Wise rule: pastor should live roughly at the level of his congregation

Pastors should live at roughly the same economic level as their congregation — neither lavishly above nor in poverty below. Cost-of-living matters: a million-dollar home in a wealthy community may simply be the cost of living there. He notes most pastors are statistically underpaid. Parsonage arrangements (church-owned housing) can trap pastors with no retirement savings. Salaries of $500K+ seem wrong. The pastor-as-underpaid reality is more common than the opposite extreme.