Pastor Turnover

"The increasing conflicts in congregations has ... added to the dramatic turnover in ministry. The Southern Baptists have been fairly open about this, reporting in 1988 a peak of roughly 1,400 “forced terminations” — or firings — of pastors in one year. Subsequent surveys, conducted out of pastoral concerns for clergy themselves, found the number settling to under one thousand in 2000.

It was found that fired pastors had served, on average, for just three months. The primary cause has been “control issues regarding who will run the church,” reported the LifeWay ministry of the convention. Other factors included “poor people skills of the pastor” and a “pastoral leadership style perceived as too strong.”

While some worry that a third of all Baptist clergy will experience “termination” in their ministry, an outside scholar notes wryly that “Since the relationship between pastor and congregation is said to be God’s will, there is much (deeply ambivalent) laughter about God changing his mind so often.” The LifeWay study also found that 45 percent of the recently fired pastors left Baptist ministry: “We would like to know why so many did not return.” - Who Shall Lead Them? by Larry Whitham

Turnover among pastors has become an organizational barrier to churches for growth, efficiency and effectiveness. As the trend worsens, look for pastoral outsourcing solutions to be offered by larger churches absorbing unsettled churches as a satellite.

For those churches who are "closely held" by a small group of members, default on loans will be a potential failure point as attendance declines along with charitable giving. In some cases, employment agreements and severance packages will be more common as pastors demand on the front end of the employment/calling process financial guarantees that cover moving expenses and the inconvenience of displacing a family and leaving a previous position.

Committee based churches will be faced with the desire of Generation X and younger newly emerging church leaders to operate on loosely organized teams that trade tightly held autocratic rule for more goal oriented cooperation. When faced with conflict in beliefs about leadership, look for this cohort to depart the traditional church for more informal approaches to ministry.

Ultimately, churches who have a strong desire to survive and thrive will see a new breed of lay leaders arise that are more attuned to the difference between governance and management. In this scenario, lay leader board actions will be limited to the financial and fiducial responsibilities required by State and Federal rules that are outside the areas of ministry focus, message and staffing. Pastors will create leadership teams led by key lay leaders who have a focus and responsibility for their area of ministry emphasis.

Courtesy of Trend Ping

Reconnecting After a Conflict

When the Pastor and key leaders are not aligned, the church will not be effective. There will be times in the Pastor's journey where they will say or do something to upset a key leader, director or deacon. It is important that the Pastor, as the leader of the church, reach out to that individual to repair the relationship and bring them back into the purpose of the church.

These instances more often occur when a Pastor has not established strong baseline relationships that withstand these times of conflict and quickly come back into alignment. For that reason, it is crucial that Pastors deepen key relationships. However, there are ways that a Pastor can regain their relationship with the leader and regain organizational momentum.

If given the opportunity, we know the right words to say and have the desire to reconnect, but the opportunity doesn't always exist. The 10 suggestions below may help you access the opportunity or generate other creative ways to reconnect.

1. Catch the leader doing something honorable, creative, helpful and send them a thank you card (if the disconnect is serious) or a phone call.
2. Ask them to ride along with you for support as you make a visit to a church member's home.
3. Tell them a particular book has puzzled you as to how you can apply it or whether you should apply it in your church and would they mind reading it so you all can get together to discuss.
4. Invite them (and spouse) to your home for dinner. Keep is casual. Don't force the topic of dispute.
5. Copy them on an article that you found interesting and ask them to email you their thoughts.
6. Invite them and a friend of theirs to lunch to get their input on an upcoming message series. Having their friend there helps break the ice in conversation.
7. Ask your spouse to have coffee with their spouse and see where the conversation leads.
8. Speak highly of them in front of others. It will get back to them.
9. Send an "I miss your friendship" card and express your desire to meet.
10. Pray daily for them, their ministry and that God would allow you the opportunity to reconnect.

Tolerating Intolerance at Expense of Pastors

"An epidemic of forced pastoral terminations has developed in our denomination that are the result, not of moral or even theological issues, but differences in perspectives, styles, values and traditions. Mission becomes secondary, giving way to church politics and stifling opinions.

As a result, thousands of Southern Baptist pastors and ministers have found themselves on the raw end of a church controversy or political scenario that has left many of them and their families just one step short of the "streets" and scrambling to piece together their lives. Furthermore, the damage it can create to children, spouses, and esteem for all can be nothing short of devastating.

Nationwide, about one-third (34 percent) of all pastors surveyed serve a congregation who terminated their previous pastor or who were themselves forced from their last pastoral ministry. In the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) alone, assuming that trends discovered by Life Way Research from seven years ago are still relatively similar, about 1,000 pastors will be force-terminated in calendar year 2008. This is a trend that has continued for nearly two and one-half decades. That's a staggering 25,000 forced pastoral terminations since the early 1980's. So where have all those pastors gone? Many have walked away from the church for good. According to the same LifeWay study, 45 percent have not returned to the pulpit. Rather, they have chosen a different vocation altogether." - Biblical Recorder article

The common scenario of lay leadership at odds with the pastor's vision is becoming -- well, too common. Research indicates that disagreements surrounding issues secondary to the heart of a church's urgent purpose are disrupting and destroying the overall impact of the church.

One against many has become the environment in which the pastor resides in many churches. Deacons, elders, lay-leaders, board members have become accomplices to this unfortunate pattern of behavior. Rather than being protectors of the faith, lay-leaders have allowed the voice of a few opinion leaders to become their own by refusing to stand up against the stagnant voice of tradition.

As a lay-leader, it is time that you protect your congregation from the turnstile habit of tolerating intolerance on matters of style, preference and opinion. Pastors need the support of their lay-leaders to accomplish the urgent purpose of the church. When the trivial is allowed to side-track the essential, everyone suffers.

Listen very carefully at your next meeting to spot the rising tide of criticism under which your pastor strains to stay out of harm's way. Become the defender of purpose in your church, not allowing insignificant issues to distract from the ultimate goal.