Executive Pastor Job Description Templates for Churches
6 free templates for the church that runs without an HR department: general executive pastor, first executive hire, operations, staff and ministries, multisite, and a non-ministerial church administrator. Download as DOCX.
A pastor I worked with told me he spent an entire Saturday of his first growth year arguing with an insurance broker, then preached the next morning on four hours of sleep. Nobody in the room knew. That is the quiet arithmetic of a growing church: every hour the lead pastor spends on a vendor, a payroll deadline, or a staff conflict comes straight out of the pulpit.
A church is a small organization with an unusually complicated employment profile. There is a paid staff, a much larger volunteer workforce, a board that holds fiduciary responsibility, tax rules that apply to almost nobody else, and no HR department anywhere in the building. The executive pastor is the role invented to absorb all of that.
At FirstHR we build hiring templates for organizations without a dedicated HR function, and churches are squarely in that group. The six descriptions below cover the general executive pastor role, a first executive hire, operations, staff and ministries, multisite, and the non-ministerial administrator alternative, each with the tax and classification notes the generic versions leave out.
TL;DR
An executive pastor runs the staff, budget, facilities, and systems of a church so the senior pastor can stay on preaching and shepherding. Whether the role is ministerial decides three things: the ministerial exception, eligibility for a housing allowance under Internal Revenue Code Section 107, and whether earnings run through FICA or SECA. Six templates below, downloadable as DOCX.
What an Executive Pastor Actually Does
An executive pastor is the second chair leader of a church: the person who converts the senior pastor’s vision into a staffing plan, a budget, a calendar, and a set of policies, and who supervises the paid team day to day. The job exists to protect the pulpit from the building.
The scope shifts with the size of the congregation. In a smaller church the executive pastor does the work as well as leading it, running payroll inputs one morning and coaching a ministry director the next. In a larger or multi-campus church the role becomes a leader of leaders, supervising campus pastors and central services directors and rarely touching the tasks directly.
Senior or lead pastor
Vision, pulpit, shepherding
Preaching, teaching, casting vision, and carrying the spiritual weight of the congregation. Every hour spent on a vendor contract or a payroll question is an hour taken directly out of this column.
Executive pastor
Staff, systems, money, buildings
Turns vision into a staffing plan, a budget, a calendar, and a set of policies. Supervises the paid team, owns the operational health of the church, and makes the decisions that do not need the pulpit.
Board, elders, or trustees
Governance and oversight
Approves the budget, sets compensation for the senior roles, and holds fiduciary responsibility. The executive pastor reports operationally to the senior pastor but has to be legible to this group too.
Volunteer leadership
The largest workforce in the building
Most of the work of a church is done by unpaid people. The executive pastor is usually the one who builds the screening, training, and scheduling that keeps that workforce safe and supported.
What stays constant is the reporting structure. The executive pastor reports to the senior pastor operationally, but has to be legible to the board or elder team, because that group approves the budget and carries fiduciary responsibility. A candidate who has held the role before will ask about both relationships in the first interview.
Hire for the Gap You Have, Not the Title You Admire
Churches copy the executive pastor title from larger congregations and then write a description that is really an office manager job, or write a pastoral leadership job and hire a bookkeeper into it. Name the gap first. If ministry directors are drifting without a leader present during the week, you need a staff and ministries lead. If the budget, the building, and the contracts are the problem, you need an operations lead. If it is paperwork and scheduling, you need an administrator and you will save money saying so.
What Belongs in the Posting
An executive pastor posting has to do four jobs: describe the church honestly, settle the legal questions that follow the role, filter out candidates who have never supervised staff, and close the person you want. Most church postings do the first and skip the rest.
The parts candidates read first
Church size, budget, and campus count
Who the role reports to and who it supervises
Whether the role preaches, and how often
The reason the position exists right now
The parts that decide the law
Ministerial or non-ministerial, stated explicitly
Ordination, licensing, or commissioning expectation
FLSA classification and the duties behind it
Religious preference statement under Title VII
The parts that filter applicants
Statement of faith agreement and membership expectation
Years of staff supervision, not years in ministry
Budget and financial authority the role carries
Background check and child protection screening
The parts that close the hire
Salary plus a designated housing allowance if the role qualifies
Retirement, health coverage, and continuing education
Sabbatical and study leave policy
A named person to apply to and a real timeline
The omission that costs the most is authority. Candidates want to know what the role decides alone, what it decides with the senior pastor, and what stays with the board, plus a spending limit attached to the first category. Leaving that vague reads as a church that has not decided what it is delegating. Our guide to writing a job description covers the general structure, and the nonprofit executive director templates are the closest secular parallel if your church is structured around a board rather than a senior pastor.
6 Executive Pastor Job Description Templates to Download
Download all six as one file or copy them individually. Each follows the same structure: church overview, position summary, key responsibilities, required qualifications, a ministerial status and classification note, a religious preference statement, and how to apply. The bracketed fields are the only parts you need to change.
Download All 6 Executive Pastor Job Description Templates
General, first executive hire, operations, staff and ministries, multisite, and non-ministerial church administrator. All in one download.
Executive Pastor, general
The full second chair role
Leadership, operations, and ministry duties in one description, with the ministerial status decision stated up front.
First executive hire
Smaller congregation
For the church making its first executive-level hire, with a scope note that keeps the description from becoming an unbounded list.
Executive Pastor of Operations
Finance, facilities, risk
For the business side: budget, internal controls, insurance, vendors, and the classification note a non-ordained hire needs.
Executive Pastor of Staff
Ministry directors
For the staff and ministries lead: goal setting, reviews, conflict, and the leadership pipeline under the senior pastor.
Multisite and campuses
Central versus campus
For a multi-campus church, with the central-versus-campus decision line and the multi-location payroll warning.
Church Administrator
Non-ministerial alternative
When you need administrative capacity rather than a pastor, with honest overtime and unemployment notes.
Template 1: Executive Pastor (General)
The full second chair role, with leadership, operations, and ministry duties in one description and the ministerial status decision stated at the top rather than buried.
To apply, email __ with your resume, a statement of your
philosophy of ministry, and [three references].
Template 2: Executive Pastor, First Executive Hire
For the church making its first executive-level hire, with a scope note that keeps the description from becoming an unbounded list of everything the senior pastor no longer wants to do.
Executive Pastor Job Description (First Executive Hire, Smaller Church)
EXECUTIVE PASTOR JOB DESCRIPTION (FIRST EXECUTIVE HIRE)
Church: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Senior Pastor / Lead Pastor]
Supervises: [all paid staff]
Employment type: [Full-time / part-time at ____ hours per week]
Ministerial status: [Ordained / licensed / not a ministerial role: choose one]
FLSA status: [Exempt / non-exempt: decide on duties, not title]
Compensation: $_ per year
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Church Name] has grown past the point where one pastor can carry both the
pulpit and the building. This is our first executive-level hire. You will be
the person who makes the church run Monday through Saturday: staff, money,
facilities, calendar, and compliance.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Executive Pastor carries the operational load of the church so the Senior
Pastor can preach, teach, and shepherd. In a church this size that means doing
the work as well as leading it: you will build the systems and then run them
until there is someone to hand them to.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Supervise all paid staff and the volunteer leaders of [ministry areas]
•Build and run the annual budget with [the treasurer / finance team]
•Own payroll accuracy, benefits enrollment, and the personnel file for every
employee
•Manage facilities, insurance, vendor contracts, and building use
•Write and maintain the employee handbook and the child protection policy
•Run the master calendar and the weekly service planning process
•Preach or teach [number] times per year as assigned
•Handle the operational side of [weddings, funerals, membership, giving
statements]
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years of management experience; church experience preferred but a
strong operations background from outside ministry is welcome
•Comfort with financial statements, payroll, and contracts
•Agreement with our statement of faith and [membership expectation]
•Willingness to work [Sundays and one weekday evening]
•Must clear a criminal background check and our child protection screening
SCOPE NOTE FOR A FIRST HIRE (read before posting)
The most common failure in a first executive hire is an unbounded job
description. Decide in advance which of these the role owns outright, which it
shares with the Senior Pastor, and which stay with a volunteer or the board:
staff supervision, budget authority, spending limits, hiring and firing,
facilities, and preaching. Write the answer into the posting. Candidates who
have done this work will read an unbounded description as a warning sign, and
the ones who apply anyway will burn out in the first year. This is general
information, not legal advice.
EEO AND RELIGIOUS PREFERENCE STATEMENT
[Church Name] is a religious employer. As permitted under Title VII, we hire
staff who share our religious beliefs and practice, and we provide reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per year, [housing allowance if the role qualifies],
[benefits, retirement match, paid time off]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a short note on
the last operational mess you cleaned up.
Still Using Spreadsheets for Onboarding?
Automate documents, training assignments, task management, and track onboarding progress in real time.
For the business side of the church: budget, internal controls, insurance, facilities, and vendor contracts, with the classification note a non-ordained hire needs. Pair it with the business administrator templates if you are staffing a broader back office.
•Run payroll, benefits, and personnel recordkeeping with [the payroll
provider]
•Keep the employee handbook current and enforce it consistently
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in operations, finance, or business administration
•Working knowledge of nonprofit accounting and internal controls
•Experience managing facilities, vendors, and contracts
•Agreement with our statement of faith and [membership expectation]
•Must clear a criminal background check and a credit check for a role with
financial authority
CLASSIFICATION NOTE
An operations leader who is not ordained and does not perform religious
functions is an ordinary employee for tax and employment purposes: FICA applies,
no housing allowance is available, and the ministerial exception is far less
likely to cover the role. Exempt status under the Fair Labor Standards Act still
has to be earned on the executive or administrative duties tests and the salary
tests, not assumed from the word Pastor in the title. This is general
information, not legal or tax advice.
EEO AND RELIGIOUS PREFERENCE STATEMENT
[Church Name] is a religious employer. As permitted under Title VII, we hire
staff who share our religious beliefs and practice, and we provide reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per year, [benefits, retirement, paid time off]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a budget or
operational plan you personally built.
Template 4: Executive Pastor of Staff and Ministries
For the leader who develops ministry directors: goal setting, review cycles, conflict resolution, and the leadership pipeline that produces your next hire from inside the church.
Executive Pastor of Staff and Ministries Job Description
EXECUTIVE PASTOR OF STAFF AND MINISTRIES JOB DESCRIPTION
•Set annual goals with each director and review progress [quarterly]
•Lead weekly staff meetings, staff devotions, and the staff retreat
•Coach directors through hiring, volunteer recruitment, and difficult
conversations
•Run the annual performance review cycle and compensation recommendations
•Partner with the Senior Pastor on staff hires, transitions, and terminations
•Own the ministry calendar and resolve competing demands on rooms, volunteers,
and budget
•Preach or teach [number] times per year and provide pastoral care to staff
families
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years of ministry leadership including direct supervision of paid
staff
•[Seminary degree / ordination / licensing as required by our polity]
•Track record of developing leaders, not just managing tasks
•Agreement with our statement of faith and active membership at [Church Name]
•Must clear a criminal background check and our child protection screening
MINISTERIAL STATUS NOTE
This role is designated as ministerial because it involves teaching, spiritual
formation of staff, and leadership of ministry. Under the ministerial exception
recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court, courts look at the function the employee
performs rather than the title, so document the religious duties in the job
description and in the annual review, not only in the offer letter. A minister
of the gospel may receive a housing allowance excluded from federal income tax
under Internal Revenue Code Section 107 when the church designates it in advance
in writing, and ministerial earnings are reported under SECA rather than FICA.
This is general information, not legal or tax advice.
EEO AND RELIGIOUS PREFERENCE STATEMENT
[Church Name] is a religious employer. As permitted under Title VII, we hire
staff who share our religious beliefs and practice, and we provide reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per year, plus a housing allowance designated in advance
by [the board / elders], [benefits, retirement, continuing education, sabbatical]
To apply, email __ with your resume, a statement of your
philosophy of ministry, and references from staff you have supervised.
Template 5: Executive Pastor, Multisite and Campus Operations
For a multi-campus church, with the central-versus-campus decision line written down and a warning about payroll rules that change with the location where each employee works.
Executive Pastor Job Description (Multisite and Campus Operations)
EXECUTIVE PASTOR JOB DESCRIPTION (MULTISITE)
Church: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Senior Pastor / Lead Pastor]
Supervises: [campus pastors, central services team]
Employment type: Full-time
Ministerial status: [Ordained / licensed]
FLSA status: Exempt (see ministerial status note)
Compensation: $_ per year, plus designated housing allowance
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Church Name] operates [number] campuses across [region]. We are hiring an
Executive Pastor to lead the campus pastors and the central services that every
campus depends on: finance, facilities, staffing, technology, and the weekend
production standard.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Executive Pastor holds the multisite model together. The role defines what
is centralized and what belongs to each campus, supervises campus pastors,
protects a consistent weekend experience, and keeps a shared culture across
locations that rarely meet in the same room.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Supervise [campus pastors] and the central services directors
•Define and publish the line between central and campus decisions: budget
authority, hiring, programming, and facilities
•Run the campus launch process: site selection, staffing, launch team, budget
•Standardize the weekend order of service, production quality, and
hospitality expectations
•Consolidate reporting on attendance, giving, volunteers, and expenses by
campus
•Lead the leadership pipeline that produces the next campus pastor internally
•Preach or teach across campuses [number] times per year
•Own the shared employee handbook, screening standard, and safety policy
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years leading multi-location or multi-department operations
•Experience supervising leaders who supervise others
•Comfort with consolidated budgets and location-level reporting
•Agreement with our statement of faith and active membership at [Church Name]
•Must clear a criminal background check and our child protection screening
•Willingness to travel among campuses on [weekends and weekdays]
MINISTERIAL STATUS AND MULTISITE NOTE
Confirm which roles in the structure are ministerial and document the religious
duties for each, because the ministerial exception turns on function rather than
title and campus pastors are usually squarely inside it while central services
staff usually are not. Multisite also multiplies employment exposure: each
campus may sit in a different city or state with its own minimum wage, paid sick
leave, and final pay rules, and payroll has to follow the location where the
employee works. Confirm the rules for every location before you launch, not
after. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO AND RELIGIOUS PREFERENCE STATEMENT
[Church Name] is a religious employer. As permitted under Title VII, we hire
staff who share our religious beliefs and practice, and we provide reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per year, plus a housing allowance designated in advance,
[benefits, retirement, travel allowance]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a description of a
campus or location you launched or turned around.
Template 6: Church Administrator, Non-Ministerial Alternative
When the gap is administrative capacity rather than pastoral leadership. Includes honest notes on overtime and on the missing unemployment safety net. If you also staff volunteers, the volunteer coordinator templates cover that role.
Church Administrator Job Description (Non-Ministerial Alternative)
CHURCH ADMINISTRATOR JOB DESCRIPTION (NON-MINISTERIAL)
Church: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Senior Pastor / Executive Pastor / Board]
Supervises: [office staff, custodial, volunteers as assigned]
Employment type: [Full-time / part-time at ____ hours per week]
Ministerial status: Not a ministerial role
FLSA status: [Exempt / non-exempt: decide on duties and salary, then track
hours for anyone non-exempt]
Compensation: $_ per [year / hour]
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Church Name] is hiring a Church Administrator to run the office and the
back-of-house work of the church. This is the right posting when you need
administrative capacity rather than a pastoral leader, and when the person you
hire will not be teaching, leading worship, or shepherding members.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Church Administrator handles finance support, records, scheduling,
communication, and facilities coordination. The role keeps the building, the
calendar, and the paperwork under control so pastoral staff can spend their time
with people.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Process payroll inputs, invoices, deposits, and expense reimbursements with
[the bookkeeper / payroll provider]
•Maintain membership records, giving records, and annual contribution
statements
•Manage the master calendar, room scheduling, and building use requests
•Coordinate vendors, maintenance, supplies, and service contracts
•Maintain personnel files, background check records, and required postings
•Produce the bulletin, newsletter, and routine congregational communication
•Keep the child protection screening log current for staff and volunteers
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years of office administration or bookkeeping experience
•Accuracy with numbers, records, and deadlines
•Discretion with confidential financial and personal information
•[Agreement with our statement of faith / respect for our mission: choose
based on the role and your legal counsel's advice]
•Must clear a criminal background check
CLASSIFICATION NOTE (read before posting)
Treat this as an ordinary employment relationship. The employee is subject to
FICA, is not eligible for a ministerial housing allowance, and is unlikely to
fall inside the ministerial exception. Overtime exemption is not automatic: an
administrator has to meet a duties test and the salary tests to be exempt, and
many church administrators are properly classified as non-exempt and paid
overtime past forty hours in a week. Churches also generally do not pay federal
unemployment tax on employees, which means a person leaving this role may have
no state unemployment benefit to fall back on. Say so honestly during hiring and
consider a severance policy. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Church Name] provides reasonable accommodations for the essential functions of
this role and does not discriminate in ways prohibited by applicable law.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per [year / hour], [benefits, paid time off]
To apply, email __ with your resume.
Ministerial or Not: The Decision Behind Everything
Whether the executive pastor role is ministerial is the single most consequential line in the job description, because one answer settles three separate questions: whether the ministerial exception applies, whether a housing allowance is available, and whether earnings run through FICA or SECA.
The courts decide the first question by function, not by title. In Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru (2020) the Supreme Court held by seven to two that the exception barred discrimination claims by two Catholic school teachers, rejecting any rigid formula built on clerical titles or formal religious training. The 2012 decision in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC had recognized the exception unanimously eight years earlier.
The ministerial exception protects the church and limits the employee
The Supreme Court recognized the ministerial exception unanimously in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC in 2012, and in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru in 2020 a seven to two majority held that what matters is what an employee actually does rather than whether the person holds a clerical title or completed formal religious training. For an executive pastor the practical test is function: preaching, teaching, leading worship, spiritual formation of staff, and shepherding members all point toward coverage, while a role limited to budgets, buildings, and contracts points away from it. Write the religious duties into the job description, the offer letter, and the annual review if the role is genuinely ministerial. Do not label a bookkeeper a pastor to buy protection you have not earned. This is general information, not legal advice.
The housing allowance has to be designated in advance
A minister of the gospel can exclude a housing allowance from gross income for federal income tax purposes under Internal Revenue Code Section 107, but the Internal Revenue Service is explicit that the amount must be officially designated in advance of payment. The exclusion is capped at the lowest of three numbers: the amount the church designated, the amount actually spent to provide a home, and the fair market rental value of the home including furnishings and utilities. The allowance is excluded from income tax but not from self-employment tax, so the minister still counts it in net earnings for SECA. Two mistakes cost churches real money: designating an allowance for compensation the minister has already been paid, because the designation only reaches payments made after it is adopted, and letting the designation lapse instead of re-adopting it by board action. Put it on the calendar with the budget. This is general information, not tax advice.
Ministers are treated differently for payroll taxes
Ministers carry a dual tax status. For federal income tax they are ordinarily employees of the church and receive a Form W-2, but for Social Security and Medicare their earnings from the exercise of ministry are exempt from FICA and are instead reported by the minister under the Self-Employment Contributions Act. The church does not withhold or match Social Security and Medicare on ministerial earnings, and it does not withhold federal income tax on them unless the minister requests a voluntary arrangement, which is why many ministers use estimated tax payments instead. IRS Publication 517 is the reference document for the whole scheme. The practical consequence for the church is that a minister and a non-ordained operations hire sitting at adjacent desks run on two different payroll setups. This is general information, not tax advice.
Church employees usually have no unemployment safety net
Services performed for a church or a Section 501(c)(3) organization are excluded from employment for federal unemployment tax purposes under Internal Revenue Code Section 3306(c)(8), so churches generally pay no FUTA tax, and most state unemployment insurance laws carry a parallel exclusion for church employees. The consequence is easy to miss until someone leaves: a staff member let go from a church often has no state unemployment benefit at all. That reality belongs in your compensation thinking, not in a footnote. Churches that want a safety net either purchase private unemployment coverage, elect state coverage where their state permits it, or adopt a written severance policy funded in the budget. Decide which one you are doing before you write an offer letter, and confirm your state rules with the state agency. This is general information, not legal advice.
The tax questions have cleaner answers. The IRS guidance on ministers’ compensation and housing allowance states that the allowance must be officially designated in advance of payment and is excluded from income tax but not from self-employment tax. Ministerial earnings are exempt from FICA and reported under SECA instead, which is why a minister and a non-ordained operations hire on the same staff need two different payroll setups.
Do Not Buy Protection You Have Not Earned
Labeling an administrative role a pastor to reach for the ministerial exception or a housing allowance is a bad trade. Courts look at actual duties, the IRS looks at actual services performed in the exercise of ministry, and a mislabeled role fails in exactly the moment you needed it to hold. If the job is genuinely ministerial, document the religious duties in the description, the offer letter, and the annual review. If it is not, use the church administrator template and run it as an ordinary employment relationship.
What to Pay an Executive Pastor
There is no separate federal wage series for executive pastors, so the honest approach is to bracket the role between clergy pay and management pay and then anchor to your own budget. The job combines pastoral duties with real operational authority, and the market reflects both.
National Medians for Adjacent Occupations
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), the national median annual wage was $60,810 for clergy and $52,100 for directors of religious activities and education, while social and community service managers earned a median of $80,390 and general and operations managers $105,770 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS).
Occupation
National median (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
How it maps to a church
Clergy
$60,810 per year ($29.24 hourly)
The floor benchmark for an ordained executive pastor
Directors, religious activities and education
$52,100 per year ($25.05 hourly)
The ministry directors an executive pastor supervises
Social and community service managers
$80,390 per year ($38.65 hourly)
The closest fit for the operations and staff-management half of the role
General and operations managers
$105,770 per year ($50.85 hourly)
The secular comparison an experienced business candidate will make
Two adjustments matter more than the national figures. First, church pay tracks budget, campus count, and staff size far more closely than geography, so benchmark against congregations of comparable scale in your area rather than against a national median. Second, if the role is ministerial, a designated housing allowance changes the tax outcome for the candidate without changing the cost to the church, which is real value you should state in the posting. Publish a good-faith range where pay transparency laws require it.
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The executive pastor inherits every employment question in the building, and the first one is classification. There is no blanket exemption for churches under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the title Pastor on a business card does not make anyone exempt from overtime.
Coverage reaches church staff two ways. The Department of Labor fact sheet on non-profit organizations explains that a non-profit becomes a covered enterprise only through activities carried on for a business purpose that reach $500,000 in a year, and that enterprise coverage then extends to the employees engaged in those commercial activities.
Staff who are not covered on that basis can still be covered individually when their work regularly involves interstate commerce. The fact sheet gives interstate phone calls, shipping materials to another state, and transporting people or property across a state line as examples. The Fair Labor Standards Act separately names schools and preschools as covered enterprises regardless of revenue, which is how a church that runs a daycare picks up coverage there.
Question
Where it lands for a church
Is the church covered by the FLSA
Often yes: individual coverage can reach staff even without enterprise coverage, and a church-run school or preschool is a covered enterprise regardless of revenue
Is a pastor automatically exempt
No. Exemption is earned on duties and salary tests; some courts also apply the ministerial exception to wage claims
Federal salary threshold for exempt status
$684 per week, equal to $35,568 per year, after the 2024 rule was vacated and formally rescinded in May 2026
Do ministers pay FICA on ministerial earnings
No. Those earnings are exempt from FICA and reported by the minister under SECA
Does the church pay federal unemployment tax
Generally no, under the exclusion for church and 501(c)(3) services; most states carry a parallel exclusion
Can the church prefer people of its own faith
Yes for religious belief and practice under the Title VII religious organization exemption, but not for race, color, sex, or national origin
Track hours for anyone non-exempt and pay overtime past forty in a week. Our breakdown of exempt versus non-exempt classification works through the tests, and the overview of the Fair Labor Standards Act covers coverage in more depth. On the discrimination side, the Title VII religious organization exemption permits a church to prefer people who share its beliefs and practice, and it does not permit discrimination on race, color, sex, or national origin.
Running Church HR Without an HR Department
Church HR fails in three predictable places: the senior pastor is doing it between pastoral visits, the executive pastor posting reads as a to-do list instead of a leadership role, and the staff records are scattered across a cabinet, a shared drive, and somebody’s memory. Each has a fix.
The senior pastor is also the HR department, and neither job gets done
In most congregations the person handling a benefits question on Tuesday is the same person writing a sermon for Sunday. That is the whole reason the executive pastor role exists, and it is also the reason the hire is so often delayed: the work is invisible until it fails, and it fails quietly. The honest signal that it is time is not attendance or budget, it is a pattern. Payroll deadlines get missed. Background checks lapse. A staff member goes a year without a review. Volunteers stop showing up because nobody scheduled them. When operational failures start reaching the congregation, you are already late, and the senior pastor is spending the best hours of the week on the wrong column.
You are hiring an executive but writing the description like a to-do list
The weakest executive pastor postings are inventories. Twenty-two bullet points covering everything from the annual budget to unlocking the building on Sunday morning, with no statement of authority. Strong candidates read that and see a church that has not decided what it is delegating. Fix it by writing three things explicitly: what the role decides alone, what it decides with the senior pastor, and what still belongs to the board. Then attach a spending limit to the first category. A candidate who has done this work before will judge your posting by whether that line exists at all, and the ones who do not care are exactly the ones you should not hire.
Church staff records live in a filing cabinet, a shared drive, and someone's memory
A church runs on paperwork that nobody owns: signed offer letters, statement of faith acknowledgments, background check clearances for staff and volunteers, child protection training certificates, handbook sign-offs, housing allowance designations, emergency contacts, and ordination records. The renewal dates are the part that bites, because a lapsed volunteer clearance is an incident report waiting to happen. FirstHR was built for organizations in exactly this position. The onboarding wizard runs the same sequence for every new hire, e-signature handles the offer letter and the policy acknowledgments, document management stores clearances and certificates against each employee profile with renewal dates attached, and the org chart builder gives the board a picture of the staff structure that is actually current. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR. Note that FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider.
Once the hire is signed, the work shifts to a repeatable onboarding checklist, and the screening standard you set for the executive pastor should be the same one applied to every staff member and volunteer with access to children. Our guide to running a background check covers the process and the notice requirements, and the executive pastor is the person who should own that calendar going forward.
Key Takeaways
An executive pastor runs staff, budget, facilities, and systems so the senior pastor can stay on preaching and shepherding, and the role scales from doing the work to leading leaders as the church grows.
Whether the role is ministerial settles three questions at once: the ministerial exception, eligibility for a housing allowance, and whether earnings run through FICA or SECA.
Courts assess the ministerial exception by function rather than title, so document the religious duties in the job description, the offer letter, and the annual review if the role genuinely carries them.
A housing allowance must be designated in advance in writing, is capped at the lowest of the designated amount, actual housing cost, and fair rental value, and is excluded from income tax but not from self-employment tax.
National medians (BLS OEWS, May 2025) run $60,810 for clergy and $52,100 for directors of religious activities and education, against $80,390 for social and community service managers and $105,770 for general and operations managers.
There is no blanket FLSA exemption for churches, church employees generally have no state unemployment benefit, and the executive pastor inherits both problems on day one.
Church staff paperwork is a renewal problem, not a filing problem. FirstHR runs the same onboarding sequence for every hire, with e-signature for offer letters and policy acknowledgments, document storage for background clearances and training certificates, renewal dates tracked so nothing lapses quietly, and an org chart the board can actually read. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does an executive pastor do?
An executive pastor leads the operations and staff of a church so the senior pastor can stay on preaching, teaching, and shepherding. The role typically owns four things: supervision of paid staff and ministry directors, the annual budget and financial reporting, facilities and risk including insurance and child protection, and the systems that hold the week together such as the calendar, the handbook, and the hiring process. Many executive pastors also preach several times a year and lead staff devotions, which is what distinguishes the role from a purely administrative one. In a smaller congregation the executive pastor does the work as well as leading it. In a larger or multi-campus church the role becomes a leader of leaders, supervising campus pastors and central services directors.
Is an executive pastor a ministerial position?
It depends on what the person actually does, not on the title. Under the ministerial exception the Supreme Court recognized in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC in 2012 and broadened in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru in 2020, courts look at function rather than credentials, and the 2020 majority was explicit that what matters at bottom is what an employee does. An executive pastor who preaches, teaches, leads worship, and carries responsibility for the spiritual formation of staff has a strong case for ministerial status. One whose duties are limited to budgets, buildings, vendors, and bookkeeping has a much weaker one. Decide honestly, write the religious duties into the job description and the review, and get legal advice before you rely on the exception. This is general information, not legal advice.
How much does an executive pastor make?
There is no separate federal wage series for executive pastors, so benchmark from adjacent occupations. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), the national median annual wage was $60,810 for clergy and $52,100 for directors of religious activities and education, while social and community service managers earned a median of $80,390 and general and operations managers $105,770. An executive pastor role sits between the clergy number and the management numbers, because the job combines pastoral duties with real operational authority. Local practice matters more than the national median: pay tracks church budget, campus count, and staff size far more closely than geography. If the role is ministerial, the total package usually includes a housing allowance designated in advance, which changes the tax outcome without changing the church's cost.
Can an executive pastor receive a housing allowance?
Only if the role qualifies as a minister of the gospel performing services in the exercise of ministry. When it does, Internal Revenue Code Section 107 lets the minister exclude a housing allowance from gross income for federal income tax purposes, and the Internal Revenue Service requires that the church officially designate the amount in advance of payment. The exclusion is limited to the lowest of three figures: the amount designated, the amount actually spent to provide a home, and the fair market rental value of the home including furnishings and utilities. The allowance is excluded from income tax but not from self-employment tax, so it still counts in net earnings under SECA. A non-ordained operations leader or church administrator is not eligible. Re-adopt the designation by board action every year alongside the budget. This is general information, not tax advice.
Are church employees exempt from overtime?
No. There is no blanket exemption for churches or religious employers under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and calling someone a pastor does not by itself make them exempt. Coverage reaches church staff in two ways. A non-profit becomes a covered enterprise only through activities carried on for a business purpose that reach $500,000 in a year, but the Fair Labor Standards Act separately names schools and preschools as covered enterprises regardless of revenue, which is how a church running a daycare or a school gets covered. Individual coverage reaches employees whose work regularly involves interstate commerce, illustrated by the Department of Labor with interstate phone calls, shipping materials to another state, and transporting people or property across a state line. Anyone non-exempt gets minimum wage and overtime past forty hours in a week, so track hours. Exempt status has to be earned on the duties and salary tests, not assumed. This is general information, not legal advice.
What is the difference between an executive pastor and a church administrator?
The difference is pastoral authority, and it drives tax treatment, legal exposure, and who the role can lead. An executive pastor is normally ordained or licensed, carries spiritual responsibility for staff, often preaches, supervises ministry directors, and is usually inside the ministerial exception. A church administrator handles finance support, records, scheduling, facilities coordination, and communication, is normally not ordained, is subject to FICA like any other employee, cannot receive a ministerial housing allowance, and is unlikely to fall inside the ministerial exception. Choose based on the gap you actually have. If your ministry leadership is covered and the back office is leaking, hire an administrator. If your ministry directors need a leader present during the week, hire an executive pastor. Templates for both are on this page.
How do I hire an executive pastor without an HR department?
Run a fixed sequence and decide the authority question before you post. Start by writing down what the role decides alone, what it decides with the senior pastor, and what stays with the board, then attach a spending limit. Post a description that states the ministerial status, the reporting line, the staff supervised, the salary, and whether a housing allowance applies. Screen for staff supervision experience rather than years in ministry, and check references from people the candidate managed, not only from people who managed the candidate. Run a criminal background check and your child protection screening before the start date. Then run onboarding as a checklist: signed offer letter, statement of faith acknowledgment, handbook sign-off, housing allowance designation, benefits enrollment, and personnel file. FirstHR handles that sequence with e-signature, document management, and renewal tracking. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
