Rich Pastors Not Common, but Not Endangered Species
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Thu, August 23, 2007
- Viewed 77
- (1) comments so far
Joel Osteen discontinued receiving his $200,000 salary from Lakewood Church in Houston after his first book, Your Best Life Now, sold more than 4 million copies. Some sources have reported he could earn up to $13 million on the contract for his second book. (RNS photo/courtesy of Lakewood Church)
“Church size translates directly into market power,” said a Duke University study on the topic. “To attract entrepreneurial clergy, some very large churches are paying entrepreneurial salaries.”
An increase in worship attendance is the biggest factor to heightened pastoral and staff compensation, according to the 2007 handbook. Excluding insurance and educational benefits, senior pastors with a worship attendance of more than 1,000 people made an average of $111,052. That’s 73 percent more than the $64,266 paid to pastors with a worship attendance of 300 people or fewer.
And some megachurch pastors make more—much more. Mostly, the millionaire preachers make megamoney from the extracurriculars—national television ministries or profit from successful book sales.
The New York Times reported in 2006 that Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, could earn as much as $13 million on the contract he signed to write his second book, Become a Better You. His first book, Your Best Life Now, remained on the Times bestseller list for two years and sold more than 4 million copies. Seven million Americans view Osteen’s weekly sermons on television, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Shortly after the success of Your Best Life Now, Osteen appeased many critics by discontinuing the $200,000 annual salary he received from Lakewood in order to live off the book revenues and worldwide tours run through Joel Osteen Ministries.
According to a report in the Associated Baptist Press, the wealthy pastor is not an endangered species. The growth of megachurches, big book deals and media stardom have increased their number in recent years. The Compensation Handbook for Church Staff annually calculates average senior-pastor salaries by including base salary, housing, life and health insurance and educational benefits. While the national average salary of pastors is $77,096, according to the 2006 handbook, a select few pastors are earning much more.
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PeteAtomic on Tue, September 25, 2007
Making 64-111K+ a year to run a church is reminiscent of Elmer Gantry. Apparently, when God envisioned what one of His disciples looked like, it was a man driving a Mercedes Benz from their 4 bedroom home to a golf course. It must be a great sacrifice for these church leaders to leave social justice issues to prayer, and instead, focus their energy on ‘saving’ their congregants from their own bank accounts.
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