Over the last several years, the government has made a strong push to implement requirements for employers to provide retirement benefits. Some state governments have started their own plans, so if an employer doesn’t offer retirement benefits, they either must use the state plan or develop their own plan to meet the state mandate.
On the federal side, things have been busy as well. Multiple acts over the last few years have been designed to build retirement savings for U.S. workers. Why? These government entities seek to protect our country from a “retirement crisis,” where the money saved does not meet the needs of retirees. These entities seek to give people options by providing income for their final years. Mandates and changes benefit workers, even if additional expense and effort is required on the employer’s side.
Churches have a unique option regarding their retirement benefits. They can use the denominational retirement plan, which meets all governmental requirements and mandates. This allows the church to focus on its ministry without the additional burden of keeping up with benefits laws.
The retirement plan from Richland Ave Financial has been set up through the National Association of Free Will Baptists so each church, while separate, can be treated as part of the whole, allowing the benefits to be maintained throughout a career of service rather than switching each time a pastor moves from one pastorate to another.
The retirement plan keeps funds active and growing over the pastor’s career without disruptions, such as rollovers or closeouts between one pastorate and the next. It also provides additional benefits to pastors that are unavailable through other types of retirement plans, including the ministerial housing allowance option.
Currently, only a third of churches within the denomination offer or provide their pastors with the retirement option. Often, when a pastor is hired by the church, it is up to the pastor to ask for retirement benefits. This can be awkward for a new pastor and may be a difficult subject to bring up. As members, deacons, and lay leadership within the church, we often overlook these resources enjoyed by workers in the secular world (and often received automatically).
While government mandates affect some churches and require them to provide benefits to their employees, many churches are exempt from these requirements. These exemptions are usually given because of the separation of church and state. But, as with anything in this world, if churches don’t keep up with the financial standard, pastors fall further behind in terms of quality of life.
If you were buying a new car, the list of standard equipment on the base vehicle is vastly different than it was two decades ago. These days, if A/C were considered an extra option, you would probably find a different model! The same advancements have been made to pay packages as well. Providing retirement benefits to our church employees should have become standard years ago!
If your church doesn’t provide retirement benefits for your pastor, or if you are unsure whether they do, ask! Ask the awkward question so your pastor doesn’t have to. A little change to the church’s overall budget would make a massive difference to the pastor (and to the church as well).
Providing retirement benefits helps your church and the denomination begin working to meet the retirement crisis. This crisis will be the same, if not worse, than the crisis coming for the rest of the U.S. When workers can’t retire due to a lack of funds, they stay too long in their current jobs, which, in turn, denies positions to new workers, who then go elsewhere for employment. In the church world, this leads our next generation of pastors to look elsewhere for employment, whether a secular job or in churches outside our denomination.
Retirement savings help churches and denominations have natural off-ramps for one generation and on-ramps for the next. Retirement savings also allow pastors to transition into another phase of ministry: mentoring the next generation and filling vital roles in our churches and denomination they didn’t have the opportunity to fill in the past.
You may be the first person at your church to ask about your pastor’s retirement. Enrolling your pastor in the denominational plan adds peace of mind for him and provides for his family in the future. All the result of a single question.
So, ask your pastor about his retirement plan! Sure, it’s a tough question, but it’s vitally important.
This article was previously posted in the October/November 2026 edition of ONE Magazine.
