By Editor Bob Terry
It comes as a shock to most people, but the finding is still true. Long-term ministers are usually the worst paid among their ministry peers. The finding is shocking because long-term ministers are usually greatly appreciated and loved. They are the ministers who have lived with their congregation for a decade or more. They have cried with those who cry and rejoiced with those who rejoice.
Long-term ministers have led. They have served. They have been a resource counted on by their church members. One would think that such service and such appreciation would be reflected in the salaries churches provide, but, in most cases, that is not true. Few churches keep up with salaries being paid ministers of other congregations. Fewer still reward ministers for their tenure and service.
That is why young ministers are often counseled to be aware that the salary range where they start at a church will likely be the salary range where they stay. There may be cost-of-living type adjustments from time to time, but real raises will be few and far between. Ministers sometimes contribute to this unfortunate pattern. Over his 27 years of service at one church, a particular pastor refused any kind of salary adjustment five different times. Three times the church was entering building programs and money was tight. The pastor concluded the appropriate thing for him to do was to refuse raises as a demonstration of financial commitment for other church members to model.
Twice there were other priorities (including adding a new staff member) that caused the pastor to refuse a raise. When the pastor retired, the church was shocked when it discovered it had to pay the new pastor about $10,000 a year more than it had paid its beloved shepherd of 27 years. It wasn’t that the new pastor was greedy. He made about that in the smaller congregation he had served for the past six years. The church blessed with the long-serving pastor had just fallen behind in its salary categories.
The pastor’s decision to decline raises had other unanticipated consequences. The pastor’s salary was the highest in the church. When his salary fell behind the norm, so did the salary of all the other church ministers. When the minister of music of that church retired, the church again had to start a new man at a salary higher than it had provided for one with 20-plus years of service.
Sometimes the minister is the unwitting victim of circumstances. When money is tight in a church, it is often easier for the church to decide to keep everything in the budget at last year’s numbers rather than make the hard decision to raise a salary and reduce funds somewhere else. Many Alabama Baptist churches will fight to keep missions giving high. Few will fight to properly care for the pastor and other ministers.
Churches with long-term ministers may give cost-of-living type adjustments over the years, believing the annual adjustments keep their salaries appropriate. But when a vacancy occurs, they usually find they have fallen behind.
One church found its salary for a new minister had to be several thousand dollars more than it had paid the previous minister in that position and several thousand dollars more than it paid any other long-term minister on its staff. Instead of using the finding as a time to adjust all the minister’s salaries to appropriate levels, the church hired the new man and then had to deal with all the dynamics created by the disparity of salaries.
A pastor friend recently told me of receiving 2 percent raises year after year. He spoke with appreciation that his church made annual adjustments in his salary. Many churches do not. Then he shared about a phone call from a young man he had mentored in the ministry. The young man was excited about the new church where he had been called as pastor. He was also excited about the financial support the church agreed to provide for him.
The older pastor rejoiced with his son in the ministry. After the phone call, he reflected that his salary, after years of service in the same place, was less than the young man would receive his first day on the job. There was not that much difference in the two churches. In fact, the older man served a larger church in a more metropolitan area than did the younger. It was just another case of a church with a long-term minister falling behind in the financial support it provides.
It is wrong when church buildings are paid for with money that should have gone to provide appropriate salaries for pastors and church staff members. It is wrong when churches brag about their missions giving but do not provide adequate financial support for their pastors and church staff members. It is wrong when churches learn their salaries are behind averages for similar positions but persist in trying to “buy” the services of their ministers as cheaply as possible.
Long-term ministers should not be the lowest-paid among their ministry peers. Their salaries should be near the top, reflecting their position, their contributions and their tenure. Churches need to look closely at what they pay their ministers, especially long-term ministers, and not let salaries fall behind just because these ministers invest their life in one church.
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