The Large Church Pastoral Pay calculator computes the industry normal pay rates for the Pastors of a Large Church based on the Total Annual Budget of the Church and the averages of other large churches in the United States in 2022. A large church is defined as one having an average attendance in excess of one thousand persons per week and an annual budget in excess of $1.5M.
INSTRUCTIONS: Enter the following:
- (TAB) Total Annual Church Budget
Pastoral Pay (PP): The estimated total compensation pay per full-time position is returned in US dollars.
The Math / Science
PAY GUIDANCE: There is no perfect guide in specifying what a pastor should be paid. Local economic circumstances highly effect the reasonable and comfortable range a Senior Pastor should make. One good guideline is that the average church staff member should make what the average congregant makes. In the case of one staff member, the pastor, their pay should be the average of the congregants.
STAFFING GUIDANCE: A generous congregation can easily support one full-time pastor per seventy five members. One staff member per one hundred and fifty is viewed as a bare minimum for providing hands-on pastor care to the church community.
Even though there is no perfect guide, larger churches exist and their experience can provide guidance in computing a reasonable pastoral pay based on what other larger churches are providing as total compensation. Therefore, this calculator uses linear regression to compute the least-squared trend profile for the following based on a church's total annual budget:
- (TAB) Total Annual Church Budget
- (n) Estimate Number of Staff
- (SPP) Senior Pastor Pay Estimate
- (EP) Executive Pastor Pay Estimate
- (AP) Associate Pastor Pay Estimate
- (MSP) Ministry Specific Pastor Pay Estimate
- (HP) Hospitality Pastor Pay Estimate
- (KP) Kid's Ministry Pastor Pay Estimate
- (WL) Worship Leader Pay Estimate
- (TPM) Technical Production Manager Pay Estimate
- (COM) Church Office Business Manager Pay Estimate
Staff Descriptions
- Senior Pastor is the spiritual leader and staff manager of the church. The Senior Pastor is ultimately responsible for the wellbeing of the church members and facilities.
- Executive Pastor is the deputy or chief of staff of the church reporting directly to the Senior Pastor and responsible for management of church personnel and operations of church facilities.
- Associate Pastor is a spiritual leader of the church and reports to the Senior Pastor regarding all ministry activities in their charge. They manage one or more ministries of the church and provide pastoral care to a substantial portion of the church body.
- Ministry Specific Pastor is responsible for the management of a specific ministry, reports to the Senior Pastor and Executive Pastor and responsible for the pastoral care of church members involved in their specific ministry.
- Hospitality Pastor is responsible for the social events of the church and for the assimilation of members into various church organizations and ministries. They report to the Executive Pastor and Senior Pastor and provide pastoral care to new members.
- Kid's Ministry Pastor is responsible for ministries for children from pre-school to high school. They report to the Executive Pastor and Senior Pastor and provide pastoral care to new members.
- Worship Leader is a spiritual leader of the church with musical gifts. They manage the music ministry and provide pastoral care to those involved in the ministry. They also provide music ministry support to associated ministries (e.g. kid's ministry). They report to the Senior Pastor.
- Technical Production Manager is responsible for the technical functions (IT services etc.) of the church and the smooth operation of the church's audio/visual systems, networks and website. They report to the Executive Pastor.
- Church Office Business Manager is responsible for the business operations of a church including accounting, HR and banking. They report to the Executive Pastor and the Senior Pastor.