Caring for Those Who Care for Us: How Christ Presbyterian Transformed Pastoral Compensation

In his first pastoral role at a small church in North Carolina, Dave Osborne earned a modest salary with no benefits.

“We loved serving the church, but it was difficult,” he said. “Financially speaking, we weren’t really making it…My first six years, we didn’t have enough money to buy ice cream, let alone take our family on a vacation.”

Needless to say, with a wife and three children to provide for, the financial strain was immense. 

Around the latter part of 2012, several years into a role with Reformed University Fellowship, Dave began reviewing a call to become the Senior Pastor at Christ Presbyterian Church (CPC) in Winterville, NC. They offered a lower salary than he’d hoped, and although he was able to negotiate a slightly better retirement benefit, stability remained elusive. 

For years, he continued to serve without revisiting his financial position. “I’ve always thought that before you take a job, you can talk about finances a little bit,” he said. “But then after you take the job, maybe you get one chance to really say, ‘Hey, this isn’t working.’ And then that’s pretty much all you got.”

Dave went on to describe the struggle many pastors face in having conversations about compensation with their session. “It’s difficult to press in on financial discussion in a very pointed way,” he said. “It just seems like it changes the mood of the relationship.” 

A Wake Up Call

The turning point came when the church leadership was introduced to Geneva Benefits’ Call Package Guidelines—a framework designed to help churches ensure their pastors and staff are appropriately compensated. 

“A couple of us read it cover to cover and felt pretty convicted about how our compensation packages stood up,” said Doug Stover, an elder on the session. “We didn’t feel like we were creating an atmosphere for our pastors to be without worldly care.”

As they reviewed the guidelines and compared them with regional compensation data, they realized just how undercompensated their pastoral team was. “It was pretty obvious that they were not in good financial standing,” Doug admitted. “Dave and our other pastors were on the brink in many cases.”

Aligning Compensation with Values

The church took immediate steps, starting with Dave’s retirement. Since he had opted out of Social Security early in his career, the church recognized they needed to compensate for that loss. They added an additional 7.5% to the 15% they were contributing to his retirement. With Dave contributing 3%, the total landed around 26%. 

Beyond retirement, the church also reevaluated Dave’s salary using the data provided by the Stated Clerk’s office.  “Even though our church size is around 250, with so many visitors and college students, we function like a larger church,” said Doug. “So we adjusted our benchmarks accordingly. And the 75th percentile was where we started looking for the appropriate compensation.” 

Through conversations with Geneva, the church ensured Dave’s salary reflected a variety of factors including Dave’s experience, the congregation’s size, and the cost of living in the area. 

More Than Just Numbers—A Ministry Mindset

For Christ Presbyterian, this wasn’t just about meeting a financial obligation—it was about aligning their values with their actions. “Our pastors are not just corporate employees,” said Doug. “They’re part of our family, our community.” Thanks to the Call Package Guidelines, the church was able to take meaningful steps to ensure their pastors could serve without financial stress hanging over their heads.

For Dave and his family, the restructuring of his compensation was transformative. “I had never felt that level of freedom preaching or pastoring. It felt like I was really on somebody’s team,” he said. With financial worries alleviated, Dave could focus more fully on his pastoral duties, creating a renewed energy in his ministry.

The impact didn’t go unnoticed. “You can just sense the joy that he has in bringing the Word and presenting the gospel,” said Doug.

As a word of encouragement, Dave offered churches a series of questions to consider: “I would encourage elders to reflect on how they think through compensating their pastor. What tools are they using and how have they thought about it? Have they ever asked their pastor, in a relational way, ‘How are you doing financially?’”

To learn more about Geneva’s Call package Guidelines, visit genevabenefits.org/call-package-guidelines.