10 Fascinating Facts about Pastor and Church Staff Compensation

Thom Rainer, the president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, recently wrote on his blog about 10 trends he identified from our 2016-2017 Compensation Handbook for Church Staff. Three of his observations stood out in particular:

1. Fewer than two-thirds of lead pastors receive health insurance as a benefit.
2. One half of all pastors did not receive a raise in the past year.
3. Churches in mainline denominations tend to offer higher compensation to their pastors and staff than do churches in other denominations.

You can read his entire list in his post, which he permitted Christianity Today to reprint over on ManagingYourChurch.com (excerpt below). 

Thom Rainer

By almost any metric, pastors and church staff are not overpaid.

While some ministry leaders provide sensational exceptions to this rule, we need to dispel the myth of highly-compensated pastors and church staff.

I have in my hands one of the best statistical resources for ministry in the world. I am deeply grateful for the years of work of Richard Hammar, especially his latest statistical tome: 2016-2017 Compensation Handbook for Church Staff.

This incredible volume belongs in every church. I have distilled some of the facts from the nearly 400-page book:

Read more.