How much should a pastor make?

[Classik]

So how much should a pastor of a church make...for a living from the church money?

Fixed money?
Based on church income?
A percentage of the church income?

 

[Obadiah]

The answer will be different for each church since each church will be in a different situation. Scripture tells us to share all good things with him who teaches. In our society we "share good things" through pay checks. Some congregations have more good things to share with him than others.

 

[WIP]

I think the better question is how much is appropriate for a pastor to accept or better yet, keep for himself/herself? Is the pastor-ship a profession or a calling?
Matthew 10:
8 Freely you have received, freely give.
9 Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts,
10 nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food.

Luke 10:
4 Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the road.
5 But whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’
6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it will return to you.
7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages.

This question really goes around to all of us doesn't it? Even if we can, is it right for us to live wealthy lives while others struggle to feed themselves? Remember, by world standards, most of us live wealthy lives. I am fortunate to be able to live a comfortable life and I share some of what I have but is it really the Christian thing to do?

 

[Obadiah]

... Even if we can, is it right for us to live wealthy lives while others struggle to feed themselves?...

This is kind of touches on what i meant when I said some congregations have more good things to share than others. Their pastor should be given enough to be able to live and support his family properly by the standards of the area he is in but he certainly shouldn't be getting rich off of a congregation made up of poor or just average people! if he has been called to a ministry with a congregation and if they can't afford to support him completely, they need to realize that he may only be able to work for them part time while he also works part time in another church or other ministry or in a secular job as well. A church with a part time pastor can still (and should) rely on other congregation members to fulfill a lot of the jobs that many expect our pastors to do these days.

Of course, if the pastor is "church shopping" based mainly on what a prospective church will pay him, I don't think that really falls in line with having a call from God to a ministry either. However, I don't think because the average person in some 3rd world country lives on $2.00/day that this means our pastors must be condemned to such poverty when they live in an area where just buying a modest house costs $250,000 or more and the people of there congregation can well afford to share more of those "good things" with him. Why should people who can afford the things the average American can afford then turn around and tell their pastor he has to live in poverty because what he does for them isn't worth anything more than that? If the pastor is a good and proper spiritual leader, I think he's worth more than that. If he chooses to take some kind of vow of poverty in his own life, that's his decision between him and God, but a congregation shouldn't force this on him or make him feel like this is what he should be doing. I think in the rare instance a pastor can and feels he should do this, the congregation still has an obligation under God to "share all good things" with him just the same and leave it up to the pastor as to whether or not he chooses to return those things in the offering plate or wherever.

 

[Kathi]

A Church should provide for financial needs for a Pastor and his family 1 Corinthians 9:14.This does not mean that they are given a salary to live a wealthy life.Sometimes a small Church can not support a pastor with an adequate salary.Then he would have to get another job.

 

[Rollo Tamasi]

The average pastor's salary in the U.S. is $57,000, with salaries generally running from $27,000-$87,000.
I doubt these figures include mega-churches.

 

[Kathi]

The average pastor's salary in the U.S. is $57,000, with salaries generally running from $27,000-$87,000.
I doubt these figures include mega-churches.

I think $57,000.00 is alot of money per year.His wife should work outside the home.

 

[WIP]

I don't remember for sure but if my memory is accurate I think our pastor's salary is less than $30,000.00 and we recently celebrated his 30th years as our pastor. He doesn't want any more than what we pay him. His explanation is that he doesn't feel he needs any more than an entry level pastor would make so he's content with what we pay. At first one might think $30K is not much but when you factor in that he doesn't pay for his home, maintenance on his home, retirement, his own health insurance, and he gets a mileage allowance his income probably adds up to a pretty fair amount.

 

[Obadiah]

According to the census bureau $48,872 a year for a 40 hour work week is the average in the US in 2013, so considering most pastors work far more hours than that, $57,000 doesn't seem very high at all.

I don't remember for sure but if my memory is accurate I think our pastor's salary is less than $30,000.00 and we recently celebrated his 30th years as our pastor. He doesn't want any more than what we pay him. His explanation is that he doesn't feel he needs any more than an entry level pastor would make so he's content with what we pay. At first one might think $30K is not much but when you factor in that he doesn't pay for his home, maintenance on his home, retirement, his own health insurance, and he gets a mileage allowance his income probably adds up to a pretty fair amount.

Now there's a very good point. A paycheck isn't the only way of sharing all good things. Housing and all these other things are huge factors as well! I'll bet when the dollar value of all that is added in, he is being paid a fair wage for his work.

 

[WIP]

A home like the one our congregation built for him is probably valued at around $100,000.00 around here. I'm just guessing but a home mortgage at 5% APR would be about $500.00/month, family health insurance would be about $1,200.00/month, homeowner's insurance would be about $130.00/month, and electric utilities would be about $125.00/month. These alone bring his salary above average to about $54,000.00 per year give or take. That's nothing to sneeze at in these parts.

 

[Edward]

Ideally, the Pastor would donate his time to the ministry, but a familys got to eat and so forth, so i think they should take good care of the Pastor without a second thought.

But there's so many variables to a situation like this that it's really hard to conclusively answer.

 

[Obadiah]

A home like the one our congregation built for him is probably valued at around $100,000.00 around here. I'm just guessing but a home mortgage at 5% APR would be about $500.00/month, family health insurance would be about $1,200.00/month, homeowner's insurance would be about $130.00/month, and electric utilities would be about $125.00/month. These alone bring his salary above average to about $54,000.00 per year give or take. That's nothing to sneeze at in these parts.

Yeah, those things all add up, don't they? Of course, the $49,000 average yearly income in the US was based on a 40 hour work week. I'll bet if you add up all the hours your pastor puts in, it's probably a lot more than 40 per week. Most full time employees on hourly wages would be paid time and a half for all those extra hours. Remember, when he spends 3 hours at that Thursday night potluck that every one else is at because it's fun, he is there because it's his job and he doesn't have a choice. (Even if he humbly denies that, it's still not really a choice for him if he wants to do a good job as a pastor.) And he may have also been the one to spend several hours organizing it and making sure it goes off without a hitch. Should this be a pastor's job? Sure it should be. Encouraging and facilitating fellowship among believers is a big part of a pastor's job. So all those kind of things are working hours and they add up fast. Not to mention his job has him on call 24/7 and most secular workers that have to be on call 24/7 get a healthy premium in their wages for that. Low pay and long hours of mostly unnoticed and unappreciated work is the main reason that the job of a full time pastor has the highest burn out rate of any job in our country!

Now if he has a higher degree, such as a doctorate, now the average 40/hour per week wage goes to about $89,000/year.

 

[Obadiah]

Ideally, the Pastor would donate his time to the ministry, but a familys got to eat and so forth, so i think they should take good care of the Pastor without a second thought.

But there's so many variables to a situation like this that it's really hard to conclusively answer.

I wonder why that would be the ideal? Is it the ideal any more than it's the ideal for the contractor that builds your home to donate his time, or the teacher at a school should donate her time?

 

[Edward]

I wonder why that would be the ideal? Is it the ideal any more than it's the ideal for the contractor that builds your home to donate his time, or the teacher at a school should donate her time?

Because there are a lot of people who are a lot worse off than he/we are. If he had enough going for himself and could feed his family comfortably and take no money from the church, then some people without shoes could get some, some more people could be fed, and so forth. We wouldn't need a welfare system if people helped each other out as they used to do.

A contractor doesn't have to work for free, but he should take it easy on those which aren't doing so well. I do. I can walk into someones house and tell if they have money, or are struggling. I try to strike a nice balance between being reasonable with folks and eeking every last dollar out of them that I can.

If I walk into some little old widow womans house and she's watching a 12" black and white TV, and has Raman noodles cooking on the stove...I don't charge her as much as I do the house where a boat is in the driveway and a 70" wide screen is up on the wall. I find a way to make it work.

 

[Obadiah]

Because there are a lot of people who are a lot worse off than he/we are. If he had enough going for himself and could feed his family comfortably and take no money from the church, then some people without shoes could get some, some more people could be fed, and so forth. We wouldn't need a welfare system if people helped each other out as they used to do.

A contractor doesn't have to work for free, but he should take it easy on those which aren't doing so well. I do. I can walk into someones house and tell if they have money, or are struggling. I try to strike a nice balance between being reasonable with folks and eeking every last dollar out of them that I can.

If I walk into some little old widow womans house and she's watching a 12" black and white TV, and has Raman noodles cooking on the stove...I don't charge her as much as I do the house where a boat is in the driveway and a 70" wide screen is up on the wall. I find a way to make it work.

Didn't know you were a contractor! Sorry, didn't know my comment was hitting so close to home! But I think most pastors probably do things the way you are describing. I think they fully realize that trying to get maximum bucks from a poor church isn't the right thing to do. Of course, too, when you give the poor old lady a discount, you can also make up for it on the next job you do for some rich guy. Most pastors don't have the opportunity to do that since the one church they are at demands all their time and there is no "rich church" that will pay them more next week or next month.

I agree that if a pastor had enough going for himself and could support himself and his family comfortably without taking money from a church that would be a nice thing for him to do. But how many pastors do you actually know who can do that? I know there will be some older ones who have retirement income from a past career, and even a few here and there who are independently wealthy. But these are few and far between, and it's not practical or proper for a church that is calling a full time pastor and expecting him to put in 40 to 60 hours per week to also expect him to work at another secular career in order to support himself and his family so the church doesn't have to pay him anything for his work.

This is kind of what I mean when I say if we wouldn't expect the contractor (or auto mechanic, dentist, or whoever) to work for free, why do we put so little value on the person who works hard to help us along with our spiritual life?

 

[Deborah13]

I think $57,000.00 is alot of money per year.His wife should work outside the home.

imo
A wife should not Have to work outside the home.
$57,000 is not a lot of money for someone who may be on call 24/7.

I think a pastor should not be living below the level of his congregation. His job is far more important than say the job of a supervisor working in a company. He is called on to deal with people's spiritual and personal lives and marriages, what could be more important than that?

 

[Edward]

Didn't know you were a contractor! Sorry, didn't know my comment was hitting so close to home! But I think most pastors probably do things the way you are describing. I think they fully realize that trying to get maximum bucks from a poor church isn't the right thing to do. Of course, too, when you give the poor old lady a discount, you can also make up for it on the next job you do for some rich guy. Most pastors don't have the opportunity to do that since the one church they are at demands all their time and there is no "rich church" that will pay them more next week or next month.

I agree that if a pastor had enough going for himself and could support himself and his family comfortably without taking money from a church that would be a nice thing for him to do. But how many pastors do you actually know who can do that? I know there will be some older ones who have retirement income from a past career, and even a few here and there who are independently wealthy. But these are few and far between, and it's not practical or proper for a church that is calling a full time pastor and expecting him to put in 40 to 60 hours per week to also expect him to work at another secular career in order to support himself and his family so the church doesn't have to pay him anything for his work.

This is kind of what I mean when I say if we wouldn't expect the contractor (or auto mechanic, dentist, or whoever) to work for free, why do we put so little value on the person who works hard to help us along with our spiritual life?

Oh, that's ok brother. I'm glad I have experience in this area and can speak from it to help the discussion! I have been a self emloyed Mechanical Contractor for 20 years, and in business unlicensed before that.

If the Pastor needs sustenance, then I agree, take care of the man and his family! His time is worth money.

In a way, they way that I said take care of the poor widow and make my money from the guy with a boat, almost doesn't sound fair (to the guy with a boat!) but it's not really like that. He doesn't get charged extra or anything like that, just less discounts is the way it works out.

From what I've learned...freely we have been given, so freely give. It is all the Lords. So we shouldn't begrudge the Pastor for making money. A 6.5 million dollar plane may be questionable, but the mans worth his salt. And the better his message, the nicer they should be to him. That would probably be reflected in the offerings automatically though I think.

 

[Edward]

There's a business joke going around. Pricing isn't based on how many cars he has in the driveway, but on how many cars the garage will hold, lol.

 

[jasonc]

I think $57,000.00 is alot of money per year.His wife should work outside the home.

I make close to that its not a lot of money. that is net. then again I bought my home during the housing bubble.

 

[angel page]

The average pastor's salary in the U.S. is $57,000, with salaries generally running from $27,000-$87,000.
I doubt these figures include mega-churches.

Or even non-mega's. Have you ever watched that show, Preachers of LA? One pastor in that reality series has numerous high end cars, including a Bentley. (Would Jesus drive a Bentley? I'd love to ask that pastor this.) They're not anywhere near to the capacity as Joel Osteen. Who is reported to not accept a salary, but what would be that income, is put back into the church.
While he survives himself and his family on his publications.

I think a pastor should certainly be in line with what his parishioners can afford so that he lives with them, not above them. While his private income, that what is like unto what Osteen accomplishes in publishing royalties, should be his or her own. Because the more one has the more they can do for those who have so very little.