My dad had the good sense to be born in the mid-1930s, which meant that when he became an adult, a good government job and sensible investments in stocks and bonds would, in due time, produce a comfortable degree of wealth. That, in turn, allowed him to pay for my college education at respectable state university. I taught in the public schools in Houston, Texas, for a few years after college, and then worked my way through seminary, but still had to take out student loans to cover my tuition at Westminster Theological Seminary in California. From what I can tell (by which I mean, all my evidence is anecdotal), many of my younger colleagues have much heavier student debt than I do, having financed both their undergraduate and graduate years with borrowed funds. That’s a change from years past, when many pastors in our circles were able to get their education on the cheap (through very low state college tuition fees, generous donors to seminaries, lower costs of living, deferring marriage, and so forth).
Today, however, pastors of all ages live in an economy in which housing costs are skyrocketing (especially in urban areas) and health care costs keep going up (especially for the self-insured, which is what all pastors in small denominations are). Thus, even before an equitable salary is considered, the modern pastor’s compensation must keep increasing to merely keep pace with the cost of living and servicing debt on the education he must obtain in order to be qualified to serve in the pastorate.
This means that congregations can no longer count on pastors being cheap. This means that if a congregation wants a pastor, it will have to come up with serious money. This means that small congregations will have to either get some wealthy, tithing members, or grow in size until they can afford the modern pastor’s salary.
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