Featured How much does ministry pay?

I get zilch and want it that way myself. Can't beat the retirement benefits, either. :thumbsup:

 

Zilch? Wow. I make around $250,000, work 48 days a year and don't work after noon on my workday. :sleep:

When I am awake the church gives me about half what i spend on gas commuting to my other job.

 

The crook that's down the road from here gets paid 75k to show up on Sunday....hehas no formal training either.

 

I'm on our church's budget committee. The senior pastor is paid moderately well, though he's by no means rich. His wife works as a principal in the inner city school district in Kansas City. Our music pastor, who has a master's in music ministry and our administrative pastor (the financial whiz with a master's in church administration who keeps us under budget and out of debt) both make somewhat less, but not bad, either. I could live on one of their salaries, but I wouldn't want to try. :laugh:

Our pastor of discipleship is a senior-pastor-in-training for some other church someday, who knows where, as are most such associate pastors like him. He has a median income. We have a pastoral care minister who I am helping organize a counseling ministry. He was the senior pastor at the small church that merged with us and is an outstanding man with a history much like my own. He gets paid about what the discipleship pastor receives, and could receive the fee structure of a licensed counselor when we open the counseling offices to those outside the church, but it is doubtful he will accept any remuneration. Both of their wives work, one as a legal assistant at a law firm and another as a teacher.

There are three pastors serving our kids -- the youth pastor who teaches and disciples the teens, a middle school pastor and a children's pastor, plus the youth pastor's wife is the preschool director. They all get paid a modest income, but they also have an inner city youth ministry that the four of them founded together a couple years ago that works with troubled and at-risk youth. They get a grant from the SBC, and funds from both the Missouri Baptist Convention and the Kansas-Nebraska Association. The two men whose wives are not part of that ministry also work, though they also give time to the ministry when possible.

They all do OK, but again, none of them are rich. Nor should they necessarily expect to be. Please note, John, all of our pastors and directors are seminary grads, which is what qualifies them for a what they do, and which is what qualifies them to garner the income they receive.

 

There are a number of compensation studies available that will answer the OP's question.

 

Here is a link to one from the SBC (2012), can run it a number of different ways.

http://compstudy.lifeway.com/homepage.do;jsessionid=2E3B9CB453DC0D80066623898BD33D12

 

I am impressed.

Your church must have liveried ushers, too. :laugh:

 

I have never made a dime from the ministry but as already stated, the retirement plan is incredable.

 

:thumbs::thumbs:

 

Our ushers all wear cargo shorts and Hawaiian shirts. No reason in particular but it sure does rile up the Saddleback haters. :laugh: They also carry smart phones with those little cubes to swipe credit cards.

BTW, Rolf, I really do work for gas money for the paying job.

 

That made me laugh so hard that I woke the dog. :laugh:

 

The secret to making money in the ministry is knowing how to motivate your congregation to give.

 

:laugh::laugh::laugh:

 

The only time I've received compensation for ministry work was when I was pastoring a small church in the late 1980s. I received $3,850/year which is equivalent to about $7,500/year in today's dollars.

Literally half of my income went toward gasoline that I burned in order to do the work of ministry in the county where I served.

If you wouldn't do the work of ministry without compensation, you are not fit for ministry. That being said, it is perfectly acceptable for some to receive compensation so that they can support themselves and their families while they do the work of ministry.

I prefer not to be paid by a church and earn my livelihood in non-religious employment so that I am not influenced by worrying whether or not I will have a job/income if I have to be prophetic with others in the congregation. I also don't want to deal with the scrutiny of certain members of the congregation who don't recognize how difficult the work of real ministry can be - some people think it is just a matter of showing up on Sunday. If I'm not being paid, then those busybodies don't have much of an excuse to check up on every little thing I am doing or not doing.

 

Hmm. Seems to me I read that somewhere today ...

 

That's how mega churches become mega churches......:laugh:

 

I don't think the members of THAT congregation would be seeker sensitive!