THE FIGURES BEHIND THE SURVEY
Jim Berkley
October 1, 1988
For survey participants, the CTi research department used a random sample of a thousand LEADERSHIP subscribers. Each was mailed a survey and, two weeks later, a reminder post card. Some 49 percent responded. Since CTi survey responses are typically 26 percent, this survey apparently touched a nerve.
Respondents were 87 percent clergy and 13 percent lay. Of the clergy respondents:
-98 percent are male
-97 percent are married
-67 percent have children at home (households average 3.6 members, compared to 2.7 nationally)
-94 percent have finished college, 78 percent have a graduate degree, and 18 percent have a doctorate (19 percent of U.S. adults are college graduates)
-average age is about 43
-18 percent serve urban churches, 39 percent suburban, 32 percent small-town, and 11 percent rural
-average Sunday worship attendance is 301; 49 percent have between 50 and 200, 6 percent fewer than 50; and 45 percent greater than 200
-average number of years in ministry is 16.5
-43 percent are solo pastors, 41 percent head a staff, 15 percent serve on staffs, and 1 percent are retired
As we began to analyze the survey results, we discovered something pastors, denominations, and the IRS have found: pastors' compensation is hard to compare.
Problem 1: Some pastors live in a parsonage; some own their homes and receive a housing allowance. Some receive neither a parsonage nor an allowance. Is it fair to compare cash salaries apart from housing considerations? And how does one arrive at the value to a pastor of rent-free parsonage living?
To equalize the two situations for the sake of comparison, we chose to add $750 a month to the cash salary of pastors living in parsonages. This figure, approximating the average rental value, is, unfortunately, highly ...
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