At Journey Pastoral Coaching, we are focused on helping young ministers build strong for a lifetime of healthy and effective ministry. We know that as we build the minister, we build the ministry.
Pastors’ ability to lead healthily and effectively is strongly affected by the churches they pastor, how well the people give attention to their pastors’ needs. If pastors are overly stressed, unable to provide for their families, or hindered from growing personally and professionally, both pastor and congregation suffer. Pastors stagnate, put their ministry engine in cruise, burn out, or even drop out. Believers aren’t fed or led. Churches endure a revolving door of pastors, never becoming all God wants them to be.
It is with this in mind that, in the autumn of 2024, we asked young pastors (under 40 years of age) to take a comprehensive survey on pastoral compensation. Our focus was not only on finances, but everything from salary to length of service, healthcare to retirement provisions, conferences to vacations.
Our survey population included full-time and bi-vocational pastors, lead and staff pastors.
Here’s what young pastors told us.
I. INTRODUCTORY INFORMATION
Are you full-time or bi-vocational?
Are you a lead or staff pastor?
How long have you served in your current church/
The big surprise in the introductory question was length of service. What we discovered was very encouraging.
II. SALARY AND BENEFITS
Is your salary sufficient to meet your family’s needs?
Does your church provide health insurance?
If your church provides health insurance, is it sufficient for your family’s needs?
Does your church reimburse your ministry related expenses?
Does your church help fund your retirement?
Does your church give you a housing allowance?
How often does your church board reevaluate your salary and benefits package?
III. VACATION AND PERSONAL TIME
How many weeks of vacation are you permitted each year?
How many weeks of vacation by years of service – all pastors?
What are the maximum number of weeks of vacation you will ever be permitted at this church?
Is personal time off determined by church guidelines or is it flexible
IV. PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Does the church pay for you to attend conferences other than denominational meetings?
Does the church provide you a continuing education or book budget each year?
Does your church create or provide opportunities for team-building?
V. PASTOR APPRECIATION
Did your church honor you during Pastor Appreciation?
If so, how did your church honor you?
How would you like your church to honor you during Pastor Appreciation?
How did your church honor you during Pastor Appreciation?
Lead Pastors:
Note: Lead pastors, almost without exception, wrote in the plural (“we” or “us,”) signifying the lead pastor and their spouse. Churches pay one person and get two when it comes to pastors.
Leadership gave us a check – 36%
Leadership received an offering for us – 24%
Cards/gifts from congregants – 24%
Did nothing – 12%
Thanked us for our ministry and prayed over us – 4%
Unique responses:
1. The secretary of the board had our entire pastoral team come on stage and he said encouraging things about each person. He then presented on behalf of the church a bonus to each team member and the church responded with applause
2. Luncheon or dinner (with check, offering, or gifts)
3. Did nothing.
Staff Pastors:
Note: Staff pastors, almost without exception, also wrote in the plural (“we” or “us,”) signifying the staff pastor and their spouse. Churches pay one person and get two when it comes to pastors.
Cards from many congregants – 24%
Leadership gave us a check – 24%
Nothing – 12%
Leadership received an offering for us – 12%
Pastor honored us verbally in worship service. Nothing more – 8%
Leadership received an offering and split it between ministry staff – 8%
Cards from a few congregants – 4%
Leadership received an offering for us and gave us gift cards – 4%
Leadership gave us a bonus check and congregation gave cards and gifts – 4%
Unique responses:
1. Leadership set out baskets; congregants give cards and gifts
2. Leadership gave us a bonus equal to one week’s pay
3. Leadership received offering in October, split it between staff, gave it as a Christmas bonus
4. I got one note from a church member
5. Nothing
How would you like your church to honor you during Pastor Appreciation Month?
Lead Pastors:
Check/Bonus – 24%
Offering – 24%
Notes of appreciation from congregants – 12%
A card from the church and recognition in a worship service – 8%
Allow congregants to give cards and gifts – 8%
The church would plan and not throw something together at the last moment – 8%
Luncheon or dinner for individuals and us to express appreciation – 8%
Time off – 8%
That my church would do anything – 8%
Unique responses:
1. I love notes from congregants
2. Wished it would be more thought through. It was very last minute.
3. Publish a list of our favorite restaurants for gift cards
4. Place a box in the foyer where congregants can give cards and gifts
5. Congregants inviting our family to dinner
6. The church would plan and not throw something together at the last moment
7. That my church would do anything
FINAL THOUGHTS
The call to pastor includes a call to sacrifice. Any leader of a church who does not know sacrifice is not yet a pastor: sacrifice is part and parcel of being a shepherd (Jeremiah 3.15; John 10.11). Shepherds, after God’s own heart, understand long hours and tight budgets. We understand living on little.
At one church we pastored, my wife and I lived without a stove. My wife prepared all our meals in a microwave or countertop oven. It isn’t what we wanted, but it was what was required to pastor the church God called us to serve. At one church, I cut my own pay by 25%. A couple of churches we served provided health insurance, and a couple didn’t. Only one funded our retirement. There were times when we weren’t sure we could afford to remain at a church. We cut expenses to the bare bone. We dug down deep and asked God to strengthen His call in our hearts and provide for us in other ways. My wife almost always worked a job. At one church, when one of our daughters was born, she took just two days off work before returning; she had little choice. At one church, I served as a substitute teacher. We did what we had to do to answer God’s call, digging down deep into Him for assurance and direction, into ourselves for faithfulness to Him and our calling.
Shepherds understand sacrifice.
That said, churches have a biblical responsibility before God to steward well their shepherds – their shepherds’ present ministry, family, and health, as well as their future ministry, family, and health. God will hold local congregations accountable for how well they stewarded their shepherds.
Just as pastors are called to faithfully and even sacrificially shepherd their churches, local congregations are called by God to faithfully steward their pastors, yes, even sacrificially. Here’s why.
If pastors are overly stressed with regard to time demands or financial needs, it affects their present ministry – the congregation is adversely affected by this lack of stewardship on their part. The same is true when it comes to their pastors’ families and health: a congregation harms itself when it doesn’t provide for the needs of its pastors and their families.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, if church board members and congregants have health insurance and employer-funded retirement funds, should you not seriously consider providing the same care to the one who gives you soul care? Regular time off in the form of weekly sabbath, substantial and required annual vacation, quarterly prayer retreats, paying your pastors’ way to conferences, etc., these are not luxuries but essential elements in stewarding the lives and ministries of pastors, and so, stewarding our local church, its people, and its ministries to the world God so loves that He gave His only begotten Son,
God calls a local congregation to steward not only their pastors’ present ministry but also their future ministry. They are to see to it that their pastors are at their very best today, tomorrow, and over their entire lifetime, wherever they serve and whatever congregation they lead. This is a kingdom heart and the Good Shepherd’s mind. May this heart and mind possess every church member in America.
When pastors answer the call of God to serve at a local church, let them come with a ready and willing heart to sacrifice to answer that call. And when a congregation feels led by God to call a pastor and family to be their shepherds, let them be prepared to do whatever is necessary to steward their pastors’ lives and ministry.
May every pastor and congregation be one in heart and hand in answering God’s call to fulfill the ministry God has given them. May pastors and congregations build strong together for many, many years of healthy and effective ministry – to the glory of God, the strength of the body of Christ around the world, and the salvation of those who are yet far from our Lord and Savior.
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NOTE: Journey Pastoral Coaching exists to provide pastoral coaching to Millennial ministers.
Saddled with large student debt, just beginning to set up homes and start families, and serving in low paying first and second positions, Millennials are those who most desire but can least afford to pay for pastoral coaching.
We are able to do so thanks to the faithful and generous support of individuals and churches like yours who want to see young leaders not only enter the ministry, but remain in the ministry.
Now, more than ever, we need your help.
If you or your church would like to help Millennial ministers across the US and overseas build strong for a lifetime in ministry, please click here to support Journey monthly or with your one-time gift. Thank you.
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“Of all vocations, surely the gospel ministry is the one whose paradigm is most radically formed by the dynamics of godly mentorship.”
Stephen BaldwinStephen Baldwin
© [2015] — Journey Pastoral Coaching