How Much Should We Pay the Pastor?: A Fresh Look at Clergy Salaries
in the 21st Century
Becky R. McMillan and Matthew J. Price
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Competitive, free-market approaches to determining
clergy compensation are harming the church and distorting its mission,
according to Becky McMillan and Matthew J. Price, Such approaches,
they conclude, leave most pastors financially vulnerable, change ministry
from a "calling" to a "career," encourage congregations
to grow for purely economic reasons, and make it more difficult for
pastors to offer "prophetic" leadership that challenges
and transforms congregations.
Rather than relying upon the free market for guidance, Protestant
churches should instead narrow the salary gap between pastors at small
and large churches and provide all pastors with sufficient compensation
to enable them and their families to live a decent life-in essence,
providing them with a "living wage."
The associate director of Pulpit & Pew, McMillan is a labor economist
with a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago and an M.Div.
from Duke. The former associate director of Pulpit & Pew, Price
is director of analytical research at the Episcopal Church Pension
Group in New York City and has a Ph.D. in sociology from Princeton
University.
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