Are you paying your preacher enough?

The quick answer:   Probably not!

The longer answer:  Society may hold preachers in high regard, but when it comes to salaries, churches pay their clergy less than public school teachers. That’s one of the conclusions of a study on preacher pay by Becky R. McMillan, a United Methodist minister and economist, and Matthew J. Price, an executive with the Episcopal Church Pension Board. The study finds that in 1999 the median salary for Protestant ministers, including housing, was $40,000 a year. According to a survey conducted by Abilene Christian College, Church of Christ ministers averaged less than $27,000 that same year. The median salary for teachers who hold a graduate degree was $45,000.

In large part, low clergy salaries are a consequence of churches using free market approaches to determine compensation. It boils down to supply and demand.  Since there’s a large supply of small churches across the country and a large pool of candidates to fill them, the corresponding salaries are low.  Conversely, the nation’s largest churches pay the highest salaries and are most in demand.

Concerned that low salaries might discourage talented people from going into the ministry, the study urges that churches reconsider how they set clergy pay. Instead of turning to the free market for guidance, they should act collaboratively with other churches to provide preachers a salary sufficient for a middle class life, including benefits such as healthcare, retirement and educational debt repayment.

The study, titled, “How Much Should We Pay the Preacher? A Fresh Look at Clergy Salaries in the 21st Century,” suggests that Connectional churches, or those subject to some degree of centralized authority, may provide a solution for keeping clergy salaries competitive with middle-class incomes. The study finds that in all but the largest congregations, preachers serving in Connectional churches (such as Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists and Presbyterians) earn 15 percent more than preachers serving in Congregational churches, (those with local autonomy, such as Baptists, Pentecostals and Church of Christ). While the median full-time salary for Connectional preachers was $46,000, the median full-time salary for Congregational preachers was $39,000. Connectional churches pay for health-care coverage too, while most Congregational churches do not.

Though the study finds that Connectional churches are larger, and their members wealthier than those in Congregational churches, the main reason Connectional churches pay more is the centralized decision making among those denominations. In contrast, market forces drive Congregational churches to pay larger salaries at bigger churches. At the nation’s largest churches, preacher salaries in Congregational churches begin to surpass preacher salaries in Connectional churches. “Church size, the authors write, “translates directly into market power. To attract entrepreneurial clergy, some very large churches are paying entrepreneurial salaries.”

But the free market approach may be harming the church and distorting its mission. For one thing, it may be forcing smaller churches to grow for purely economic reasons. Instead of focusing on their mission to the community, many churches might feel compelled to attract new members so they can pay more gifted preachers. Furthermore, it forces clergy to find appointments in larger churches if they are to pay back educational debt and save for retirement.  (with the Church of Christ, it is common for preachers to take lower salaries and work second jobs — one reason why Church of Christ Preacher's salaries are only two-thirds of connectional clergy salaries.) This approach, the authors feel, may lead clergy to view their job as a career, rather a calling.

So should we connect with other churches of Christ to regulate pay?  Of course not.  This article is just to show that preachers of the brotherhood are probably underpaid, but accept it hoping for a greater reward in the hereafter.

It sounds good to many church treasurers, but is that fair for the preacher and his family?