A number of Jamaica’s pastors have debunked the widespread belief that all men of the cloth are raking in riches from the collection plate, saying instead that most clergymen are underpaid and living on hardly enough to sustain themselves and their families.

An informal survey conducted by the Sunday Observer revealed that many of the island’s pastors are actually taking home between $25,000 and $150,000 monthly after tax. In some cases they are given a stipend, and still there are those who do not receive a salary at all.

Immediate past president of the Jamaica Council of Churches and general secretary of the Jamaica Baptist Union, Reverend Karl Johnson, said most pastors continue with the job because of their commitment to the call of God and not for the money.

“Nowadays there is a perception that pastors collect all of the offerings,” he said. However, “The vast number of pastors in my own denomination, and I am sure in others, are really just a step away from poverty.”

For Pastor Roy Anderson at the Church of God in Christ United in Kingston, a stipend of $15,000 or less is all he can look forward to at the end of each month. Although he used to hold a regular job, he gave it up a couple years ago to focus on full-time ministry and the community he pastors.

“My wife works, and so along with what I get, we try to see what we get to budget as best as we can, although for us it is not so much about the pay, it is about reaching the people,” Anderson told the Sunday Observer.

Anderson is the father of six children, two of whom are under 11 years old. Between providing lunch money and paying bills, there is hardly enough remaining from his pay for him and his family to enjoy the simple things in life.

“Sometimes I am driving the vehicle with the gas light on, but thank God, I haven’t had to get out to get a jug and purchase gas,” he said. “Although it is challenging, we do survive, and it’s miraculously done. Sometimes God just grants us favours.”

Fortunately, some denominations provide a manse for their pastors. Pastor Clarence Turpin at the Chapel of Christ our Redeemer African Methodist Church in Kingston said for years he and his wife and his two young children have been living in one provided by his church, since he does not receive a salary.

“Our thing is more voluntary work. We do not have a salary per se,” he said.

Turpin, however, acknowledges that there is a popular perception that pastors are well off financially.

“The outside have this view that the church has a whole heap of money out there, but that is not a fair representation,” he said, adding that with a family to take care of and bills to pay, he had to resort to what many pastors are being encouraged to do – get a regular job. So Turpin currently teaches Social Studies and Religious Education at a prominent high school in Kingston.

The view that pastors are awash in cash is most likely fuelled by the activities of some American televangelists whose sermons, and sometimes controversial appeals for money, reach millions of people worldwide.

One such was the famous evangelist Oral Roberts who, in January 1987, told his more than one million television viewers that God said He would “call me home” if he failed to raise US$4.5 million by the end of March toward an ultimate goal of US$8 million to send evangelical Christian doctors around the world.

Before making the appeal, Roberts had raised US$3.5 million for the project.

The appeal raised US$9 million, but Roberts’ critics accused him of using The Deity to extort his viewers.

Scepticism of religious leaders was also fuelled by the US Government indictment in 1988 of televangelist Jim Bakker who ran the PTL TV ministry.

Bakker, who was charged with 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy, was accused, along with his associate Richard Dortch, of taking US$4 million in bonuses out of the PTL’s coffers and of vastly overselling lifetime “partnerships” that promised lodging at the Grand Hotel and other accommodations at Bakker’s Heritage USA theme park in Fort Mill, South Carolina.

Bakker was convicted in 1989 and served five years in prison.

A decade earlier, the American pastor known as Reverend Ike, who preached the gospel of material prosperity, rose to prominence.

Known for his flashy homes in New York and Hollywood, high-end motor cars, expensive jewellery, and a Liberace-style wardrobe that was said to have cost his flock US$1,000 a week, Rev Frederick J Eikerenkoetter II never failed to instil in his followers the importance of money.

He’s reported to have used Jesus’ advice to His disciples on the possibility of a rich man entering the kingdom of heaven to tell an audience: “If it’s that difficult for a rich man to get into heaven, think how terrible it must be for a poor man to get in. He doesn’t even have a bribe for the gatekeeper.”

But that kind of evangelism doesn’t sit well with some local preachers, such as the Rev Al Miller of the Fellowship Tabernacle in Kingston.

Miller, who obviously supports the idea of pastors holding regular jobs, said that strategy would better enable them to earn a salary commensurate with their qualifications, especially those in possession of master’s degrees and PhDs. Some, he said, are working in the public or private sectors, while others have taken on pastoring more than one church. Miller himself had started a juice manufacturing company a few years ago to supplement his income, but had to stop to focus on full-time ministry.

“How many pastors do you find driving fancy cars?” he asked. “And if you note any, I guarantee you, most of those who you see driving fancy cars have other sources of income. The income doesn’t come from the church, because a number of pastors have to go out and work in order to survive. Many, many pastors in this country have another job, because they can’t look after their family based on what the church pays them.”

While pastor of Church on the Rock in Kingston, Franz Fletcher, does not have a regular job, he is able to drive what he considers a “nice car” which is provided by his church.

“I couldn’t buy this car,” he said. “I consider myself first a servant of God and a servant of the people. When I had my regular job, I had everything, but now as a pastor, I am living by faith and trusting Him to provide for me.”

Both he and his wife work for their church full-time and are parents of adult children. However, he said that, “The pastors that are coming up now, that are sending their kids to school will more than likely be having it hard.”

Bishop Herro Blair, who heads the Deliverance Evangelistic Association, believes the low wages earned by pastors is a deterrent to more young persons going into ministry.

“Although they can minister, they do not have the wherewithal for the upkeep of a ministry,” he said. “It is something that we grapple with, and you would find most pastors in the Jamaican context today start off as a volunteer getting a stipend until the church can afford it.”

For priests and bishops in the Catholic faith, an annual stipend of $200,000 is all they can look forward to. However, the church is responsible for meeting all their financial needs. And the fact that they do not have families to care for makes life a little easier for them when compared to other pastors.

“Because we don’t have that kind of responsibility, we wouldn’t have the kind of challenge they would have, in having to take care of a wife and children and all the consequences of that – like providing food, education, entertainment and whatever,” said Father Kenneth Richards.

He, too, believes that pastors are underpaid for the type of work they do and the positive impact they have been having on communities.

“For the level of work that they are doing as CEOs of their establishments, if you want to put it in that context, what they get would not be comparable to somebody at their level working in the business world,” he said.

Like the head of any organisation, pastors are paid from the business they engage in, and for a number of churches, their primary source of income is the tithes and offerings they receive from congregants.

A pastor’s salary is usually determined by the board of directors of his/her church, or by the denomination’s headquarters and is based on a number of factors, which include the location of the church, the size of the membership, and the pastor’s years in ministry.

However, there are a few cases where pastors pay themselves, a practice which Bishop Blair discourages.

“I hope that we wouldn’t find pastors setting their own salaries,” said Blair. “I know there are cases where pastors take control of the finances of the church, which I totally disagree with. I think the pastor goes in as a servant and is also employed by the local congregation. He should manage the finances of the church, but he shouldn’t pay himself from the finances that he manages.”

President of the Jamaica Association of Evangelicals and the Missionary Church Association in Jamaica, Rev Rennard White, said more church boards should consider offering their pastors remuneration packages. Since life is already hard for most, he said, they should be considered for life insurance as well as health and pension schemes for themselves and their family.

“Especially when you are in certain parts of the island where the agrarian lifestyle is mostly practised, you will find that it is really hard for these pastors,” said White.

Said Bishop Colville Webb, president of the Pentecostal Union, “If you are a pastor in the rural areas, many times you have to be looking to give, rather than to receive.”

He said that only about 50 per cent of the pastors in his association receive a fixed salary. The others get a stipend which varies each month.

Meanwhile, Pastor Rohan Edwards, president of the Jamaica Association of Full Gospel Churches which overseas 50 denominations in the island, said the work of the pastors has increased even more since the recession as more people come to them seeking help.

“When I get my little stipend, it finish before I reach the church door, because there are people coming to you seeking help, telling you that their children have to go to school and you just can’t do anything more than just give them the money,” he said.

Edwards said, too, that most pastors have to be on call 24 hours a day to deal with the myriad issues faced by their members and the communities in which they live and work.

“Sometimes as a pastor you have to be taking calls two and three o’clock in the mornings from those seeking help,” said Edwards. “There are days when people come to you wrapped up in sheets seeking help at two o’clock in the mornings. Just last week I had one such case, so we are like doctors.”

As a result of the low wages and the need to maintain their families, Edwards said a number of pastors have resorted to travelling overseas to minister at other churches where they can earn more money. After preaching in Canadian and US churches they are usually blessed with a care gift.

“I believe the Jamaican churches need to take care of their pastors, because a lot of them are shifting and are going overseas to live,” he said.

Academic dean at the Jamaica Theological Seminary, Delano Palmer, said pastoring is not very attractive to young people anymore.

Of the nearly 200 students who apply to the school each year, only about 25 per cent are interested in becoming pastors. The majority of the graduates go into guidance counselling or teaching Religious Education at public schools.

“It is not attractive, simply because of the generally low pay that they get, that’s the main thing,” said Palmer. “I know that over the last 10 years or so, there is a hype that preachers are getting a lot of money and so on, but that’s very few and far between. The vast majority that are in the pastorate do not get the kind of monies that are offered in the public sector and private sector.”

Auditor Wilfred McKenley, who has been privy to the financial standings of a number of churches in the island, had this to say: “Pastors, if they are considered to be CEOs, are underpaid”, although they have a greater responsibility than most CEOs who are generally only responsible for their employees’ pay cheque and their principal purpose is to increase the value of the company.

He said a pastor’s job is significant and as such they should be satisfactorily compensated.

“They are influential in regard to an individual’s body, soul, spiritual and overall well-being,” argued McKenley. “Their wise (or unwise) council could lead to either success or destruction of an individual.”