How much money do church pastors typically earn?

Question

And how hard do they typicall work?

If I'm not mistaken most Christian churches have one or two services on Sunday and maybe another during the week. I know there must be administrative duties and grounds maintenance etc. still it seem like they must have an enormous amount of time off. Is it a cushy job?

Answer 1

Our church has about 50 members(15%) who rarely come when the doors are open. And when they do come they don't put any extra offering in the plate. Put our Pastors remain faithful without a salary and often times use there own money to take up the slack.

Answer 2

Some pastors (very few) draw large salaries. Some write books. The average for a Baptist is about 25K per year. That is not much considering how much school is required, 7-10 years full time. If the pastor is a real good "preacher" he may spend over 40 hours per week just on building 3 sermons. Try it sometimes-it is serious work. Then about 6-12 hours in service per week. That does not count meetings, counseling, visiting the sick in the hospital, spending time with the family of a diseased person.
It is not a job one would want for the money. Like thay say-you have to be called of God-no one else could stand it.

Think about it-you work for years learning Greek, Hebrew and all the theology and philosophy and history. Then you work for years building a church up-then some yo-yo like Ted Haggard or Benny Hinn does something stupid and makes all preachers look bad. You don't want that job-trust me.

Answer 3

Most full-time professional ministers make about as much as public school teachers and have about as much education - a college degree and maybe a year or two extra. In my denomination, a Masters of Divinity takes four years.

Some demoninations use volunteer ministers who serve for free, as others have said. If you have to work 40 hours a week and be a minister in your spare time, you are either
1) Going without sleep,
2) Not doing as much as a paid minister or
3) Ignoring your wife, children, pets and yard

Very few ministers work as janitors and gardeners as part of their jobs. Almost all of them have administrative tasks.

A good sermon takes 5 - 20 hours to write. The radio ministers, whose sermons have to be top-notch, use "an hour a minute" rule - it takes an hour of research, composing and revising for every minute of finished sermon.

Most of the things a full-time professional minister does are hidden from the public. They visit the sick, counsel troubled people and meet with church committees. Some conduct classes for children and adult converts.

Being a teacher looks like a cushy job too, until you try it - school's out at 3, summers off. Teaching is harder than it looks. So is being a minister.

Answer 4

It will depend on the denomination and size of the church.

Catholic Priests of course are not really paid, they merley have thier living expenses paid.

And many ministers in smaller churches in various demoniations, are not paid at all, and some pasters have to pastor two or three small churches to make a living.

But for a normal size church of several hundred people, the pastor will make somewhere in the 30,000 to 40000 range here in the TN and GA area.

But you are very mistaken on the work they do. First they nomrally have to do hospital visitation anywhere from once a day to several times a week. Then they will have meetings, elder meeting, building committee and more that they have to be at. Then they have to study, it takes hours of work to come up with the sermon they use. Normally they will be working every day. And do you know how many of those members want to meet to discuss this or that.

Answer 5

As a Pastor myself my answer to this question is based on my own experience. Most pastors are bivocational they work a full time job aside from being the pastor of a church. Some with larger congregations are full time pastors. When you consider that preaching at the services you mentioned... also add hospital visitations... nursing center visitations.... home visitations to the sick and family members of church members (whether they are church members or not ).... then administrative duties of the church... continuing education.... study time for the writing of sermons.... overseeing different church committees.... working food and clothing closets..... not to mention all the duties of a husband and father if they are married with a family.... and your normal duties at home..... pastors have a very full week. And the pay scale usually requires a second job unless as i said they have a large enough congregation to be able to pastor full time.

God bless you will be keeping you in prayer

Answer 6

Our priest has office hours everyday. He also regularly visits people in the hospital and those who can't get out very well. He is on some boards in town that work with charities. There are also lots of administrative things he has to do for our diocese. He has to regularly attend meetings and workshops to keep up his education. If anyone calls and needs him, he drops everything and goes. Anytime there is a church function such as a clean up day, he is there working as hard as the rest of us. He has one day off--usually Monday, but there are times he doesn't get that off either. Then, there are the unexpected services he has to perform like funerals. So, no, it's not a cushy job.

Answer 7

Have you ever lived the life.Most Pastors work 24/7.You are always on call.You may get a call in the middle of the night from the police. A child has been in a car wreak.You do not stop to ask if they go to your church you run.A pastor make less then he is worth.And I think the better the Pastor the less he makes.This Pastors rewards are in heaven.
When my mother was dieing,the pastor came every day after work.He was a general contractor.But most days before work and every day after ,he came to pray.He never ask for a penny,my mother was not a member of his church.He came to my mothers funeral,the church served us a meal after.Never asked for a penny.
The reward for this Pastor will be great in Heaven.He serves because God told him to.He loves God.
It is no cushy job.<><

Answer 8

It is not a cushy job if you have a hard-working pastor
that has more things to do than he has time to do them.
Pastor's salaries always depends upon the size of the
church. Of course, a pastor of a 2500 membership
would make a much larger salary than a pastor of a
small 100 member church. I would guess around
$45,000 for a 500 member church.

Answer 9

not at all cushy they dont they work everyday and make house calls to familys in a hard situation they are also conselors or phycologists
they have to do funerals and go to almost every funeral that is going on in their church they have to manage the money in the church and they have to make sure the youth group and childrens ministry is going smoothly they also have to do a billion other things they are not off duty when they go home they have to email a ton of people that ask questions and need some conseling they also call people at their houses and spend a great time not hanging with family it is very stressful at times
most people do not know how much a preacher works besides the sermons
some barely get paid at all

Answer 10

Well as far as numbers goes I'm sure it depends on the size of the church and how much they preach on the importance of tithes & offerings. In the mid 90's I was a deacon at one church and the pastor made like $450 a week. I haven't attended church for some time but he had 4 services a week plus visited shutins plus parishioners that were sick in the hospital.