If you ever need statistics and facts on churches, church attendance, megachurches, and numbers of people who attend church in the United States, I posted some demographic sites here. One of the sites was the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. Here are some of the statistics I found:
-There are about 300,000 protestant churches in the US.
-The median church size is 75 people (the average is 186).
-50% of people who attend church attend the largest 10% of churches (350 people or more).
-There are 600,000 clergy members in the US.
-The average pastoral salary is $31,234. But if we only look at pastors in churches of more than 1000 people, the average salary is $81,923.
There are a lot of other statistics there as well.
Just for fun, do the math on these last two statistics. If the average salary for 600,000 clergy is $31,234, then this means that every year, $18.7 billion goes toward pastoral salaries in the United States.
I’m not necessarily saying this should happen, and I believe the worker is worthy of his wages…but I wonder what the church could do with $18.7 billion if we were not paying our pastors?
With $18.7 billion we could build a sweet new sanctuary and replace the carpet in 187,000 churches!
Now you’re thinking!
Start by getting rid of the actual brick and mortar buildings. I would think the maintenance costs, and interest on mortgages would pale in comparison to pastor salaries.
I attended one of the largest non-denominational churches in the US and I know for a fact their gas and electric bill was $50,000.00 per MONTH, and with the last capital campaign they had a few years back that raised $30 million from the members to build more buildings that year they could have used the $30,600,000 to help the community and SHOW the love of Christ instead.
$50k per month on electricity! Yikes!
I saw that First Baptist Dallas is raising $115 million for their renovation.
For what it’s worth, my take on 1 Tim 5:17-18.
Give double honor to those influential older respected men, especially those who labor with you by teaching and preaching.
Like the sayings: The worker deserves his wages, and you wouldn’t muzzle and ox who is threshing. In the same way it would be foolish to withhold honor from these men.
Jon,
You are right. I am not really opposed to paying pastors. My dad is a pastor. So is my brother-in-law. I used to be a pastor. Currently, I am somewhat in the “clergy” business. Those who preach and teach are definitely worth it.
How many of these pastors do you think really preach and teach?