Do you know how much your pastor makes? Does it matter? Is there a limit on how much a pastor should make? A pastor in New York is making $500-600k/year. This salary has prompted a lawsuit over his “compensation“. So how’d he make so much?
Base $250k
Housing Allowance (rent) $11.5k = $138k/year
Private school for Child
Maid
Home Equity Allowance (to buy a home)
Pension
Lifestyle Allowance
= $500-600k/year
Wow, that’s quite a haul. Don’t get me wrong, part of it is definitely due to the fact that the guy is living in NYC. It’s expensive to live there! But it’s pretty generous to get a $140k/year to “rent” a home + maid + savings to eventually buy a home.
Obviously his salary and compensation is coming from the church tithes. Is this what the church tithes were meant to be used for? It’s probably a very rich church so they can afford to pay the pastor well. But should there be a limit on what a pastor makes? Or is he like CEO and should be compensated in the same fashion?
Should the collected tithe be used to run the church on a minimal budget and the rest be given out to do community works? Or spread the ministry? I discussed this with my roommate, the Sunday School Principal of his church, and he said that it sounded pretty outrageous. We live in a HCOLA but his pastor makes substantially less. The collected tithe in their church goes to people on missions and rebuilding communities in the middle east. He also said it’s okay for people to come to church and give nothing. There is no expectations.
I wonder if we weren’t required to tithe, what would the salaries be of the pastor’s? Do you know what your pastor makes?
12 responses so far ↓
1 Meg from FruWiki // Jul 5, 2009 at 1:56 pm
I think it shows a lot about the values of the pastor. I would be much more impressed by a pastor that lived much more simply so that the money could be spent helping others who are much less fortunate. Jesus didn’t tells his followers to get rich, he told them to give up what they owned to follow him. He didn’t promise them a house, private schools for their kids, or a large New York apartment (at least I hope it is large for that amount!).
However, it is the congregation’s choice, I assume. And if that’s what they want, so be it. But you can’t buy your way into Heaven. And furthermore, I think it’s sad that they’d have to hire a maid when around where I live if such services are needed people from the congregation volunteer their services.
2 LAL // Jul 5, 2009 at 10:08 pm
I have to agree it says a lot about the pastor’s values. I don’t think I would be comfortable with a Pastor who had more money than 99% of the population.
3 Michelle // Jul 5, 2009 at 10:30 pm
I am very biased on this topic, as my grandparents were both in the ministry (my grandfather as a pastor and grandmother as a teacher and music director)…and they made PENNIES. Literally – the church owned a home for them to live in & paid the utilities, but their combined salary was less than $20/month through the 1960s. Their parishoners provided meat, eggs, canned goods and gramma had a garden and kept goats & a cow. In today’s monetization of religion (see: Olsteens, Falwells & Robertsons to name a few), I think equating what these folks are to my grandparents does a major disservice…to those “called” to being pastors/ministers. But I also don’t understand why major league athletes make what they make, so I’m (again) a little biased on the issue!
4 LAL // Jul 5, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Michelle, understandable. Sounds like your family wanted to minister their flock. I’m not so sure about those other people.
5 Neil // Jul 6, 2009 at 9:02 am
Hi
I think it is wrong for a pastor to be paid this amount. The priority of the church should be to help people, not make any one individual wealthy.
6 Angie // Jul 6, 2009 at 7:54 pm
I used to work at a church, and am related to more than one pastor, and even in high COLAs, I’ve never heard of one making more than 100k. He was in San Jose during the late 90s when everyone in the congregation was making 100-200k plus stock options. Typically it’s my experience that senior pastors make in the 50-60 range, and other pastors (worship, youth, etc.) tend to make in the 30-40s. The “housing allowance” they get is usually part of that salary, but it’s classified differently so that it isn’t taxed. A pastor’s job is much more difficult than just the Sunday preaching – they are literally on call 24/7, and I do believe that they should be well compensated. I feel that more important than the actual dollar number he’s getting paid, is the percentage of church income that he’s taking home. The vast majority of tithes should be going to programs/missions/etc., but if the church is bringing in 2 million a year, I see nothing wrong with the pastor taking home 100k. I think I’d be hard pressed to find any justification for a pastor making 600k though.
7 LAL // Jul 6, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Neil, I’m sure more than few feel that way.
Angie, I thought pastors maybe made like $50-60k, or so I’ve heard from kids of pastors. But if you read the article it’s unbelievable.
8 Craig @ Money Help For Christians // Jul 6, 2009 at 8:47 pm
As a minister I think it is important to point out that this is a sensationalized extreme. I was just doing some research for my blog and the average pastor salary is just under $40,000.
Moreover, it is important to keep in mind that this pastor does not set his own salary. Who knows what he is doing with the money he earns? Should a pastor refuse a salary if it seems too much?
9 LAL // Jul 7, 2009 at 8:23 am
Actually Craig, i posted on a two different message boards and many pastors made more than $100k. Also many commented they wouldn’t go to mega churches because of the pay to pastors which is over $100k easily.
10 Meg // Jul 8, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Some pastors can and do command high salaries, especially in large wealthy congregations. I attend a large church in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the country, and the tithes that are raked in – along with the church budget – is huge due to the incomes of the people who are members there. The paster I’m sure makes 6 figures, but that’s still a small percentage of the church budget.
I don’t mind a bit that he makes that kind of money because a) most of the church income DOES go go very worthy causes and b) he deserves it in my opinion. It’s interesting you compare the pay to that of CEOs because he IS effectively a CEO.
Every congregation needs and wants a pastor they can relate to and look up to as a spiritual guide through the secular world they live in. They also need somebody who can manage the church’s relationship in the community and manage the church budget, among other things.
Wealthy congregations and large churches demand very highly educated, incredibly talented leaders to hold together and direct their multi million dollar churches. Of course they also must be very Godly people and inpirational teachers, etc.
Every church is different and every pastor is different. Many small churches only require (and some will only consider) volunteer pastors with no education who simply prepare a message and show up on Sunday to deliver it. But for those churches that require much more – and get it from people who could make very good livings doing other things- they are generally very willing and able to pay for services rendered.
Every church is different, but every church also votes on what to pay its pastor.
11 Meg from FruWiki // Jul 8, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Hmmm…. with CEOs it is expected that salary is a big factor in which company they decide to work for, and successful CEOs will help a company make a lot more money, so good CEOs are expected to be offered larger salaries.
But, if a pastor chooses his/her church largely based upon getting a huge salary, then is he/she that good a pastor? Personally, I wouldn’t want my pastor to be motivated so much by money. And do mega churches offer large salaries because they think that those pastors will bring in not just more souls but more money? And if so, does that whole “business model” change the way a pastor preaches?
It seems to me that the mega churches are the ones that preach more about being financially successful, whereas smaller, poorer churches talk more about doing good works and the virtues of living simply. Are they each just preaching to their audience and telling them what they want to hear?
12 LAL // Jul 9, 2009 at 10:39 am
Interesting point Meg. That different churches preach different things.
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