By Brent Lacy

The small church staffing problem is not what most people think it is.

The common diagnosis is that small churches cannot find good staff because they cannot pay competitive salaries. That is true, but it is not the whole story. The deeper problem is that most small churches are trying to replicate a staffing model designed for large churches, on a budget that cannot support it, with expectations that do not match the reality of their congregation.

The result is a cycle that is familiar to anyone who has watched it play out: the church calls a pastor at a salary that is too low, the pastor struggles financially, the congregation feels guilty but cannot do more, the pastor leaves after two or three years, and the cycle starts over.

There is a better way. But it requires the church to be honest about what it actually needs and what it can actually afford.

The Math Most Churches Are Ignoring

The median church attendance in the United States is somewhere between 65 and 75 people per week. A congregation of that size, giving at typical rates, has a total annual budget somewhere in the range of $100,000 to $200,000. Most church financial advisors recommend spending no more than 40 to 50 percent of the budget on personnel.

That means a median-sized church has somewhere between $40,000 and $100,000 for all personnel costs combined. If the church is trying to fund a full-time pastor with a competitive salary, benefits, and housing, that budget is gone before anyone else on staff gets paid.

This is not a new problem. It is a structural reality that most small churches have been managing around for decades, often by underpaying their pastor and hoping the situation improves. It rarely does.

The honest answer is that most small churches cannot afford the full-time staffing model. And the churches that try to force it anyway are not doing their pastor any favors.

What “Part-Time Is the New Full-Time” Actually Means

Ministry Architects, a church staffing and consulting firm, released findings in early 2025 that described a significant shift in how churches are approaching staffing. Their summary: “Part-time is the new full-time. Bivocational ministry is on the rise. More churches are hiring part-time and hybrid staff instead of full-time roles.”

One of their consultants put it plainly: “We’re asking people with 7+ years of experience to take an entry-level salary. That’s just not sustainable.”

That is the staffing crisis in one sentence. Churches want experienced, qualified ministry leaders. They cannot pay what experienced, qualified ministry leaders need to earn. The gap between what churches can offer and what candidates need to live on is not closing. It is widening.

The churches that are navigating this well are not trying to close the gap by paying more than they can afford. They are redesigning the role to match what they can actually sustain.

What a Sustainable Staffing Model Looks Like

Start with what you actually need, not what you think you should have

Most small churches do not need a full-time pastor. They need someone who will preach faithfully on Sundays, provide pastoral care for people in crisis, develop lay leaders, and keep the congregation moving in a healthy direction. That is a significant job. It is not necessarily a 40-hour-per-week job.

Before you write a job description, ask honestly: how many hours per week does this role actually require? What are the non-negotiable pastoral functions that only the pastor can do? What can be handled by trained lay leaders, volunteers, or part-time support staff?

The answers to those questions should drive the job description, not the other way around.

Pay for the hours you are actually asking for

If you are asking a pastor to work 20 hours per week, pay them for 20 hours per week at a fair rate. Do not pay them for 20 hours and expect 40. Do not pay them a full-time salary you cannot sustain and then cut it when the budget gets tight.

The bi-vocational pastor compensation guide has a practical framework for calculating fair compensation based on actual hours expected, including housing allowance, self-employment tax offset, and mileage reimbursement. Use it.

Build strong lay leadership

A bi-vocational staffing model only works if the congregation has trained lay leaders who can handle the ministry functions the pastor cannot. This is not a workaround. It is actually closer to the New Testament model of church leadership than the one-pastor-does-everything approach that most small churches have inherited.

Deacons who visit the sick. Elders who provide accountability and governance. Small group leaders who do pastoral care for their groups. A financial secretary who handles the books. A communications coordinator who manages the newsletter and social media. These are not optional extras in a bi-vocational church. They are the infrastructure that makes the model work.

Be honest with candidates about what you are offering

The church profile you send to pastoral candidates should describe the role accurately. If you are offering a bi-vocational position, say so. If the salary requires the pastor to have outside income, say so. If the congregation has struggled with pastoral transitions in the past, say so.

A candidate who accepts a call based on an honest description of the role is far more likely to stay than a candidate who arrives to find a different reality than what was presented. Honesty in the search process is not just ethical. It is practical.

The Fractional and Hybrid Models

Some churches are experimenting with staffing models that go beyond the traditional bi-vocational arrangement. A few worth knowing about:

Fractional executive pastor. A part-time executive pastor who serves multiple churches, handling administration, systems, and staff oversight for congregations that cannot afford a full-time administrator. This model is borrowed from the business world, where fractional executives are increasingly common.

Remote administrative support. Churches are outsourcing administrative tasks to specialists who do not need to be on-site. Communications, bookkeeping, scheduling, and database management can all be handled remotely by people who are good at those things, freeing the pastor to focus on ministry.

Shared staff. Two or three small churches in the same community sharing a part-time youth director, children’s ministry coordinator, or worship leader. Each church gets access to a qualified person they could not afford individually.

None of these models are perfect. All of them require more coordination and communication than the traditional full-time model. But they are worth considering for churches that are serious about sustainable staffing.

The Question Worth Asking

Before your next pastoral search, before you write the job description and set the salary, ask this question honestly: are we designing a role that a real person can actually sustain, or are we designing the role we wish we could afford?

The churches that are thriving with bi-vocational and part-time staffing models are not the ones that settled for less. They are the ones that got honest about what they actually need, designed a role that matches their reality, and found someone who is genuinely called to that specific kind of ministry.

That is a harder conversation than posting a job listing and hoping someone applies. But it is the conversation that leads to a pastor who stays.

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