Why Some Adventist Pastors May Retire as Millionaires

By Dave Gemmell

I got a random call one day from a pastor whose voice was trembling. “How am I supposed to survive financially now that I’m retired? I don’t get any social security, and I’ve spent all of my savings on a travel trailer that is parked on a friend’s property.  I don’t have enough money to buy food. I’ve given my life to the church. Don’t you guys even care about retired pastors?”

Although an extreme case, there are many who feel that pastors are doomed to poverty in retirement.¹ There is a perception that current wages are insufficient to cover expenses including preparation for retirement.²

But how does that perception match with reality? Even though most pastors get paid about the same,³ do all pastors retire in poverty? Are there any pastors who retire as millionaires? And if so, what can we learn from them? To find out, I designed and administered a survey entitled How Some Pastors Retire as Millionaires that was completed by 320 pastors in the spring of 2022.⁴ The study revealed that over half of the surveyed pastors anticipate retiring as millionaires and the average anticipated net worth was 1.5 million dollars.⁵

Of course, there were only a few ‘average’ pastors. Anticipated net worth varied greatly ranging from less than two hundred thousand to greater than five million.⁶ Because of the wide distribution the study gives great insights as to what factors correlate with net worth; some that we have no control over such as ethnicity,⁷ gender,⁸ and generational wealth⁹; and other things that we have the power to change.   

Of those factors that we do have control, some had no statistical significance. These include student loans, how many years working in the NAD, how many years you’ve been saving for retirement, moonlighting, number of kids, and opting out of social security. That doesn’t mean they aren’t important, but in this study, anticipated net worth could not be traced to these factors.

What are the factors that increase your likelihood of retiring as a millionaire? As we’ve gone through variables time and again with statistical software¹⁰ there are eight factors that you could change that could increase your chances of retiring as a millionaire. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing those eight factors in order of strength of correlation. 

I think we too easily give away the responsibility for our finances to our employer. While our employers seek to do the best they can to provide for our needs, they are not our parents and we are not their children. Finances are ultimately our responsibility. 

Author’s note: These articles are condensed from the full report of the study that was presented at the 2022 CALLED Pastors’ Family Convention and can be downloaded here: If you would like to dialogue with the author you can email him at davegemmell@gmail.com. 

Dave Gemmell recently retired from NAD Ministerial and is enjoying spending more time with his family, especially his three grandsons.

Footnotes:

1 Much research has been done on this subject. Here’s a study that I helped with in 2017 entitled The Current State of Adventist Pastors which found , “59.3 percent said that they had financial concerns about how they would survive during retirement.”  

2 “The data presented suggest that the current wages paid Adventist pastors results in their perception of insufficient income to support their personal and family expenses, including the expectation of sending their children to private, somewhat costly, Adventist education or funding their retirement.” Seminary Training, Role Demands, Family Stressors and Strategies for Alleviation of Stressors in Pastors’ Families, Final Report to the North American Division Ministerial and Family Ministries Departments in conjunction with the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, David Sedlacek & Duane McBride, September 8, 2014, page 5.

3 There are slight positional differences in the pay scale, but nothing like in the corporate world. It doesn’t matter if you pastor a small church, large church or are president of the GC, everyone works off the same PayScale, with a range of .87 to 1.02 basic factor.  

4 Although the participants were self-selected, the demographics were quite diverse and, in many ways, resembled the pastors of the NAD in age, ethnicity, and gender.

5 The survey was taken in the spring of 2022 and the anticipated net worth may have been higher than it is now as this article is published.

6 Actually, the net worth of some may be much higher than 5 million but that’s where we cut it off in the survey.

7 Ethnicity seemed to be a factor, with Hispanics and Blacks showing a much higher net worth than whites; but that may be more of a reflection of home equity than ethnicity. Hispanics and Blacks are more likely to live in high home equity urban areas than Whites.

8 Female pastors have a much higher net worth than their male counterparts. This may be accounted for with female pastors living in geographical areas with higher home equity. Higher spousal income may also be a factor.

9 Average generational wealth of pastors whose net worth is anticipated to be less than one million was $60,290 and for those over one million was $169,940. However, the correlation was not significant since some were able to greatly leverage their generational wealth into net worth and others were less successful. 

10 A special thanks goes to Jacky Yeung who helped run the data through IBMs SPSS statistical analysis software. His statistical knowledge was invaluable in shaping this report.