Quote:
Originally Posted by Tishabet
I would never recommend becoming a pastor to someone unless they truly felt "called." It's more than a job.
Here in suburban Boston, we compensate our pastor via salary, housing stipend and car stipend. Total compensation is around $65k/year for a church with about 100 actual members, probably 30-40 regular Sunday attendees.
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Sounds pretty close to my old church in every respect - membership size, pay, etc. It's important to emphasise (at least in our case) that part of the "compensation" - the house - is church property, and stays with the church. So whatever we valued its monthly mortage at, adding it to his salary package as "compensation", really was not. So, for that house in our area, figure an easy $1500-$1800/month mortage (assuming 10-20% down, etc.) and the "compensation" drops dramatically.
Interestingly, the last pastor that was there while I was still an active member (I rose to Council President, Treasurer, and Secretary at one time or another) was an engineer. He had worked at John Deer for years before "hearing the call" and going to sem school. As our pastor, he was working for significantly less than he would earn had he remained in his first career. Plus, he had five kids and his wife stayed home to watch them (along with several other little kids from the congregation, so she pulled in a little bit of money from that). Yet, in spite of what we would all see as a very "frugal" (to be nice) lifestyle, he was never happier of more fulfilled. There are more ways to be paid than monetarily...
It does seem some of the bigger, less traditional churches pay their pastors quite well. It is reported that some locally are well into the six figure income range. These churches are run more like a business than a church; not that there is anything wrong with that, but they has the feeling that making money is more important than spreading the gospel. Lots of glitz and little substance, but it does get the parishoners - and their money - in.