[MRM]

My family is Methodist and we have been blessed with some wonderful pastors over the years, as well as some not so good. I also have an aunt and uncle who are Luthern pastors. They sometimes serve the same congregation, sometimes she's worked at the church headquarters in a corporate role. My aunt and uncle live quite nice middle class lives. They don't drive Porsches but they have Hondas and Mazdas, have a perfectly respectable Brady bunch split level in a nice suburb, and are getting close to enjoying retirement with an adequate, if not generous pension.

My experience covers everything from a tiny small town church with maybe 50 members, most attending weekly, and a very part time pastor who was usually retired and working for little more than expenses, to a pretty large chuch with 200-400 people attending services weekly and something over a thousand total membership. All of the full time congregations I have been in paid their pastors well, but not extravagantly.

Our current church is the large one, and the pastor oversees a budget of more than a million dollars and staff of 20 or so. He graduated from Duke with his doctorate, and would be a success in any enterprise he took a fancy too. He probably earns close to $100,000 and is one of the most underpaid men I know, and loves what he does more than anyone I know. Pastors at any decent sized church work 6 days a week with Mondays off, and spend almost every weekday evening at church (in addition to a full day during regular business hours) with committees and organizations and classes and activities. I am constantly bugging my pastor because I think he does too much and is wearing himself out.

Sure, you're not going to get rich being a pastor or a teacher, or even a college professor. But are you going to get rich being a middle manager, an engineer, a service manager, or what have you? Not bloody likely, that's why they call it rich. You'll be middle class like the rest of us, pretty much regardless of the career you choose. But if you have a good life and an ncome with which you can support and provide for your family, what is there to complain about? We should all have such failures for children as teachers and pastors.