Make More $$$$$$

 

Make More Money, Become a Pastor

Let me preface this post by saying that I grew up as a Catholic and attended Catholic school for 12 years before attending Clark Atlanta University and really only then did I start to take a real look at religion and what it meant to me. Far too often I believe we simply take heed to what has been done by generations before us and what our parents told us without considering the real meaning to How and Why do we believe what we do? I now consider myself more spiritual than religious these days and alot of this has to do with various influences experienced while attending Catholic and my readings over the years. 

This past weekend my fiance' read an 'employment' advertisement in a magazine that boasted the title 'Make More Money, Become a Pastor!' and then proceeded to list the annual salaries of Pastors. Now I have heard both sides of the argument as to whether one would deem wealth to directly correlate to religious figures  as ungodly but first let me list for you what the average take home pay is for some of these esteemed leaders of your community.

According to the 2006 Compensation Handbook for Church Staff (Amazon), the average US pastor makes $77,096 per year. As you would expect, the single largest factor determining that amount is the number of regular attenders.

Excluding insurance and educational benefits, senior pastors with a worship attendance of more than 1,000 people made an average of $111,052. That’s 73 percent more than the $64,266 paid to pastors with a worship attendance of 300 people or fewer.

Many Megachurch pastors make much more—into the millions—usually from TV ministries or book sales.



Some of these pastors have found creative ways to keep their salaries in check. Joel Osteen (Wikipedia | Theopedia) no longer receives his $200,000 salary from Lakewood Church, and has chosen to live off the money he makes from his book, which I’d guess is still no small amount.

The average salary for a lead pastor in a megachurch is $147,000, according to a recent survey. Source

Salaries for lead pastors go as high as $400,000 to as low as $40,000, Leadership Network reported in its 2010 Large Church Salary and Benefits Report.

Executive pastors at churches that have a weekend attendance of 2,000 or more persons earn, on average, $99,000 a year and worship pastors get paid $75,000.

With all that said, what are your thoughts on the salaries of Pastors, Bishops and the likes? Do you think they too should be living the life of the rich and famous or do you think they should perhaps be giving back this money to the community that they 'serve?'



Thoughts & comments are welcomed.

Lipstick Diva,