Salary Package Amounts? What is your pay?

"They" don't want us to talk about this. We might decide we need a Union.

 

Our church is about 120 in average attendance. Here's my breakdown:

Salary - $25K
Parsonage Allowance - &4,500 (3 bedroom parsonage)
Social Security - $5,000
Christmas Bonus - $500
Insurance (Medical & Dental) - $4,000
Retirement - $1,260
Auto Expense (Mileage) - $2400
Convention - $1,000
Professional Expenses (tuition, books, etc.) - $2,500

I think all that comes to a grand total of about $46-47K. We don't need to allow our church finance committees to put a "bottom line" number underneath Pastor/staff salaries in the budget. This is the old package approach and it is dangerous because when your members look at the bottom line and see $50K, they will probably be tempted to say, "Oh, we're paying him plenty." Yet, they may not even consider that as much as half of that has to go for things that never even see your wallet. CHURCHES NEED TO MOVE TO THE SALARY/BENEFITS APPROACH AND GET AWAY FROM THE PACKAGE APPROACH. The package approach almost starved me and my family out while we were in South Carolina. If we are going to be faithful pastors, then we must be willing to lead in this area, even though it can seem a little ackward at times. We must teach the whole counsel of God's Word to our folks.

 

Speaking of pastoral compensation, I thought this is interesting. Assuming that Rick Warren's royalties from The Purpose Driven Life are a fairly typical 8-10% of list price, here's roughly the total royalty amount we're talking about here: 19MM copies (and counting), with a list price of $19.99 = somewhere in the area of $38,000,000! [19MM X $2.00] The following is from Rick Warren:

"You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life. Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before.

I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease. So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped us to decide what to do. First, He gave me 1 Corinthians 9. In that passage, Paul says those who preach the Gospel should make a living by the Gospel. But that he would not use this right, because he wanted to serve God for free so he would be a slave to no man. So we made four decisions. First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases. Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church. Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan—to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick and educate the next generation. Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.

Then, regarding the influence, God led me to Psalm 72. It's Solomon's prayer asking God to make him more influential. When you read this Psalm, at the start, it sounds like a selfish prayer. Solomon was already the wisest, wealthiest, most influential man in the world. Yet he wanted God to make him more powerful and influential. Then you read down and it says he wants this so he may rescue those who are oppressed, defend the afflicted and needy and to judge the afflicted with justice—to care, basically, for the marginalized of society.

To me, God said that the purpose of influence is to speak up for those who have no influence. That was a turning point for me. I had to repent and admit that widows and orphans have not even been on my radar. Now God is saying, "I'm giving you a platform to speak up for those who have no influence." And I said, "OK."

We intend to use the affluence and influence to do The Peace Plan and to mobilize hundreds of thousands of churches to speak up for those who have no influence. It's a whole new direction, and I know it is what God wants me to do. The phrase that I have adopted for the rest of my life is "living for the global glory of God." Purpose is all about that."

 

I'm not a pastor yet, I work a full time job at a Realty... And I make less than $20,000 a year... No insurance... Nothing else at all..

And you know what? It covers everything that my family and I need. My wife is able to stay at home with our 18 month old daughter...

I realize that the cost of living my be a lot less down here in South Carolina...

 

I live in southern Alabama. Most churches in my area will pay the same amount whether a person has a GED or a PHD and they usually dont consider experience as a big factor in deciding pay. Many churches take the approach of "how little can we pay you" but God is always faithful

 

Try this for good information: www.server.kybaptist.org/compstudy

If that does not work, just type in 2004 SBC Compensation study.

These are good tools to direct your finance committee to, and also good tools for the Sr. Pastor to reflect on when hiring staff.

I-Dad

 

Couldn't get it to come up.

 

Just type in 2004 SBC Compensation Study in your browser box. This is a service of SBC Annuity Board.

I'll check and see if I can paste the web address for a direct link. If not, you should find it with the other.

 

try this gb:

www.absbc.org/download/study/2004_cs.pdf

 

I'm bi-vocational and happy to do it. I rec'd $10,071 in 2004, no extras. My secular job has great benefits and retirement plan.

 

Bless you, Jeff Weaver.

MR

 

Bless ALL you who do not serve for the money nor complain that what you get is inadequate.

MR

 

MR

Does your church provide health insurance for your pastor when you do have one?

 

No pay, no package, no problem.

 

Hardsheller

What we do is pay about 39,000 and allow the pastor to break it down according to his needs.

Our new pastor, not yet here, will require less for housing and more for insurance than the departing parasite and we have decided to give more flexability.

This is also a 6,000 dollar increase in wages over the last budget.

MR

 

MR

Thanks.

Interesting description you have of the former pastor.

The truth is that All Pastors please all the people in a church. They please some when they come, They please others while they are there, and they please the rest when they leave.

 

The truth about this this pastor is that he pleased EVERYONE when he left.

MR

 

I understand he's now on the denominational payroll.

 

We run 90-110 on most Sunday mornings; and my package is:
$34,000 plus parsonage.

We pay all bills for parsonage except local phone, we pay our own insurance, and if/when i start a retirement fund i will pay that also.
If we choose to live off campus, they will give us an additional $6000 in salary in place of the parsonage.

After they take out taxes for us, and we get take into account housing expenses and insurance...our actual net pay is around $21,000 per year.

bdd

PS...I also have a $2000 a year expense account to cover gas mileage, conference, and book expenses. It pretty much covers gas only when it's all said and done.

 

Sad, but true, Hardsheller. How did you know this?

MR