attending the same church creates a feeling of awkardness – particularly when the issues being dealt with are of a highly personal nature.
Is it proper for a pastor’s sister-in-law to be on the chairperson or even a member on the church’s finance ministry. And what about his brother being on the finance ministry to sign checks. Where can I find information on these issues as they seem to be a conflict of interest?
Do you have any information on Youth Pastors? I would like to know how many Youth Pastors are forced to work “other” jobs to care for their families. I beleive that like Pastors, Youth Pastors/Leaders struggle to focus on leading their youth groups becasue they are pulled in so many other directions (Family, Church, Work, etc…)
We are all shepards of the lord and we must serve out of our hearts rather than seek financial compensation. Jesus did not draw a salary. In our selfish society we must do as Jesus did and live and love without expectation of reward.
Pastors should not be paid as they do nothing to benefit society. If they are paid they should be taxed like everyone else that does a job possibly at a higher rate because they don’t contribute anything meaningful
I would argue that pastors do contribute in ways that provide meaningful benefit to society – it’s just that many are able to do fine in life without the interaction of belonging to a church community. There’s also weddings and funerals where those wish to have them handled within the context of the church. If the pastors are doing their job, then they are teaching people about what is right and wrong and how to live in harmony and peace with other people. The problem today, is that too many people just want to go to church, feel good, and socialize – people don’t want to hear about sin, repentance, and how they should be working toward less self-centered materialistic living.
Robert Smalls – Pastors are considered self employed. A pastor pays income tax and full social security (that’s 30% of their income after deductions) in taxes. That includes social security taxes on the what it would cost to rent a parsonage and the utilities that are paid. I am not being critical of you but it seems as if you received some poor information somewhere.
As far as pastors not benefiting society – A pastor is not a social worker. They are to train people for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12) – the ministry being “making disciples for Jesus Christ.” The church (pastor and congregation) is doing the work of Christ’s Kingdom. A Spirit-led congregation is an exciting thing to be a part of and when God is working in a unique way discussions such as this are not heard. The reason for that is the pastor will be paid fairly and the congregation will pay them a fair amount.
This post is awesome, a lot of great point of views. I never knew how much of a debate this was. This is why most pastors won’t preach this, because its so sensitive. I am not a pastor but I can say when you have pastors that give you the word of God like mine does, and you see the fruit of your tithes when our church can pay a policeman salary that was on the chopping board for layoff, 12000 ytd people fed, 3000 people clothed, transitional housing for people in need where WE pay their rent and utilities, 12 people who has had foreclosures cancelled, where blind eyes have been opened, the deaf can now hear, I myself am a living witness of eczema free for four years. Who cares about how much we give our pastor. They will never get what they deserve, I just pray that all of you word based pastors truly receive heaven here on earth and also receive a double portion. I give tithes, offering, building fund, and directly to my pastors and won’t loose any sleep about it. I will give generously on every occasion. And I’m not done receiving my harvests because I’m not done sowing…… Be blessed
Thank you for your posting. Two of your points really hit home, we have our parsonage and utilities come out of our pay which brings my actual pay down to working fast-food 30 hours a week. The second was your last point I almost feel like I am being pushed out because of money concerns. I love my Church and I try my best to love our little community of hermits but I see very little options left for my family except to make that cliche move to a Church in the suburbs.
There will always be those on church boards and governing bodies in churches that deep down believe that ministry is a service for the Kingdom of God rather than a paid vocation. While I believe that ministry is a service, if one is engaged in full time ministry, one has a right to be fairly compensated. Today’s church is a bit different than it was 50 years ago, even small rural churches are seeking seminary trained pastors, I can assure you, as a third year college student, even though I am 53 years old, college education is extremely expensive. By the time a complete my Masters studies, I will be on the hook for 80000.00 in student loans. So as I accept a pastor position, budgetary issues are a concern, i am certainly not in the ministry to get rich, my treasures are being stored up in heaven, as I am sure 90+percent of ministry leaders agree, I will however need to meet my modest lifestyle expenses and student loan repayment. it is not too much to ask that salary be enough to cover that. i guarantee, that anyone not involved with full time ministry has no clue of the time demands of the job, there is preparing sermons, counselling, marrying, burying and baptizing, visiting the elderly and shut ins, continuing education, special programs, missionary, and the list goes on. I know of no pastor that works less than a 50 hour week. just my two bits….
I’m currently looking for a pastoral job in a southern baptist church. I will be getting my ThM in the Spring of 2014 from DTS. Is it too early to start apply for a pastoral job? How does the process looks like? I will be 30 years old. What should i expect in terms of pay and benefits? I married with no children. I’m currently looking in the State of Texas and Florida.