The Market Value of a Minister

Riverside Church in New York has been embroiled in controversy and been the object of additional interest over the last few weeks after the details of the compensation package for their new minister were made public. The new minister will receive approximately $600,000 in total compensation from the church.

Some within that church, and many outside of it, say that no minister should make such a large sum. Pointing to the poverty of Jesus and the early disciples and the call of the gospel to minister to those in need rather than storing up treasures for yourself on earth, these critics suggest that the church is wrong to pay this.

As a minister, I would not begrudge a good salary to anyone serving a church. That said, I have never been offered nor received anything close to this amount. In fact, the monthly housing allowance he will receive is about what my annual compensation was in the first church I served as minister.

This controversy does provide a way of reflecting on this: What is a "fair market value" for a minister? How does a church determine this? In other fields, the value of a CEO or an athlete is based on how much value that person provides for the company or the team. How could that be ascertained for a minister?

In conversations with churches in different parts of the country through the years, I have heard various rationales for determining the compensation level for the minister - who might have been me should the conversations continued. Some churches have been intentional that the minister would make less than the median income of the church - to make sure the pastor is appropriately humble. Others have based the minister's pay on other criteria, such as: the average teacher's salary or the school superintendent's salary or the amount paid to the circuit judges.

What do you think the worth of a minister is? How should that be compensated?