{"id":695253,"date":"2019-10-21T02:00:01","date_gmt":"2019-10-21T07:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomrainer.com\/?p=695253"},"modified":"2020-02-07T12:21:58","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T18:21:58","slug":"six-lessons-on-ministry-pay-we-are-learning-from-retiring-boomer-pastors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/six-lessons-on-ministry-pay-we-are-learning-from-retiring-boomer-pastors\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Lessons on Ministry Pay We Are Learning from Retiring Boomer Pastors"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Thom S. Rainer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rarely a week goes by that I don\u2019t hear from Boomer pastors who just retired, are considering retirement, or wish they could retire.<\/p>\n

I am listening carefully. And I am learning a lot as I listen. Most of it is not very encouraging.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Most pastors are underpaid.<\/strong> I have to monitor my sanctification when I hear snarky comments like, \u201cPastors are in it for the money\u201d or \u201cPastors make too much money.\u201d Sure, there are ungodly exceptions. But they are indeed exceptions and they are rare. As I listen to Boomer pastors and understand their compensation through the years, my heart breaks. Many of these servants, for the hours they work, have barely been paid living wages.<\/li>\n
  2. Too many pastors refuse raises.<\/strong> Their motives are honorable. They want the money to go to ministry. They want their staff better paid. They want the church to pay off its debt. They don\u2019t want to hurt the church. But now these Boomer pastors realize they don\u2019t have sufficient funds for retirement. They fear they will be a burden to their families. Pastors: Stop saying \u201cno\u201d to raises. You are hurting your family now and in the future.<\/li>\n
  3. Few pastors give sufficient thought to retirement.<\/strong> They commonly say, \u201cGod will take care of me.\u201d Others say, \u201cI don\u2019t ever plan on retiring.\u201d The problem is many Boomer pastors are \u201cretired\u201d involuntarily by their churches. Some are not physically able to remain as a pastor. Others are close to emotional burnout. Again, these pastors become dependent on others in retirement.<\/li>\n
  4. Many pastors have too much debt leading into retirement.<\/strong> The most common scenario we are hearing from Boomer pastors is they bought their home later in life. They have a 30-year mortgage with 10 years remaining. Some have also burdened themselves and their families with consumer debt just to get by.<\/li>\n
  5. A number of pastors have given little thought to health care costs.<\/strong> Even if these pastors are eligible for Medicare, many of them have no concept of what Medicare does not cover. Sadly, they are often unable to afford any Medicare supplements. As a consequence, these retired pastors neglect their own health for fear of uncovered expenses.<\/li>\n
  6. The common theme of many of these Boomer pastors is over-spiritualizing their financial reality without the wisdom of planning for their future years.<\/strong> Yes, faith that God will take care of us is a good thing. No, faith without planning is not wise. The writer of Proverbs said it in 15:22: \u201cPlans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.\u201d Jesus said it Luke 14:28: \u201cSuppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won\u2019t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Pastors: Learn these lessons from your fellow Boomer pastors who are retirement age. Learn and apply their lessons before it\u2019s too late for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Thom S. Rainer Rarely a week goes by that I don\u2019t hear from Boomer pastors who just retired, are considering retirement, or wish they could retire. I am listening carefully. And I am learning a lot as I listen. Most of it is not very encouraging. Most pastors are underpaid. I have to monitor…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[193,1,177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-695253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-administration-and-finance","category-church-answers","category-lead"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLessons on Ministry Pay We Are Learning from Retiring Boomer Pastors - ThomRainer.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It is common among baby boomer pastors to over-spiritualize their financial reality without the wisdom of planning for their future years.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/six-lessons-on-ministry-pay-we-are-learning-from-retiring-boomer-pastors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lessons on Ministry Pay We Are Learning from Retiring Boomer Pastors - ThomRainer.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is common among baby boomer pastors to over-spiritualize their financial reality without the wisdom of planning for their future years.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/six-lessons-on-ministry-pay-we-are-learning-from-retiring-boomer-pastors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-10-21T07:00:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-07T18:21:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/10_21_19_Featured_Image.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Thom S. 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