As Director of Searches for Ministry Architects, I found this report helpful in providing a glimpse into the larger picture of church staffing today. As a former youth minister and current search consultant who helps candidates find their careers, this was a frustrating read, too. Bottom line… there’s good and bad news.

First, the good news for people in youth ministry!

The average salary of a youth pastor has increased by 12.5% over the past six years. Most employees would be thrilled if their personal salary increased at a similar pace. This 12.5% means that, on average, full-time youth pastors are making $51,234 annually. While that’s progress, here’s the frustrating reality: $51,234 is still just the average. There are still just as many salaries being reported under $51,234 as there are over. 

When I stepped out of full-time youth ministry in 2008 my salary was $49,000. (This was similar to the average annual salary of a public school teacher in my area.) With this news from the 2023 report, if I decided to get back into full-time youth ministry today, imagine my shock to learn I wouldn’t be making much more than I was 15 years ago.

Now consider if I had stayed in my 2008 position (as most churches hope many full-time ministry leaders will) and my church leadership promised to always keep my salary equal to or above the national YM average. Moving from $49,000 to $51,000 over 15 years means my salary would have increased by about $150 each year. That breaks down to about $10 per month. Yikes.

But that’s not the only frustrating news from this year’s report. There continues to be a gender pay gap when it comes to compensation in the church. According to the data, a full-time, female youth pastor with a Master’s degree makes less than a full-time, male youth pastor with a Bachelor’s degree. 

Read that again and let it sink in.

This continuation of the gender pay gap means that males with Bachelor’s degrees make more than similarly experienced females with Master’s degrees. Confirmation of this continued disparity means the church is no different than the world when it comes to this issue, and it’s incredibly discouraging. Pew Research recently reported the overall gender gap that exists in most professions today hasn’t seen much change in over two decades. In 2023, we need to ask: how can the Church be a part of the change?

I think it starts with some conversations.

Pastors, ask your female youth ministry director what you can do to help close the gender pay gap. Then ask yourself the following:

• What does it look like to raise awareness in my community networks, denominational affiliations, or church leadership? How can I be a voice advocating for capable leaders to receive equal compensation, regardless of gender? How can I help eliminate the gender pay gap?
• When was the last time our church analyzed staff compensation? Do we have differences in pay with direct correlation to gender bias? What needs attention and what can we celebrate? 
• Where there is disparity, what does a game plan look like to raise all female church workers’ salaries to the equivalent of what their male peers make?

I realize that there’s no magic button for this challenge but we can start making change by evaluating what we’re doing in our own congregations, having fruitful conversations, and mapping out strategic steps to close the gender pay gap.

In addition to the tortoise-like pace at which youth ministry compensation is increasing, and the discouraging confirmation of the continued gender gap, this data also shed light on a reality we face all the time as search consultants: the church is not supporting those called to youth ministry by adequately paying them enough from their start. 

You wonder why youth pastors move around so much? Moving to a new job is the primary way for them to get a raise.

Read that again and let it sink in.

Moving to a new job is the primary way for them to get a raise. It’s either move or get a side gig to earn more money (which takes away their energy and drive for their full-time job.)

We’re killing our youth pastors if we expect them to work 40-50 hours a week (and that’s not 9-5, as we all know) and then they have to go get another job for 10-15 hours just to support themselves or their families. Local church leadership perpetuates short tenures when we don’t pay our youth pastors (or other full-time staff) well. We burn people out and then wonder why they leave ministry – or the church altogether. 

The truth is many leaders who are youth pastors can find less stressful work at less hours and for more pay, right now. If we don’t want this to happen, or, better yet, if we want to be good stewards of our human resources in the church, something has to change.

Something has to change.

Another way we’re not supporting youth pastors in their call to serve is by not giving them annual cost of living raises. Many churches don’t give any cost of living raise but some do (thank you!). It tends to be the typical 3% raise but, in this day and age with inflation and the ever increasing costs of living, is 3% enough? 

So in essence, if you don’t give any cost of living raise annually, you’re underpaying your youth pastor and run the risk of him/her leaving to go to another church. If you do give the 3% annual raise, that’s a step in the right direction. But you’re probably still underpaying them.

If you’re a church who is doing the work of closing pay gaps, compensating your employees with livable wages, and regularly evaluating these pieces of your stewardship, thank you. 

To those who don’t know where to start, have never really thought about this, or are curious what more you could be doing, here are some ideas: 

1. Ask your youth pastor- are we paying you enough for you and your family to survive?

Here’s my own story: At my first church job, I was making $17,000 / year. This was in 1993. I could not live on that even as a single person so I ate up all my savings. Then, I found myself in trouble. I finally went to my rector and asked for help. And the church did! My salary increased by several thousands of dollars. But a year later, I took another call partly because of ambition, but mainly because I could get another raise. Having worked with thousands of ministry leaders over the last 15 years, I can tell you this – my story is not unique.
 

2. If you’re not able to give your youth ministry staff a raise, consider other ways to compensate them. We encourage churches to get creative in this area. Here are a few:

• Provide an additional 1-2 weeks of paid vacation. God knows, they need it. 
• Give a one-time cash bonus
• Offer to pay their car note for one month (or rent/mortgage, or utility bill)
• Offer to pay for their cell phone, if you don’t already
• Have your church do a gift card collection and ask people to donate gift cards to restaurants, stores, groceries, etc. to shower the youth pastor 

It’s so frustrating to read about church staff not being compensated fairly or well enough that they can make a living and support their families. When Ministry Architects works with a church who’s hiring, compensation is one of the first conversations we have to help ensure sustainability. Sustainability of the role within the budget of a church is key to sustainability of the person who will inhabit that role. And the compensation report for youth ministry is a good resource to share with your church leadership to start these conversations. 

As the church, we get to be different. Our founder, Mark DeVries, has a mantra that has become part of our culture at Ministry Architects. Mark asks, “What can Ministry Architects be doing to bless you AND your family?” I challenge church leadership to adopt this mantra. 

You know the saying, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Grab a spoon and let’s get started.

Note: There is so much more data in the Youth Cartel’s report to chew on. I offer my gratitude for the work they do every year to produce it.

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This was the 16th youth staff member that had left in ten years. While many of those were short-term interns, all the staff transitions had taken their toll. For a 6400-member church, they were down to 20 youth weekly. Youth and parents were disappointed and hurt. One youth shared, “My least favorite thing about the youth ministry is that no one can ever stay with us. I feel that we always get lied to and left for the better option.”

Ouch. No one ever intended for that to happen. But it did.

Over those ten years, the church had conducted their own searches and hires. And they hired some great people – who didn’t stick around. Leadership was left with questions each time they started another search like: Was the salary not high enough? What should we even be paying a youth director? Was there enough youth ministry staffing to begin with? What kind of staffing structure is needed for our youth program? Why is everyone leaving? Anxiety levels were on the rise and they needed to find a replacement quickly – preferably yesterday.

Over the years, the church did what many churches often do. They tried changing the staffing structure. They eliminated a position in order to raise the salary. They added interns. They asked for a 5-year commitment in the interviews. They did everything except for what they needed to do. They saw a gaping wound and instead of going to the doctor to stitch it closed, they put a small band-aid on it in the hopes that the bleeding would stop. This time around, they asked for a doctor. The church called Ministry Architects to help assess the situation and assist the search team with the next hire. 

We did what we do best. We observed, listened, and brought our expert’s eye to the situation and were able to give them a diagnosis and assist them in their search.
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Many of the systems in the youth ministry were in need of repair. The church began to make those repairs and we continued to walk alongside them and facilitate the search. 

The difference this time around is that the church stopped and took the time to answer all those questions. Instead of guessing what kind of staffing structure might work, we helped them see what they needed. Instead of throwing money at the problem, we advised them on the right salary range for the kind of person that they needed for their youth ministry, in their church, in their town.

We carried the load of networking, promoting, and screening so that the church could focus their energy on two things — talking to the best candidates and discerning who was called to their church.
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Four months later, they made a hire. Two and a half years later, that staff person is still there. And the youth ministry is flourishing. Just the other day I saw a Facebook post with pictures from the annual youth ski trip. And it made me smile. For a part of their journey, we were able to serve this church so that they could better serve God’s people. 

Here’s what one of the pastors shared with us later: 

“We had a strong sense of trust that we were in good hands, primarily because you wanted to pay attention to the system and not just help us find a person. No one else shared your expertise in the area nor offered to pay attention to what we saw as the most critical point of this transition – building a sustainable youth program to serve our community. Others just wanted to do headhunting, but you were more interested in building a vital ministry.”

If this story resonates with you, or you’d simply like to learn more about our search process, click here to connect with one of our search specialists.

The post Hiring Struggles and Solutions appeared first on Ministry Architects.

When I find a great resource, I love to tell everyone about it. Especially when there is such a great need for it. So let me tell you about a resource that every children’s ministry volunteer needs.

More and more often we hear about the challenges in teaching children with special needs – how to fully include them in Sunday school and meet them where they are at the same time meeting the needs of other children in the class. I’ve found myself at a loss when asked for insights on specific scenarios.

So I did a little homework and found The Children’s Ministry Pocket Guide to Special Needs: Quick Tips to Reach Every Child published by Group. This is a fabulous little resource to give all your volunteers. It’s small (about 5×7) with 15 pages packed with information. It starts with some basic tips for teachers and a few reminders. The one that struck me was “understand that a child with special needs has the same spiritual needs as other children” because I need that reminder daily.

The bulk of this little pamphlet is chock full of valuable information about the different disabilities: developmental, learning and physical. Then it goes into specific disorders. After each one, there’s a bulleted list titled “What You Can Do” with practical and easy ways to welcome every child regardless of their stage in life. This is the best part of the guide because a teacher can pick it up and quickly glance at some concrete ideas of what to do. That’s most helpful when you’re in the middle of a lesson and quickly need a solution. The final pages give some suggestions on how to help the peer to peer relationship develop as well as a brief questionnaire that can be used to solicit information from parents.

I highly encourage you to equip your volunteers with this useful booklet. It’s not expensive and comes in packs of 10. Trust me, it’s worth every penny. The more we know the better we can serve all the children in our congregation.

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Sara Bailey has been in youth ministry since 1993 serving Episcopal churches in Greensboro, North Carolina, as well as the Nashville & Philadelphia areas. She is also a youth ministry consultant and speaker in the Diocese of North Carolina. Currently she spends her time working for Ministry Architects, volunteering, and just being a mom.

Sara graduated from Christian Brothers University with a degree in Psychology and Business. She has furthered her education by completing the Education For Ministry program (Seminary at the University of the South at Sewanee), Institute for Professional Youth Ministry Internship, and the Youth Ministry Certificate program at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Sara recently moved to Louisville, KY with her husband Geoff, their daughter, Madison and their two dogs – Kyah and Sadie.

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