How To Become A Pastoral Assistant: What It Is and Career Path

What is a pastoral assistant and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a pastoral assistant. For example, did you know that they make an average of $17.59 an hour? That's $36,596 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -8% and produce -286,900 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScorePastoral AssistantUS Average

Salary

2.9

Avg. Salary $36,596

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.0

Growth rate -8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.73%

Asian 3.84%

Black or African American 9.35%

Hispanic or Latino 16.37%

Unknown 3.87%

White 65.83%

Gender

female 51.35%

male 48.65%

Age - 52

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 52

Stress level

6.0

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

4.4

Complexity level is basic

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.6

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a pastoral assistant

Explore pastoral assistant education requirements

Most common pastoral assistant degrees

Bachelor's

57.0 %

Master's

17.8 %

Associate

12.7 %

Start to develop specific pastoral assistant skills

Skills	Percentages
Community Outreach	21.15%
Pastoral Care	11.40%
Scheduling Appointments	7.03%
Event Planning	5.74%
Youth Ministry	4.64%

Complete relevant pastoral assistant training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New pastoral assistants learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a pastoral assistant based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real pastoral assistant resumes.

Research pastoral assistant duties and responsibilities

Manage company's twitter account and communicate with multiple physical therapy providers around the country
Help with church activities such as bazaars and vacation bible school.
Coordinate events, vacation bible school, special occasions and events from parishioners.
Create advertising and marketing materials and PowerPoint presentations.

Prepare your pastoral assistant resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your pastoral assistant resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a pastoral assistant resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable pastoral assistant resume templates

Build a professional pastoral assistant resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your pastoral assistant resume.