This article tests the common belief that the Ministerial Housing Allowance is a major tax windfall for pastors. The process ran dozens of 2017 and 2025 tax scenarios, comparing pastors with similarly paid regular employees. […]
An excellent Compensation Study needs methodology. I developed the XPastor Compensation Pyramid to provide rock solid methodology.
Just as I use the pyramid in XPastor Compensation Studies I perform for various congregations, churches around the country […]
The free 2027 Salary Forecaster has just been released. With just about $3.7 billion in church data, it can give you all the salaries you need for setting fair compensation in your church.
But … How […]
I often get emails that say: I’m in a high cost of living area. Should I be earning more because it costs more to live here? The question is a good one so let’s see […]
Each year, I see hundreds of positions with titles of Pastor/Director, such as Operations Pastor/Director or Student Ministry Pastor/Director. While it may be counterintuitive, whether the person has the title of Pastor or Director, the […]
Too often, church boards lack the knowledge and experience to create an appropriate retirement package for their senior pastor who has served the church faithfully for many years or even decades. When the topic of […]
Salaries and benefits comprise 54.5% of church budgets. That makes setting fair salaries one of your highest priorities—and one of the most expensive! Fletch has just released the free 2026 Salary Forecaster with […]
Fletch and Monty Kelso shared a conversation about salaries and retirement. Monty is the President of SlingShot Group. Slingshot guides churches with staff searches and helps many with compensation issues. Fletch and Monty took a […]
Salaries for pastors have unique challenges and quirks that need to be addressed. In this podcast, Michael Martin of ECFA interviews Fletch on this hot topic. Tune in to make sure your church obeys the law […]
Establishing a fair and legally compliant compensation structure for your church is critical—and it won’t happen by accident! The new, one-day XPastor Compensation Workshop […]
The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability recently said, “XPastor to the Rescue with Church Salary Workshops.” Compensation can be a murky issue for churches. Few resources are available that are both approachable and accurate. Michael Martin, […]
XPastor tries to help churches by providing some of the essentials for running a church—items like job descriptions, employment applications, review forms and policies. Below is a sample of a Salary Grid from a church […]
Determining how to compensate your church staff is not an easy task and we can easily find ourselves at one of two extremes. We can treat our church staff the same way many businesses treat […]
What should church leaders note before structuring compensation plans? Compensation planning for clergy and other church staff presents several unique tax issues that are not well understood by many church leaders and their advisers. Here […]
At least once a year, you have the wonderful and terrible role of determining raises. Certainly it is wonderful. You have the opportunity to reward people for their hard work and great performance. I love […]
XPastor tries to help churches by providing some of the essentials for running a church—items like job descriptions, employment applications, review forms and policies. Below is the Salary Administration Plan for Kempsville Presbyterian Church of […]
Everybody struggles with it. Everybody seemingly wants more of it. So how much should we pay our church leaders? This article is drawn from the responses of 135 Executive Pastors about their base salary. Consider the following […]
