Does God Still Call People to Low Paying Vocations?

My first pastoral call was in a village of 400 souls and my effective salary was $18,000/year plus a manse. (Note: the town had 400 people; the church had about 120 people.)

40 years later, my salary is more than the average pastor and it feels extremely generous. And yet I work with many pastors whose salaries are not nearly enough to live on in the state of North Carolina, much less in Greater Charlotte.

Someone mentioned to me just yesterday that pastors, teachers, and doctors do not follow those callings for the money. True (although most doctors seem to be living above the poverty line.) And yet financial stresses negatively impact our ability to delight in our calling. It’s not okay if the teacher cannot afford to eat without a second job.

Our seminaries do not have the class sizes they used to have and maybe that’s because the #1 college major is Business Administration. Actually one fifth of all bachelor’s degrees are business degrees. We all know that a business degree will help land a post-college job more easily than a BA in history or art, or a seminary degree.

Maybe it’s because of financial fears (74% in U.S. believe children will be worse off than their parents according to Pew – January 2025) or maybe it’s because of optimistic aspirations (“nearly half of young adults are ‘obsessed’ with the idea of being rich” according to Fox Business News – January 2024) but majoring in business feels like a practical decision. College is an expensive privilege and it seems foolish to prepare for a career in literature or music or religious studies in a world where the cost of living keeps going up while wages remain stagnant.

The average annual living expenses in the USA now is $61,334 according to this source and the minimum starting salary for a Pastor in my Presbytery is only $58,019 with no manse/rectory. This is for a person with a 4 year college degree and a 3 year graduate degree.

Does God still call people to low paying vocations?

Do we encourage our children to major in engineering even if they feel the tug to teach school in Appalachia? Do we ignore a clear calling to design theatre sets or serve as a park ranger because we will not be able to support ourselves/our families with low incomes?

Something I’m noticing: many devout followers of Jesus are steering their children away from ministry and other non-profit professions. I have a friend whose child was excited about their call to serve – not for a season, but for a career – working with refugees in Africa. The parents essentially forbid their child from going through with it, setting him up – instead – with a family friend in real estate.

Do we say we believe that God continues to call people to serve in a variety of ways, but we actually believe that God only calls us (and our children) to jobs with six figure salaries? Are we Prosperity Gospel people deep in our hearts?

There is nothing holy about poverty. And even if we do not qualify for government cheese, it’s nice to be able to afford braces for our children or a dependable car with air conditioning.

Our least well-paid pastors where I live are among the most gifted pastors in the Church. Please know that – if we are paid well as Church Professionals – it’s sometimes more about the context (big, wealthy church) than the pastoral expertise.

Thoughts? Do we in the Church need to completely rethink how our pastors are paid? (That answer would be a big yes, but I don’t have easy answers.) Do you?

Image of the front of the meeting place of the Presbyterian United Church in Schaghticoke, New York in the Presbytery of Albany. The village now has a population of 545. The church membership is now 26 (2024 statistics.) I served the congregation from 1984-1989.