MC USA’s Church Vitality office and Everence have completed their annual update of the Pastor Salary Guidelines (mennoniteusa.org/pastor-salary-guidelines/) for 2025-2026.
“The pastor salary guidelines continue to be the best starting point for negotiating fair compensation for congregational pastors,” said Michael Danner, MC USA associate executive director for Church Vitality, noting that they are a useful tool for pastors, congregations, pastoral search committees and conferences.
The Pastor Salary Guidelines begin with a base salary and use the pastor’s experience, education, geographical location, and other life and congregational circumstances to gauge an appropriate salary for their situation.
Baseline increased by 2.9%
The base and unit values for this year increased 2.9% over the previous year. The percentage increase is calculated using a 12-month average of the Consumer Price Index calculated at the end of the preceding year. This increase is lower than last year’s increase of 4.1%, but higher than the pre-pandemic annual average of 2.5%. This figure is intended to be a starting point for pastors and congregations to negotiate salary and should be considered the minimum salary for fair compensation.
Cap lifted for experience units
The most significant change to the Pastor Salary Guidelines is how experience units are calculated. In the past, pastors received 1 experience unit for each year of full-time ministry for the first 20 years of ministry. After year 20, pastors would get .5 units for each year of full-time ministry for the next 10 years. Experience units would be capped at 25, after 30 years of full-time ministry.
The Church Vitality office changed this calculation, beginning with the 2025-2026 salary guidelines. Going forward, it is recommended that pastors receive 1 experience unit for each year of full-time ministry for the first 30 years of ministry. After 30 years, pastors get .5 units for each year of full-time ministry until they retire from active ministry. That means there is no cap for experience units going forward.
The primary reason for the change is to increase the salary of pastors throughout their careers, said Danner. He explained that the changes recognize both the increased value of experienced pastors and the positive impact increased salary will have on longevity in ministry and readiness for retirement.
“It’s exciting to make this change because it means that MC USA pastors are serving for 20-plus years,” said Rachel Ringenberg Miller, MC USA denominational minister of Ministerial Leadership. “The long tenure of pastors is definitely something to be grateful for,” she added.
For pastors with under 20 years of experience, this will be easy to implement. However, there will be significant challenges implementing this change for congregations that employ pastors who already have over 20 years of experience, with the biggest challenge for those with 30 years of ministry experience or more.
Implementation of this change will require pastors and congregations to work together to find creative solutions. If possible, Church Vitality recommends making the change immediately. If that is not possible, congregations are encouraged to phase in the increase over time through a mutual agreement. For assistance, please consult with the Church Vitality office at ChurchVitality@MennoniteUSA.org.
There are three ways to use the Pastor Salary Guidelines. Churches can use an online questionnaire that takes the user through each question, step by step; a print worksheet; or a spreadsheet that can be filled out and saved directly to the user’s computer.
The guidelines also address other considerations, such as seminary debt, expenses for technology, hours worked and more.
“Having worked with a wide variety of congregations and denominations over the years, I find the MC USA Pastor Salary Guidelines to be the most thoughtfully created and helpfully curated approach to an often confusing and conflicted aspect of congregational life,” said Colin Saxton, stewardship theologian and director of Church Relations for Everence®. “Everence is happy to partner in this project as an expression of our commitment to faithful stewardship, pastoral longevity and congregational vitality,” he added.
Everence, a ministry partner of MC USA, helps individuals, organizations and congregations integrate finances with faith through a national team of professionals. everence.com
MC USA is an Anabaptist Christian denomination, founded in 2002 by the merger of the Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church. Members of this historic peace church seek to follow Jesus by rejecting violence and resisting injustice. MC USA’s Renewed Commitments state the following shared commitments among its diverse body of believers: to follow Jesus, witness to God’s peace and experience the transformation of the Holy Spirit. Mennoniteusa.org
Written by MC USA Staff.