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Arrangements for paying a pastor vary from church to church. Typically, the church board where the pastor serves determines its pastor’s salary. Churches with congregational rule may have an extra step: the board drafts a compensation package which is then brought before the congregation for a vote.
Factors that church boards consider when compensating their pastor include length of service, experience, education level, past salaries, and the budget and size of the church. Many boards will research the salaries and benefits offered for similar positions in the same region and seek to match an average. Whatever process a church uses should be marked by transparency, and the board must exercise care to avoid any conflict of interest.
Scripture teaches that those who engage in full-time ministry should be compensated for their labors. Paul appeals to both Scripture and common sense to make the point:
Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink the milk? Do I say this merely on human authority? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing? For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned? Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us, because whoever plows and threshes should be able to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. . . . Don’t you know that those who serve in the temple get their food from the temple, and that those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel. (1 Corinthians 9:7–10; 13–14)
As a church board honors God by reimbursing their pastor, they should prayerfully consider their pastor’s needs and err on the side of generosity rather than thrift. No muzzling the ox.