\nYou were young then.<\/p>
\nWhile your friends applied to law, medical, or business school, you applied\nto theological school.<\/p>
\nNow, years later, your friends drive Eddie Bauer edition Ford Explorers;\nyou drive used, four-door sedans. Your friends take winter vacations in Colorado;\nyou take road trips to your in-laws. Your friends sock away money for their\nchildren’s college tuition and for retirement; you can do neither adequately.<\/p>
\nJust to confirm the obvious, here are several average or median salaries\nof professionals in 1996:<\/p>
\n\n —director of engineering: $100,000
\n —school superintendent: $96,229
\n —manufacturing vice-president: $97,000
\n —top executive officer (nonprofit administration): $160,000
<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\nSome pastors, but only a few, command such salaries. An associate pastor\nof a suburban congregation in the South earns $100,000.<\/p>
\nMeanwhile, an acquaintance pastors a rural, western congregation of 200.\nHe, his wife, and his four children live in a double-wide trailer on the\nchurch parking lot. He calls the pressure his family feels “financial suffering.”<\/p>
\nMost pastors are somewhere in the lower middle. While 3 percent of pastors\nin the survey indicated their salary equaled $75,000 or more, the majority\nof pastors-60 percent-make between $25,000 and $49,999 a year.<\/p>
\nMost American pastors are not the penurious parsons of the Puritan era and\nof Hollywood sitcoms. According to the Leadership survey, the median salary\nof pastors is about $33,000. That figure includes money pastors are given\nto spend: base salary, housing and utilities allowances, and an allowance\nfor social security\/self-employment tax. It does not include the cost to\na church to provide health insurance or other benefits.<\/p>
\nThough pastors are still weakly paid compared to other professionals, according\nto Leadership’s <\/em>national survey (conducted by Scanland Research, Inc.),\nthey tend to be generous with their money. They’re also in debt. How they\nfeel about and handle their money yielded at least four surprises.<\/p>
1. Pastors don’t resent their pay.<\/h2>
\nWhen I recently told a middle-aged, ex-pastor I was writing a story on the\ncompensation of pastors and how they feel about it, he snapped, “That’s easy:\n‘Not enough.’ And ‘badly.’ Right?”<\/p>
\nHalf right. While almost half of pastors say they do not feel financially\ncontent, 70 percent of pastors indicated they rarely or never<\/em> feel\nresentful. That’s remarkable, since pastors naturally tend to make friends\nwith those of similar educational levels but who typically have higher incomes.\nTim Loyola, pastor of New Hope Evangelical Free Church in Toledo, Ohio, says\nthe hardest part “is trying to get over the feeling of inferiority when people\ncome to your house.”<\/p>
\nAnother pinch-point is entertainment. Loyola told me that recently he and\nhis wife turned down the chance to attend a Christian concert with several\ncouples. At $18 a ticket plus dinner before the concert, the evening was\nsimply not in the numbers. Loyola says, “[Y]ou kind of have that feeling\nall the time of being left out.”<\/p>
\nFor some pastors, their salary level generates not only inadequate feelings,\nbut also another, part-time job. According to the study, 13 percent of full-time\npastors are moonlighting to handle their bills. Terry Aske, who pastors a\nBaptist church in North Carolina and works an additional fifteen hours a\nweek outside the church, recently got a general contractor’s license. “It\nis very common for pastors here to have a second job,” he says.<\/p>
\nFor other pastors, their circumstances conscript their spouses into the\nworkforce. Of pastors whose spouse works full-time, 29 percent say their\nmedian household income is almost $60,000. Pastors’ spouses may be their\nfinancial trump card.<\/p>
2. Pastors struggle with debt-but not as much as most\nAmericans.<\/h2>
\nMany pastors, according to our study, are in debt. While 55 percent of pastors\npay off their credit card balance each month, the median balance of those\nwho carry one is about $3,000. The good news: That’s about half of the average\nAmerican’s, which Money <\/em>magazine recently listed as $5,800.<\/p>
\nBut for some pastors, “plastic” may be threatening their future.<\/p>
\nAfter ten years of accumulation, Lowell Qualls, a pastor in Virginia, ended\nup with fifteen credit cards and thousands of dollars in credit card bills.\n“I would use credit cards to buy groceries,” he says. “We didn’t have to,\nbut my wife and I were very young.” The minimum payments were a snap. I\ncan pay $10 a month<\/em>, he thought.<\/p>
\nIn time, he began lying to his wife about the amount of debt they had and\nwhether bills had been paid. Unable to still his noisy conscience, Qualls\nfinally went to his wife and admitted there was a problem. She knew that.\nShe asked him to get financial counseling, which, Qualls says, “I fought\nfor years.<\/p>
\n“Of course, people were coming to me for counseling,” he says, “so I was\nliving a double standard.”<\/p>
\nAs the crisis deepened, Qualls began losing his credit, unable to juggle\nhis debt. Desperate, he went to his father-in-law, a retired financial officer\nfor a Fortune 100 company, and said, “I don’t know what to do. I’m in trouble.\nCan you help me?” Qualls came clean; he showed his father-in-law\neverything<\/em>. “I had never done this with anybody before,” he says.\n“I was crying in front of him. It was embarrassing.”<\/p>
\nHis father-in-law put a positive spin on it: “This is not as bad as you think.\nThere’s a solution to this.” His father-in-law walked him through some biblical\nmaterial on finances, helped him and his wife create a workable budget, and\nadvised him as he contacted creditors.<\/p>
\nToday, Qualls does not carry a credit card on his person. “I’m living a\ncompletely different life than I was three years ago,” he says. “My self-esteem\nhas gone up; before, I was ashamed of where I was financially.”<\/p>
\nBut in order to pay back thousands in unsecured debt, Qualls has not squirreled\naway any money for retirement. He says, “I did not engage in any kind of\ndeliberate savings program until recently. I feel guilty about that.” Worse,\nhe opted out of paying social security tax as a young pastor. While most\nfinancial advisers tell boomers not to count on social security for their\nretirement, that’s a foregone conclusion for Qualls.<\/p>
\nFor many in credit card debt, their balances balloon over time because of\nunanticipated expenses. It’s $150 to put brake shoes on the old Buick, then\n$400 for struts. Soon, the credit card balance is hovering around $1,000.\nThen comes Christmas, $100 for Tommy’s soccer gear, and another $200 to replace\nthe clutch in the other car. Then the fridge goes out.<\/p>
\nThere’s enough to cover basic living expenses, but not enough for extras\nand unexpecteds. Call it the quandary of the middle class.<\/p>
\nCharles Eldredge, who pastors Maitland Church of the Brethren in Lewistown,\nPennsylvania, says, “In our early years we weren’t able to pay cash because\nmy wife wasn’t working. It [credit card debt] is easy to let get away from\nyou when you just need to keep the vehicles running.”<\/p>
\nBut not easy to rein in.<\/p>
3. Pastors who ask for raises usually get them (but most don’t\nask).<\/h2>
\nOne solution to cutting debt and building savings, of course, is to ask for\na raise. Most pastors in our survey-90 percent-believe it is appropriate\nfor a pastor to do so.<\/p>
\nBut of those who felt discontented financially, 63 percent have never asked\nfor a raise. That’s too bad, for those who ask, receive: Only 13 percent\nof those who asked for a raise said they didn’t get one.<\/p>
\nWhy don’t pastors ask for salary increases?<\/p>
\nBesides the sheer awkwardness of it, one reason may be that more than anyone\nin the church, pastors tend to know the church’s financial realities. Pacific\nCommunity Church in Bandon, Oregon, split not too long ago and ended up with\n90 people, down from 180. Pastor Tom Hutton says, “We’re adjusting from the\nbudget of a larger church down to [one with] now fewer people. We’re paying\nfor some of the things from before, so I suggested the elder board leave\nmy salary alone for now and see next year if the church finances are in better\ncondition.”<\/p>
\nAnother reason may be that there is no structure for asking. Whom do you\nsee first about a raise? The chairman of the finance committee? What if he\nor she has a beef with you? In the survey, 38 percent of pastors said their\nchurches do not have a policy for raises-not even for a cost-of-living raise.\nIt’s a lot easier to ask for a raise if there’s a structure in place to ask\nfor one.<\/p>
\n[For help in asking for a raise, see “Salary Negotiation for the Hesitant”\nby Larry Osborne in Leadership’s<\/em> area on America\nOnline- keyword LeadershipJournal.net.<\/a>\nOr go to\nwww.ChristianityToday.com\/leadership<\/a>.\nOr see “Negotiating a Fair Salary” in Leadership<\/em>, Winter, 1987 (not\ncurrently available online).]<\/p>
\nWhich may be why pastors who make more money also tend to get the raises\nthey request. Donald Njaa, executive director of the ministry for the Evangelical\nCovenant denomination, says, “Probably, the ministers who are paid better\nare in larger churches where the system of politics isn’t as personal as\nit is in a small church.”<\/p>
\nIn many smaller congregations, the unspoken compensation philosophy is still\nto pay the pastor as little as possible. Njaa says, “I watch this on our\n[denominational] board of pension. [The] people who get elected to that pension\nboard are very wealthy, yet they fuss about ministers’ salaries.”<\/p>
\nCharles Eldredge used his denomination’s recommended base cash salary scale\nto his advantage. The index ranges from 1 to 20, factoring in years of\nexperience, education, and cost of living. Eldredge first had to explain\nthe scale to the finance committee. Doing so clearly established he was\nsignificantly underpaid. The pastor before him had not been paid to scale;\nconsequently, when Eldredge was hired, he was offered a lower salary.<\/p>
\nThe money was not there (it never is) to increase his salary, so Eldredge\nrecommended the church not bump him to the higher level all in one year.\n“I suggested our church set a goal to get me to scale in three or four years,”\nEldredge says. It took two years, but the finance committee recently voted\nto get Eldredge to scale by 2000.<\/p>
4. Pastors tithe—but they don’t ask others to.<\/h2>
\nFor pastors, the gap between what they preach and what they practice is always\na nagging concern. Sometimes the job requires one to speak beyond experience\nand pronounce what should be. Which is not true about the topic of giving.\nPastors are givers.<\/p>
\nAccording to our survey, almost two-thirds of pastors-63 percent-say their\nfamily practices a 10 percent, pre-tax tithe. If you add those who say they\ngive away 10 percent after taxes, the total practicing some form of the tithe\njumps to 76 percent.<\/p>
\nThat’s remarkable, especially in light of pastors’ wages and credit card\ndebt.<\/p>
\nOne reason pastors give well is to model biblical values. “[My family’s]\nmodeling is primarily . . . to the leadership team,” says Tim Loyola, “and\nmore specifically to the directors, the people who operate our finances.”<\/p>
\nOddly, while pastors tithe, they don’t tell their congregations to. The study\nrevealed that 35 percent of pastors don’t preach what they practice. In general,\npastors seem reluctant to speak about money (contrary to public perception);\n37 percent said they should preach about tithing and stewardship more.<\/p>
\n“I preach expositionally through books of the Bible most of the time” was\na common explanation pastors gave for not preaching more on money. Another\nwas “I don’t want to offend seekers.” Art Hunt, who pastors Christ Presbyterian\nChurch in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, says, “I try to avoid the charge that\nall I’m ever doing is preaching on money.”<\/p>
\nYet in light of their generous giving habits, pastors could be more confident\nabout calling people to give sacrificially. If the majority of pastors are\ngiving 10 percent of their salary, they have the credibility to be more bold.<\/p>
\nTim Loyola recently began preaching more about money. “This year it was\nneed-oriented,” he says. “I shifted my preaching calendar because we had\nan influx of people who created financial demands and had been around long\nenough . . . to be spoken to about their responsibility to get on board\nfinancially.”<\/p>
\nWhen I asked Loyola, “Did offerings increase?” he said they did. “I rarely\ndo a message on finances based on need. [We] don’t want to be crisis-oriented.\nBut we felt part of the reason was people were uninformed.”<\/p>
Ultimate matter<\/h2>
\nOf all people, pastors know that more money doesn’t mean more happiness.\nMost would just like to get out of debt, help pay for their children’s education,\nand set a little aside for retirement (see “Digging Out and Saving Up,” p.\n89). Yet in one sense, money is at least a distant cousin to happiness. In\nour research, pastors in the top quartile of salary tended to:<\/p>
\n\n —own their home
\n —feel less resentful about their salary
\n —be more likely to have a spouse employed because she\/he wants to be
\n —get raises when they ask for them
\n —have more money socked away for retirement.\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>