5 Money Expectations for the Transition out of Ministry
Let’s talk about money…
To get something off our collective chest: unless you’re Carl Lentz or slinging books, the money isn’t great in church work.
Leaving ministry will force you to change the way you relate to money.
But before we get there, let’s just talk about what we’re leaving behind: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The Good
All things considered, my last church job paid decently. Between 4 weeks of PTO, insurance premiums I didn’t pay, and pastoral housing allowance, we were okay. I also didn’t work the stereotypically long hours associated with church ministry. Sundays were 13hrs long, yeah. But Monday-Thursday was manageable.
There were occasional moments where I thought “I can’t believe I get paid to do this.”
Most pastors aren’t so lucky…
The Bad
Most pastors are paid well below their city’s average income, working long hours for a sorry salary.
I’ve talked to pastors who have simply accepted that they’ll never be able to buy a home in the city they’re ministering in, much less be able to retire in it.
Low-grade poverty is the pastoral normal. But it gets worse…
The Ugly
I had a friend who had a 1 day weekend while pastoring (Saturday). When he approached his lead pastor about having Friday off as well, he was met with, “you already have Sunday off. You’re not paid for Sunday because you’d be there anyway. That’s what Christians do.”
I have had other friends whose churches withheld pastoral housing allowance (a benefit that costs the church nothing and can mean everything for a pastor on a small income) on the basis that the church’s “ecclesiology” didn’t affirm that they were a “pastor.”
I personally worked in a church that paid pastors with a spouse or family more than single pastors on the basis that a pastor with a family “needed it.” (Yikes)
Despite the fact that you can’t spell “church” without H and R, churches are an HR nightmare.
They love to muzzle the ox.
When you’ve been conditioned by church work to think:
money is limited,
the desire for more money is greedy,
and compensation is just a nice touch….
It’s easy to enter the workforce expecting more of the same.
Don’t.
When you leave church work, the rules are different. The expectations are different.
Here are 5 money expectations for the transition out of ministry:
1. You might take a pay cut to start.
The unfortunate reality is that your first job after pastoring might be more of an entry-level job.
Even if you’ve been pastoring for years, have managed teams, or have managed a large budget, most employers don’t have a framework for pastoral experience, so they slot you in a “safe” role, with something more entry-level.
And more often than not that means entry-level pay, which might mean a pay cut. (All in, I took about a 20% pay-cut in my first role after ministry.)
The good news? If you take that entry-level role, you’ll crush it. And you’ll quickly find that…
2. You can (eventually) make more money than you did while pastoring.
When you’re pastoring, there is an obvious ceiling on what you can make. The church budget, your role, your city, and the general mentality around compensation make for for a low ceiling.
When you leave ministry, your ceiling nearly disappears.
Your skill, industry, and performance become the new drivers of how much money you make. (In my case, I’ve doubled my salary since leaving ministry)
TLDR: you can make a lot more.
Which is good, because…
3. You need to make more money than before.
A lot of pastors don’t realize how big of a deal it is that their church pays their insurance premium. Depending on your new employer’s benefit plan, this cost can be substantial.
Most pastors also underestimate the value of a pastoral housing allowance.
If you’re in the middle of this transition, here’s a good rule of thumb: assume your salary needs to be 30% higher to have the same lifestyle you have now.
Which means…
4. You can/should ask for more money.
You should almost never accept a job offer without negotiating. It’s not greedy, it’s not rude. It’s common practice.
When a recruiter or hiring manager asks how much you’re looking to make, I recommend asking for more than you actually want.
I’ve been given the advice to “ask for the highest number you can say without laughing.”
More often than not, you can get pretty close.
And if you don’t…
5. You can leave a job to make more.
Pastors leave job for big, dramatic reasons (church pain, family, crisis of faith, etc.)
Normal people leave jobs for more money.
This isn’t greedy. It’s common practice.
The surest way to get a raise is to get a new job (most people taking new jobs get a 20% raise. My last job change led to a 40% raise.)
To use an overused phrase: “It’s not personal. It’s business.”
And that’s just it. It IS just business.
So much of the pain in church work comes from churches taking on the worst of business practices and rejecting the best… in the name of serving God.
It’s disorienting. And a major mind f***.
But if you’re reading this, that can be behind you. Things will be different – simpler.
There’s life on the other side of ministry (and a bit more cash, too.)
Now go get that cheddar.
