Who is the pastor's employer?

The test here is who hires and who can dismiss, not who runs payroll. The two come apart: a congregation can carry every burden of employment — salary, benefits, reporting, liability — while holding none of the power, and the payroll answer alone would make opposite arrangements look identical.

The local congregation

• Acts 29

  Partial — some structures are not publicly documented

• Anglican Church in North America

  Built from primary governing documents

• Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

  Partial — some structures are not publicly documented

• Presbyterian Church in America

  Partial — some structures are not publicly documented

• The Episcopal Church

  Built from primary governing documents

• The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

  Built from primary governing documents

• The Southern Baptist Convention

  Built from primary governing documents

The national body

• Catholic religious institutes

  Partial — some structures are not publicly documented

• Hillsong Church

  Partial — some structures are not publicly documented

• The Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans)

  Built from primary governing documents

• The Society of Jesus (Jesuits)

  Built from primary governing documents

Split — the congregation pays, but does not hire

• Global Methodist Church

  Built from primary governing documents

• Roman Catholic Church — dioceses and parishes

  Partial — some structures are not publicly documented

• The United Methodist Church

  Built from primary governing documents

Not established

For these bodies the arrangement is not publicly documented. The gap is recorded on each profile with the reason.

• Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

  Partial — some structures are not publicly documented

Every grouping above is a nearest-fit label; the deviations are stated in each profile's prose. Why it is built that way.