Bring numbers, not feelings: your county’s cost of living, your pay next to inflation since you were hired, and a plan to close the gap. Take it to your board chair privately first, ask for a compensation committee so you’re not setting your own number, and step out of the room for the vote.
Why this isn’t greedy
Most lead pastors would rather do almost anything than bring up their own pay. We’ve heard the old line, “Lord, you keep him humble, and we’ll keep him poor,” and somewhere along the way we started to believe that asking for more is a character flaw.
Scripture does draw a hard line on motive. An elder must be “not greedy of filthy lucre … not covetous” (1 Timothy 3:3). But notice when that test comes: before a man is appointed, not as a cap on his pay afterward. The same letter says, “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward” (1 Timothy 5:17–18).
John Piper puts both sides in one line: “Don’t call a pastor who’s trying to get rich, and don’t be a church that’s trying to keep him poor” (Desiring God). In 2026 we don’t have a prosperity problem. We have a pay problem.
And here’s the part that should settle it: your pay isn’t just about you. The lead pastor’s salary is the ceiling a board prices every other role against. If you’re underpaid, your executive pastor, your youth pastor and your admin will be too. Your raise is what makes everyone else’s possible.
First, check whether you’re thriving
Answer these honestly:
- My household could live on my church income alone, without depending on my spouse’s paycheck.
- I’m saving at least 10% toward retirement.
- We have 3–6 months of expenses in an emergency fund.
- We give generously and still have margin.
- We take a real vacation every year.
- Money isn’t a regular source of stress in our home.
If you can’t check most of these, you are not thriving. And you’re not the only one who pays for that: your family, your staff and your church do too.
You may have taken a pay cut nobody voted on
Prices rose sharply after 2020, and a 2–3% annual raise didn’t keep pace. If your raises have trailed inflation, you’ve taken a pay cut without anyone voting on it. Here’s what an $80,000 lead pastor package needs to be today just to stand still, using BLS CPI data:
| Hired in | Prices up since | An $80,000 package then needs to be, today |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | ~40% | ~$112,300 |
| 2019 | ~32% | ~$105,400 |
| 2021 | ~24% | ~$99,500 |
| 2023 | ~11% | ~$88,500 |
$80,000 is a realistic 2016 starting point: the 2016 LifeWay/GuideStone study put the average Southern Baptist senior pastor’s total package at $76,492. That last column only gets you back to where you started. It isn’t a raise.
Find your thriving number
Don’t pull a number out of the air, and don’t start from a salary survey. Averages describe the market. They can’t tell you whether the pay covers a family’s cost of living. Start from the MIT Living Wage Calculator for your county, using a one-income family of four for a career role like yours, then build the whole package:
| Line | What it is | Florida example |
|---|---|---|
| MIT living wage | Basic needs for your county and household | $86,016 |
| Thriving margin | MIT × 20%, for savings, giving and an emergency fund | $17,203 |
| Cash salary target | Part can be designated housing allowance at no extra cost | $103,219 |
| SECA offset | Salary × 7.65% | $7,896 |
| Retirement | Salary × 10%, or more if hired after 35 | $10,322 |
| Total thriving package | $121,437 |
The +20% thriving margin is a Pastor Center recommendation, not an MIT figure. MIT’s number already includes health costs, so coverage the church provides counts toward the target, not on top of it.
Then put what you’re paid today, all in, next to it. The difference is your gap. The full ten-line version, with the health line and your plan, is the worksheet in Pay to Thrive.
The ask, start to finish
Most pastors never make the ask, or make it badly: in a hallway, frustrated, or as a surprise in a board meeting. Here’s how to do it well.
- Build a one-page packet. Numbers anyone can check: your thriving target from MIT’s number for your county and household; your pay since you were hired, next to inflation over the same years; what it would cost to replace you (a search, a gap, and a new salary that typically runs 10–15% higher); and a proposed plan: the target, half the gap this year and half next, and an annual cost-of-living raise after that.
- Go to the chair first, privately. Never surprise a board in a meeting. Ask the chair, or your most trusted elder, for an hour, and ask for counsel, not a decision.
- In the board meeting, keep it short. Start with the mission, show the numbers, make the ask, then step out of the room for the discussion and the vote.
- Don’t set your own number. Ask the board to appoint a compensation committee, or bring in an outside comparison.
Subject: Time to talk about compensation. “[Name], I’d like an hour with you before our next board meeting to talk about compensation, mine first and then our staff’s. I’ve put together a one-page summary using public cost-of-living data for our county and inflation since [year]. I’m not asking you to decide anything. I’d value your counsel on how to bring it to the full board. I’d also like to recommend that we use a compensation committee so I’m not setting my own number. I’m grateful to serve alongside you.”
In the room, something like this is enough: “I love this church and I want to lead it for the long haul. Here’s what it costs a family to live in our county, and here’s what’s happened to my pay since you hired me. I’m asking the board to set a thriving target for my role, with a plan to reach it over the next two years. Then I’d like us to do the same for our staff.”
Frame it as stewardship and succession. The board’s job is to keep the church able to attract and keep a strong lead pastor, and replacing one typically costs more than keeping one.
Be ready for the pushback
| If they say | You can say |
|---|---|
| “We can’t afford it.” | “Then let’s find it together. Can we agree on the target now, and look at our staffing model and leaks to fund it over two years?” |
| “Pastors shouldn’t be in it for the money.” | “I’m not asking to get rich. I’m asking for what this job paid when you hired me, plus enough margin to save and give. Paul calls that double honor (1 Timothy 5:17–18).” |
| “What will the congregation think?” | “That’s why I’d like a committee to set it using public data. We can report total staff costs in the annual report, alongside the vision.” |
| “Your wife works.” | “Price the role, not the household. The church shouldn’t depend on my wife’s paycheck to fund its pastor.” |
| “Let’s revisit it next year.” | “Could we agree on the target and the first step tonight, and put the rest on a calendar?” |
If the answer is no
Ask what would make it a yes, and ask for the target in writing even if funding takes longer. Keep serving with excellence, and set a date to revisit in six months. If it’s no again and again, that’s information. Take it to the Lord and a trusted mentor before you decide what it means.
Then turn around and advocate for your staff
This is the first of three hard conversations most pastors put off for years: the one about you, the one about the budget, and the one with your team. Once your pay is fixed, you can push for theirs with credibility. Every year you wait, inflation takes a little more from your staff, and the best young leaders choose another career.
It isn’t selfish to go first. If you stay underpaid, every role under you stays underpaid, and your family carries the cost. Start with the first conversation this month.
