The Leadership Network has published a salary survey of megachurches, which is very interesting. The most interesting part, to me, is the staffing ratio. The churches, on average, hire one fulltime person per 45 members. “Staff” is anyone on the payroll: janitors, secretaries, bookkeepers, and ministers.
The larger the church, the higher the ratio (the fewer staff members per 100 church members), with the ratio getting as high as 1 to 62 for churches of more than 7,000 members.
These ratios should not be confused with the classic 1 to 150 ratio for ministers to members. In fact, the comparison may well show that large churches hire about 2 non-ministers per minister, which is interesting.
In my church we have a janitor, accountant (1/2 time), 4 secretaries, an elder on staff (1/2 time), a facilities overseer (1/2 time), and 6 fulltime ministers. That’s 12.5 fulltime equivalent staff members. The ratio is 54.4 to 1, meaning we are understaffed compared to the average megachurch. Of course, we’re not a megachurch. But then the trendline is for a lower ratio the smaller the church is.
The reason larger churches need fewer staff members per member is economies of scale. The work to prepare a bulletin is about the same whether you print 1,000 or 10,000. The time spent in sermon preparation doesn’t change that much whether you preach it once or 7 times on Sunday.
On the other hand, more members means more work and higher expectations, so the ratios don’t change as radically as you might think.
As I noted in an earlier comment, I think it’s also true that larger churches shift more and more work toward non-ministers: secretaries, graphics artists, etc. The idea is that you don’t need a Masters of Divinity to be a highly skilled typist or accountant, and it’s crazy to hire ministers to do clerical or bookkeeping work.
I think many elderships make the mistake of “saving” money by forcing the ministers to do clerical work, resulting in job dissatisfaction and the payment of ministerials wages for secretarial work. In other words, when you see your ministers getting too busy, before you hire another M.Div., hire a secretary. And hire a good one.
Good staff is critically important to a church. Don’t try to save money by hire poorly skilled staff at low wages. Hire good people and hold them to high standards. Your church will blossom with a skilled staff on hand.
Oh, and money spent training your secretaries is money invested and multiplied. The more efficient and skilled your staff, the fewer staff you need to hire and the happier the staff will be.
