Susan Wunderink works for Thrivent Financial & will be one of over 150 speakers at Exponential East 2016. Brooke Hempell is Vice-President of Research at Barna Group.
How much money should a church planter make? The answer is, more than they make now, according to a study commissioned by Thrivent Financial and conducted by Barna Group. Barna researchers discovered that, for the many church planters with too little income, church viability suffers. So do pastors’ marriages.
It is no surprise that money is a problem for new churches, but analysis of the data also shows that money problems impinge on effective ministry.
How widespread is the problem?
Many church planters in the sample report low household income. According to the Consumer Price Index published by the U.S. government, the average American earns $65,596 annually and spends $51,442. Three-quarters of church planters in this study fall below this average in their household income (not just personal income). That means that more than half of church planters do not have sufficient household income to stay out of the red in most U.S. states.
This is the case despite the fact that church planters supplement any salary they get from their full-time ministry with a wide range of non-ministry sources, including second jobs, a spouse’s income, and support from other family members. Many also drain their savings and take on credit card debt.
In other words, a full-time church planting career is not financially sustainable for many church planters’ families. Something has to change in order for them to pay the bills.
The personal impact
Resource constraints take a toll on church planters beyond just financial burdens. One-third of church planters admit they have considered quitting ministry because of financial strain. This admission, perhaps not surprisingly, is most common among pastors in the lower income bracket.
Similar proportions of church planters report strains on their marriage as a result of the financial stresses associated with church planting. Again, those in the lower income bracket, and those who report low confidence in their personal financial situation are most at risk. Personal debt is also highly correlated with marriage friction.
While couples who practice Christianity are far less likely to divorce, financial stress and marital trouble go hand-in-hand. It can make an enormous difference in a marriage’s chances to have financial assets (Consumer Trendsource, p.340).
Sadly, church planters’ marriages are therefore strained by scarcity—over and above the strains of ministry.
The ministry impact
Scripture has been warning people for millennia that scarcity can leave them spiritually vulnerable (see Prov. 30:7-9) and that full-time ministers should have full support from their churches (see 1 Cor. 9:1-14). (Of course, Jesus also makes it very clear, according to Matthew 6, that money is not spiritual fuel.)
Increasingly, psychology and behavioral economics research confirms that having too little money is a drain on energy, strategic thinking, and even self-control. (For a helpful treatment of this topic, read Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir.)
According to the Barna findings, a more stable church plant, which has more than a few families and attendees who are engaged enough to tithe, is on average one where the pastor’s salary is higher, the pastor’s personal debt is lower, the church’s location is less dense (rural is more stable than urban), and grants and funds do not have an end date.
In fact, in-depth analyses of income found that having an end date to financing sources is harmful to the pastor and the church regardless of other relevant church characteristics, such as the age of the church or the pastor. This suggests that funding with an end date, rather than providing clarity, creates a fear of failure that sets church planters up for trouble.
Changing the structure of church planters’ finances
We in the church planting movement need to advocate for healthy church planter salaries.
Those in a position to fund church plants need to consider whether they are setting church planters up to be the most effective ministers they can be by providing them with resources to focus on something other than resources. This may mean reconsidering deadlines as incentives and below-cost-of-living wages as inevitable.
Those who are getting ready to launch a church should consider not whether they have the minimal amount of support they can live on, but whether they have more than enough to avoid straining their marriage and ministry.
So, what are the other implications? We’d love to hear from you about what it would mean to lighten the financial pressure on church planters at Exponential East.
More about this study
Thrivent Financial commissioned Barna Group to study what can set church planters up for greater success. The research was independently generated by Barna researchers based on data gathered in a study commissioned by Thrivent Financial. A report on the findings will be available at the Exponential East 2016 conference. Both organizations desire to help church planters increase their overall well being so they are free to do Kingdom work.
To learn more about this study, join Barna president and author David Kinnaman for the Myths and Realities of Church Plants and Money Pre-conference Session at Exponential East.
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