It sounds like a simple question. For many congregations, it is anything but simple.
Can we afford a pastor?
A congregation may begin asking the question during a pastoral transition. Perhaps attendance has changed. Giving may have declined. Expenses may be rising. Savings may be covering occasional shortfalls. Or church leaders may simply be trying to plan responsibly for the years ahead.
The first instinct is often to open the budget and look at pastoral compensation.
Can we continue paying the salary, housing, benefits, pension, insurance, and other costs associated with having a pastor?
That is an important question.
But it is not the whole question.
What Does “Afford” Really Mean?
A congregation can have enough money to pay its pastor this year and still be moving toward financial difficulty.
It can balance its budget by drawing from reserves.
It can postpone building repairs.
It can reduce other ministries or expenses.
It can benefit from an unusually generous year of giving even while participation is gradually declining.
The opposite can also be true.
A congregation might experience a deficit because of an unusual expense while attendance remains stable, giving is healthy, debt is manageable, and adequate reserves remain available.
Both congregations can look at a single year’s budget and reach the wrong conclusion.
That is why asking Can we afford a pastor? requires looking beyond the pastor’s compensation.
It requires looking at the congregation.
More Than One Number
A fuller picture includes participation, giving, operating expenses, debt, reserves, buildings and other assets, and the direction these measures have been moving over several years.
No single measure settles the question.
Together, however, they begin to describe the congregation’s financial capacity and the direction in which it is moving.
That distinction between where a congregation is and where it is headed is important.
A healthy financial position can gradually weaken. A congregation experiencing difficulty can stabilize and grow stronger.
One year provides a snapshot.
Several years begin to tell a story.
Why We Wrote Can We Afford A Pastor?
Congregations understandably look for a benchmark or formula that will provide a clear answer.
But churches differ.
They have different buildings, different levels of debt, different reserves, different communities, different sources of income, and different ministry responsibilities.
We wrote Can We Afford a Pastor? because we believed congregations needed a practical way to bring those differences—and the financial indicators behind them—into a single, understandable picture.
The purpose is not to tell every congregation what the answer should be.
It is to help a congregation understand its own situation well enough to answer the question responsibly.
Finding an Answer For Your Congregation
For one congregation, examining the numbers may provide reassurance that its pastoral ministry is financially sustainable.
For another, the same examination may identify weaknesses that deserve attention before they become crises.
Still another may discover that the question about affording a pastor is really part of a larger conversation about staffing, facilities, debt, reserves, participation, or the congregation’s changing ministry.
That is why the goal is not simply to arrive at yes or no.
The more important goal is to see the congregation clearly—its present financial capacity and the direction in which it is moving.
That provides a better foundation for answering the question on the cover of the book:
Can We Afford a Pastor?
And ultimately, it leads to an even larger question:
What kind of ministry can this congregation faithfully and sustainably support?
Author Note
We wrote Can We Afford a Pastor? for pastors and church leaders facing decisions that can have lasting consequences for their congregations.
Our goal was not to provide a magic number or a universal formula. It was to offer a practical way to examine the indicators that help reveal a congregation’s financial capacity and direction.
Sometimes that examination confirms what leaders already suspect. Sometimes it challenges their assumptions. Either way, better decisions begin with understanding the congregation as it actually is.
Featured Reading
Can We Afford a Pastor?
Questions and Answers to Guide Congregations Toward Sustainable Ministry
If your congregation is wrestling with questions about pastoral ministry and financial sustainability, Can We Afford a Pastor? offers a practical framework for examining the indicators together and understanding what they may reveal about your congregation’s future.
Explore More
You can explore related posts across the remaining areas of the St. Hans blog: Nightingale Mountain Trilogy, Go, Pastor, Go!, Fair Exchange, Updates & Releases.
Written by D. D. Shiell
