00:00:00:04 - 00:00:29:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry What if I told you that most youth pastors are only getting a raise at like half the rate of inflation if they're even getting raises at all? Today we're going to break down some of the data from the Youth Pastor Compensation report survey and look at what some experts had to say, like Dan Navarro when he sat down on the live stream with download Youth Ministry and co-leaders very own Josh Bowman so that you know exactly what you should be making based off of your experience level and your ministry load. 00:00:29:13 - 00:00:49:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And be sure to stick around to the end of the episode, because I'm going to share with you the one thing that people who are getting raises are doing on a consistent basis. Welcome, everyone, to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. If you and I have not had a chance to meet yet, my name is Nick Clayson. 00:00:49:16 - 00:01:17:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I am a youth pastor for 15 years, currently serving in DFW, Dallas-Fort worth, and recently Josh Bowman. Denver a couple of weeks ago hopped on a live stream. You can access it on the do. I am Facebook page or over on their YouTube channel. And they're getting ready for, prepping and putting together and gathering of data for the 2026 Youth Pastor compensation, report, which is a fantastic tool that has been, going on now for the last ten or so years. 00:01:17:20 - 00:01:38:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And there's a recent, recent question that said, hey, is there a rule of thumb or a pay scale for bi vocational, part time youth pastor positions? I know that the calling outweighs the pay, but I feel ignorant if I don't at least ask for research before discussing with leadership on this topic. And then, of course, you hop down into the comments and it says, Dan of our Youth Pastor Compensation Expert. 00:01:38:19 - 00:02:10:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Highly recommend contacting him. Highly recommend the report. So link down. Below is a 2025 report, as well as the link for the 2026, Google form so that you can fill out some of the data that, you know, for your salary and your benefits, which will help, influence the compensation report survey. But to answer that question specifically, part time youth pastors, 66% of those are working just about 29 or so hours. 00:02:10:10 - 00:02:35:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And they reported that they were not in any way, shape or form having any sort of regular, review system. So they're doing the work without knowing how they're doing. Meanwhile, those youth pastors who worked an average of, say, 16.8 hours, the survey said, earned an average wage of 20,000, $877 based back in 2024. 00:02:35:26 - 00:02:57:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So, if you are part time, 15 to 25 hours, the average, again, this is average, but the average wage is about $20,000. And so that's the actual answer to the question. And also the good news that they saw in the report last year. That year over year they're seeing youth pastor wages raise on a regular basis. And so that's the good news. 00:02:57:26 - 00:03:25:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry However, at about the 1315 mark, Dan actually had this to say. Check it out. Dan Navarra | Chemistry Staffing Here's so here's probably some of the numbers underneath the hood that aren't as great. It went up at half the rate of inflation. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's actually true. And I actually was at the divine 100 conference where Dan not only spent some time talking, but they also had a keynote speaker, Ed Stetson, who got up and he shared this graph. 00:03:25:01 - 00:03:51:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If you're watching here on on screen on YouTube, you can hop over to our YouTube channel if you're not watching live, where you can see this graph where he's comparing inflation versus wages. And if you look down there at the bottom again, I know I got a picture of another youth pastor's head, in 2019, inflation versus wages was, inflation was beneath wages where now inflation is nearly a double the rate of what wages are doing. 00:03:51:13 - 00:04:20:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, wages have not been doing a good job keeping up with inflation. And this isn't just youth pastor data. This is across the board data. And so this is a real conundrum as it pertains to youth pastors and youth ministries. But there are two other interesting questions and two other kind of unique findings. In this before I share with you, kind of the one key thing, one of them was, curriculum seemed to have a positive, influence with a youth pastor's salary. 00:04:20:16 - 00:04:44:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry In fact, at the about 28 or so minute mark, check out what Dan had to say. Dan Navarra | Chemistry Staffing And at first glance, you would think it's counterintuitive, right? The church is spending money on curriculum, so of course they're not going to spend as much on their youth pastor. And it's it's actually an inverse relationship. The big idea to me is, so much of youth pastors making a decent wage is longevity. You know, at the entry level, youth pastors bring the average down for sure. And most half of the survey respondents I've been in ministry for less than five years, pretty much every year. And so you've got a bunch of low earning new youth pastors anchoring the data. And when I say anchoring, I mean pulling it down, which is fine. 00:05:01:27 - 00:05:34:09 Dan Navarra | Chemistry Staffing It's still part of the average, churches that are willing to invest in the budget of a youth ministry enough to say, hey, we're going to spend. I don't even know what those things cost anymore. I've been out of it for five years. But like dim, I think gold used to be like 20 bucks a month, right? So if a church is going to spend 6 or 7, $800 on curriculum, right, like what they're saying is we want to invest in our youth ministry, the quality of our youth ministry and the longevity of our youth pastor, Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Josh Boldman, who was interviewing him, actually goes on to say this. 00:05:34:09 - 00:06:09:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry He says, hey, listen. Well, we always say at co-leader, which if you didn't know, co-leader. Youth hybrid Ministry ten for 10% off your first year at co-leader. But he says if writing gives you life, then by all means write your own curriculum. But what they try to do is they try to offer a curriculum service or a program, service or graphics or all of this is all included in co-leader like graphics and parent email and, a whole program and song, suggestions and graphics and bumper videos and social media for your sermon series. 00:06:09:05 - 00:06:41:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You said any of that stuff, drains you, doesn't bring you any life. Like, use what we have to offer, use another service. And and that's what kind of both of them were saying. Like, let something like a curriculum, buy you the time that you need to save yourself ten hours not to do less, but to go invest in the relationships and the small group leaders and the students that God has entrusted into your care, which, frankly, is a similar idea to the concept that I have here on the hybrid ministry. 00:06:41:03 - 00:07:00:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So if social media is something that you know you should be doing or probably should be doing, but you simply don't have the time. I have this seasonal social media pack drops four times per year. It leans into the different seasons fall, winter, spring, summer and it will help you have a consistent calendar of social media content. But it's more than just graphics. 00:07:00:15 - 00:07:19:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's your custom students, your your own. As a youth pastor, maybe custom face your volunteers parents. It's your real people on your social media feed. Hey quick break, let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day as a youth pastor, scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media? Blurry dodgeball. 00:07:19:11 - 00:07:44:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet. You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall. That's why I created this, the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry. 00:07:44:29 - 00:08:07:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Instagram, TikTok and YouTube shorts. See? See? Here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon. And did you know that monthly hybrid. Here are Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast. They get this pack completely for free, so if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12 where the pack is 1799. 00:08:07:25 - 00:08:29:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting. And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry. So let us help you run social media the best bang for your buck. 00:08:29:05 - 00:08:52:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Become a $4, per month hybrid hero. Member. You'll not only get the packs included in your membership, but you also get a weekly bonus recap podcast to help you with your creative programing. The final question that was kind of asked was like, what about education? What about a master's degree? What about seminary? They said this at the 14 minute mark. 00:08:52:10 - 00:09:17:00 Dan Navarra | Chemistry Staffing We're so our industry so far behind, especially when you take into account that over 80% of all youth pastors either have a four year degree or a graduate degree, like over a third of full time youth pastors have a graduate degree. So we're highly trained, highly capable, highly competent. And our role, these aren't entry level, you know, entry level laborers, so to speak, like an in and out an employee might be. 00:09:17:03 - 00:09:47:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So long story short, our master's degree is worth it. It's probably a little bit of a mixed bag, and it depends on what your ultimate goal is. If your ultimate goal is knowledge, and to maybe blow the lid off the potential of what you're, potentially capped out to make, then yeah, it's probably worth it. However, the traditional 80 hour MDiv, you know, Novara actually says, like Liberty offers like a master's of theology at only like about 12 courses. 00:09:47:23 - 00:10:16:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You can do it completely online. And so you'll still get that kind of master's degree. But, the juice of the MDiv might not be fully worth the squeeze. That's going to take both from a time standpoint as well as a financial standpoint. Standpoint standpoint. The reason I said sounds because, then I started comparing sound equipment and the fact that you, like, overhaul your entire sound system and speakers and soundboard in your, space, but you don't do any sort of ongoing maintenance. 00:10:16:05 - 00:10:34:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And they're relating that to the same idea of not giving regular raises. And so eventually it comes to a breaking point where you haven't done it over years, and now you've not kept up with some of that inflation. And so therefore you have to take a massive jump. And it's going to be a stretch for maybe your church, your budget, your givers and stuff like that. 00:10:34:10 - 00:11:09:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so to continue to kind of do it, to continue to pace with maybe a little bit of inflation, to continue to pace, a little bit of cost of living, is going to be helpful for your church in the long run. Now, listen, I get it. You're in that boat. You believe that you might not be in a seat to make that decision, which this right here was the key that Dan pointed out was the one thing that you have to do if you want to experience a race because you said education or not, we are in, as youth pastors, we are in the market of our skills reigning supreme. 00:11:09:14 - 00:11:27:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Those are going to be the primary questions that you're going to be facing in an interview context. I agree with that. I've experienced that. But the one thing that youth pastors who get raises on a consistent basis, the thing that they all have going for them, is they have an, a regular cycle of annual reviews. We hinted at a little bit at the beginning. 00:11:27:12 - 00:11:46:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So, for example, if you're a part time youth pastor, only six, 66% of those working, did not have an annual review, 66% did not more than half did not have any sort of annual review. And so the the analogy that he use and he says old phrase, I've used it every year, but the squeaky wheel is what gets the oil. 00:11:46:24 - 00:12:11:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So if you're not in an annual review asking for raises, you're not going to get one that's going to, by and large, simply be the fact if you want one, you're asking for it. You got to get one. So if you are looking for a raise, an annual review is the key. Now, if your church doesn't host and have a culture of that, then this is an opportunity for you to step in, offer a suggestion for that, and lead up in that way. 00:12:11:17 - 00:12:27:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And and he made a point. He said, if you, ask the first year, you don't get it. He goes, but then you go around and the next year you ask and you do get it. It's all because of that, putting that annual review on the calendar. And here's the thing you need to know right now in the landscape for youth ministry. 00:12:27:24 - 00:12:49:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The good news is, if you do go into that conversation and it doesn't go your way, if you need or are looking for a youth ministry job, you need to understand that there are more jobs out there than there are youth pastors. And so if your church chooses to not give you a raise and in fact, actually it goes worse and they fire you, or you choose to step down because you're unable to provide for your family. 00:12:49:16 - 00:13:11:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry There are a lot of jobs out there. And you as a youth pastor, you actually are in the driver's seat. You're in control in a lot of those scenarios. Don't be a jerk about it, but just understand that you have a fair bit of leverage, at least in the current climate here in 2025. So be on the lookout for 2026 when the compensation report will drop and you will get to have that data. 00:13:11:01 - 00:13:29:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And if you are an annual review cycle, you can either download the 2025 version or you can grab a look ahead in 2026 and bring that data with you and compare it to what you're making, and then be use that as a little bit of leverage to say, hey, this is what the average is for. The, you know, for churches across the country that even have it broken down by state. 00:13:29:28 - 00:13:46:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then you can ask your, you know, your supervisor, your executive pastor, your senior pastor, if you can get a raise based off of that. Well, hey everyone, I hope you found this episode helpful. Be sure to like and share and subscribe. But until next time, and as always, don't forget. Stay hybrid.