This post is a passion of mine because I am sick of seeing pastors distracted from the work of the ministry to pay the bills. We work with millions of dollars of church budgets and one common theme we see is that pastors are not making enough money.
Let me give you 4 reasons ministry leaders should make more money:
1. To Decrease Stress
Ministry is always ranked as one of the most stressful jobs. The last thing a pastor needs to be thinking about is how they are going to pay their personal bills or be able to afford a family vacation. IF YOU ARE BAD WITH YOUR MONEY, YOU DON’T NEED MORE MONEY!!! However, a lot of the ministry leaders I work with really make below what it takes to run a family financially. Church planters, you need to pay yourself first before you hire a bunch of staff!!! Don’t make your spouse bitter!
2. To Allow The Spouse To Stay Home
If the ministry leader is the “bread winner” in the home they should make enough to allow the spouse to stay home if they want to. I have seen too many spouses angry because they have to work so their spouse can be in ministry.
3. To Live Culturally Relevant Lives
If the pastor constantly is saying NO to stuff because he can’t afford to go to a ball game or send his kid to a camp, that is ridiculous. I am not saying the pastor should have to drive the nicest car and have all the toys, but if the pastor does want to buy a new car or have a toy, they should be able to do it!
4. To Eliminate The Poor-Mouth Mentality
It is very tempting for pastors to poor-mouth around their people. I hear pastors poor-mouth in messages sometime as well. I don’t think it should be a goal of pastors to come across as being broke all the time. A broke mentality leads to a broke church. Pay the pastor a fare wage to eliminate poor-mouthing.
What would you add or take away from this list? Do you agree or disagree?
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!
Casey, as a preacher’s kid and someone who has been in and around the church my whole life and around church pastor’s around the country in my current job, I would say that I wholeheartedly agree. I don’t think the pastor should necessarily be driving the S550 Mercedes and living in a McMansion, but he shouldn’t have to scrape together bus fare either! Most pastor’s feel a calling to their ministries, and many would (and do) perform it under an unspoken “vow of poverty” because they feel strongly about their calling. Often this happens in a church with an elder board or leadership made up of other successful (and well paid) secular business leaders who seem to think its okay for them to be paid well in their job because of their education and experience, but its okay for their pastor who often has just as much education and experience to live on a level that is typically well below the level of the majority of their congregation. If the pastor can’t afford to live in the neighborhood the church is in, that can also a problem in connecting with the church members. Great post!
Casey, I totally agree. I don’t disagree at all, in fact I have some further thoughts to consider. Not only do I feel ministers should be generously compensated, I feel their benefits should be top notch. A very common mistake I see churches made is trying to give “comparable” benefits to secular jobs. I recently lobbied for more vacation time if you’d worked at our church for 20 years. I sort of thought there needed to be SOME reward for sticking around that long. I was told a 5 week max was common in companies, but my question was “why not bless the staff?”. If someone hangs around that long, make it worth their while! I’d urge churches to think creatively and outside the box in regards to their staffing situations.
I think churches have opportunities to create healthy work environments and lead the way in flextime, sabbatical, etc. to honor those who work among them, as is biblical. You can read my ideas on this here: http://tinyurl.com/ycel6c8 I wrote a post on how churches can do their part to help prevent pastoral burnout.
Finally, as a woman in ministry leadership who served on staff for 15 years I’ve seen the sad situation unfold where female ministers are paid less, not given the same benefits, etc. because “their husbands work”. This is so unethical! (and actually against the law to base pay on this) The church needs to pay for the work done and set an example in the way they treat their staff.
Bless as far as we are able, dont withhold. Be generous!
Amen brother! Some of the most gifted leaders you’ll find in your church are already successful at what they are doing, if you’re not willing to pay them a fair salary, you will not get the brightest and the most talented leaders to join your organization! Were not talking about making pastors rich, were talking about paying them a good salary so they can focus on the work of God, and not on whether they can feed their families this month! Great post Casey, keep up the great work!
You are so right JOhn! Thanks for your thoughts
Great post Casey! Particularly interesting in light of the Rick Warren issue and the comments I’m hearing relative to that.
Hope you are doing well Paul! YOU NEED A RAISE! LOL see ya soon!
Great words. You are preaching to the choir…or should we say you are preaching to the pulpit.
Thanks barry!
Perhaps those wanting to be pastors should have read this first,
“If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”
I agree with your reasoning and the benefits to paying pastors better. But at the same time, if I was a pastor I would have difficulty asking people in my church who make $30k/yr or work 2 jobs to make ends meet or where both parents work to tithe so I could get paid $80k, $100k or more so my spouse wouldn’t have to work and i could buy a brand new car.
I guess I have a different view. I grew up a pastor’s kid and am an ordained minister. A real danger in making ministry a good money maker is that it begins to be seen more as a career and I have some real problems with that. When your vocation is attached to doing ministry, then it becomes far too easy to make decisions based on your career and income, rather than what Jesus is really asking you to do. I’ve been there many times.
My wife and I have made really tough decisions for our family that have led me to seek “secular” employment, rather than seek a more stable and financially beneficial church position. We’re still passionate about ministry but we know that being a pastor is not what God has called us to do.
I’m sorry, but I don’t see anything biblical about Mr. Graham’s post. Jesus didn’t promise prosperity, or even comfort, for his disciples. Instead, he promised hardship, struggle, and persecution. Why should ministers of the Gospel, or any follower of Christ, expect a comfortable life? I’m not saying we seek hardship, but following Jesus will inevitably lead us to it.
I guess I have a different view. I grew up a pastor’s kid and am an ordained minister. A real danger in making ministry a good money maker is that it begins to be seen more as a career and I have some real problems with that. When your vocation is attached to doing ministry, then it becomes far too easy to make decisions based on your career and income, rather than what Jesus is really asking you to do. I’ve been there many times.
My wife and I have made really tough decisions for our family that have led me to seek “secular†employment, rather than seek a more stable and financially beneficial church position. We’re still passionate about ministry but we know that being a pastor is not what God has called us to do.
I’m sorry, but I don’t see anything biblical about Mr. Graham’s post. Jesus didn’t promise prosperity, or even comfort, for his disciples. Instead, he promised hardship, struggle, and persecution. Why should ministers of the Gospel, or any follower of Christ, expect a comfortable life? I’m not saying we seek hardship, but following Jesus will inevitably lead us to it.
Definitely preaching to the choir here. So it’s no surprise people are agreeing with you!
Eh, I guess I’m left with 2 beefs about this post.
1. The assumption that you need to pay a person enough so his wife doesn’t have to work… This implies so much that is from the 1950s view of evangelicalism. I was on staff at a church a long time, and a big part of the problem was the assumption that my wife was somehow pseudo-on-staff or that “her role in the church was to support her man.” Call it what it is, chauvinism. You’d call your lawyer if your wife were a teacher and you were expected to be there for everything.
2. I’m all for paying pastoral staff well. But the path forward for a lot of organizations is to cut their staff and ministries to what their churches can actually sustain. It might actually be better in the long run to be less dependent on full time preachers/administrators/etc and more dependent on the people of the congregation. I go to a church plant, I’m well acquainted with how the finances work. But a “real life, non-McMansion” church plant can’t sustain a single person for a few years. Maybe they need to read the pastoral epistles again and learn about being bi-vocational?
For a third idea, check out this blog post: http://adammclane.com/2009/10/04/3-musketeers-of-church-staff/
This is ridiculous. Have you even read the bible?
Jesse, you mean the part of the bible where it says the pastor should get a double portion?
And paul, what Rick Warren thing are you referring to? Now sure I’m caught up on that one. Good post casey! If you were to look at my blog you would see that I’m very anxious to plant a church within the next year or so and may be contacting you guys!!
Love this post – keep ‘em comin!
I agree with Casey 100%. No make that 200%
Read 1 Timothy 5:17 and digest the words translated sometimes “double honor”
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Timothy%205:17&version=CEV
In this (CEV) version its “double pay” – Im not saying EVERY pastor is worth being paid a lot of money. Effective pastors are worthy of being paid WELL though just as a CEO or Head Football coach is paid well compared to the people employed. How much is relative to a lot of things (culture, context, contribution, kingdom impact etc)
Read this contribution I made to YouVersion and see if you don’t agree that Casey is dead on:
http://www.youversion.com/contributions/50862/make-tents-or-make-disciples
The NLT says:
7 Elders who do their work well should be respected and paid well, especially those who work hard at both preaching and teaching.
While paid well may be relative to culture and circumstance there is no doubt that being paid and rewarded as a pastor is not only scriptural – in fact its a command from Jesus – (See 1 Corinthians 9)
I gave a quite a treatise on youversion regarding this and keep in mind my perspective is that I am a bi-vocational pastor. For 5 years I didn’t earn a dime from our church. For the last 2 I only recently began taking a half time salary. My wife doesn’t work out side the home. She volunteers at our church and does so for free and puts in 20-30 hours a week doing it. I will soon move to full time, and I can whole heartedly say that this is on point. The alternative to paying your pastor well is having him work two jobs to survive or put that strain on his marriage to survive and unless you are a pastor – you have no idea what thats like.
Having been in the hospital for stress related health complications recently because this very issue wasnt adequately addressed in our church I just want to say a hearty “Amen”
I understand Casey’s heart and desire to bless those in ministry financially. I’ve been a pastor for almost twenty years. Yet, I’ve recently been asked very hard questions about the idea of paying a “professional” clergy. See Frank Viola’s works as just one example.
The double honor that is being thrown around is quite hilarious to me. Can anyone show any other place in the N.T. where honor is translated money? If 1 Timothy 5:17 is the only place then there may be just as much evidence for snake handling in the N.T. as paying people double money! The N.T. is very specific about brothers and sisters in Christ honoring one another. I believe the same greek word is used as in the above examples to pay an elder double. So, am I supposed to pay my brothers and sisters? No. I honor them. An elder who works hard among you should be given double honor. Not double money.
It would be natural, though, that if I make my money from God’s people that I hope 1 Timothy 5:17 is talking about money! I would especially like the double part!
My dilemma with it is that it contributes to a non-Biblical caste system that creates a distinction between clergy and laity. The N.T. does not promote any such system. Christ is the head and all believers are ministers and royal priests. Christ has given spiritual gifts (apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor-teacher) to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. He didn’t give a select few the gifts so that the others can pay them to do ministry. Could it be that our paying people to do ministry has actually stifled the reality of the Body that Christ wants to naturally grow in our churches?
This issue is interesting to me. I’m currently in transition from youth ministry to being a missionary in West Africa. This adds all kinds of new layers to finances, including the skepticism that people have over salaries for missionaries.
The organization with which we serve, is encouraging us to have a sound financial plan for retirement. This is rare for missionaries, since most would wave pay in order to reach unreached people groups. The scary thing is the number of missionaries, especially independent ones that return from the field with little to no retirement.
The overall question is: how do we support those who have sacrificed so much for the kingdom whether minister or missionary?
Tell them learn to earn a trade and work along side those they shepherd, just as Paul did!