Dependent upon sources cited, the average tenure of a pastor is less than five years.[1] This statistic is astonishing considering biblical admonitions for endurance, perseverance, and fighting the good fight. Under shepherds of God’s flock are preachers of God’s Word, and they must have more endurance than is evidenced in our culture. Pastoral longevity, turnover, or burnout has numerous different factors that lead pastors to stay with a church for only a short period of time. Modern consideration of the pastoral office has become more career-oriented rather than remaining grounded in genuine biblical ideology. The advent of the pastor as the Chief Executive Officer has only been to the detriment of the church. Not surprisingly, turnover in the pastoral ministry is similar to turnover in the business world which the pastorate is often being modeled after.[2] Considering factors that affect the length of time a pastor serves in a church only examines a portion of the problem, nevertheless the duration of service can be illustrative of the necessity to remove the mentality of professionalism amongst the pastorate. The short-term of an average pastor at a church is directly affected by a mentality of professionalism, which will be examined in the hopes of highlighting the need for ministers of the gospel to be more biblically driven in their methodology for the pastorate.
Factors Affecting Pastoral Longevity
While the argument could be made that the number of years spent in an individual church does not necessarily reflect the effectiveness of a pastor, short term pastorates do not appear to produce much fruit. Pastoral longevity refers to the amount of time in which a pastor spends pastoring any one given church. A pastor serving in numerous pastorates during his lifetime has become a forgone conclusion.[3] This mentality appears to stem from the ladder-climbing ethic that has come to define the pastoral ministry, but selfish ambition cannot be the defining element of an individual seeking to be in the pastorate. The pulpit should never be a ladder to which one should aim to climb in order to shine among men.[4] Rather than stemming from self-promotion, longevity in the pastoral office can be attributed to calling and proper motivation of the one who stand in that sacred office.[5]
Even so, numerous other factors affect a pastor’s tenure at any given church ranging from personal dedication, to theological convictions, and family influence, only to name a few. Some statistical information complied by H. B. London Jr., and Neil B. Wiseman in their book Pastors at Greater Risk, gives some indication of the reasons for such short pastoral tenure. Congregations expect their pastor to competently carry an average of sixteen major tasks, and pastors working less than fifty hours a week are thirty-five percent more likely to be terminated.[6] The cultural drive is for a pastor to be efficient, competent, and possess the ability to multi-task; these are all factors that lead to burnout and high turnover rates.
Conflict and conflict management are also major problems in the Christian ministry and often affect the amount of time a minister will remain with a congregation. Two-thirds of pastors reported conflicts amongst their congregation, with more than twenty percent of those being significant enough that members left the congregation. Forty percent reported a serious conflict with a member of the congregation at least once a month. Forty percent also report that they have considered leaving their pastorates in the last three months.[7] The pressures of the pastorate demonstrate understandable reasons for the lack of endurance in the ministry, especially for the minister who is aiming to further his personal career. Proper motivation and dedication would engender the needed endurance to teach, preach and equip the saints to do the work of the ministry.
H. B. London Jr., and Neil B. Wiseman assert that ninety percent of all pastors indicate that they are very satisfied with being in the ministry.[8] However, while many pastors express a firm belief in God’s call upon their life, along with a desire to stay in the ministry, the numbers demonstrate otherwise.[9] With the average pastor only remaining in a church for less than five years, it would seem that at some point pastors lose their satisfaction, desire, and dedication to the ministry; the outlook for the church is bleak.
Other factors that affect pastoral longevity are the perceived effects of the ministry upon them and their families. Eighty percent of pastors believe that ministry negatively affects their families, and almost as troubling is the fact that fifty percent of all pastors’ marriages will end up in divorce.[10] In addition to domestic worries, London and Wiseman claims that fifty percent of all ministers feel unable to fulfill the requirements of the job, while an astounding ninety percent believe that they are inadequately trained to fulfill ministry demands.[11] Add to these statistics and facts marital infidelity, Internet pornography, insufficient family time, lack of genuine friendship, along with physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual burnout; the strains on the pastoral office become more clear. According to these statistics, the pastoral ministry is a bleak and difficult field that is suffering a faster turnover rate than corporate America.
However, the lack of pastoral longevity cannot only be explained by the previously mentioned statistics. While it has been shown that a pastor’s greatest ministry impact in a church happens about the fifth through the fourteenth year, external factors such as being over worked and having a sedentary life style cannot be the sole reasons explicating why the average pastor lasts less than five years.[12] There are more troubling, internal causes for the early exit of a minister from a given congregation.
Professionalism In The Pastorate
One significant internal cause for the lack of pastoral longevity is professionalism in ministry. Professionalism in ministry can be defined as following the agenda set by the world.[13] Professionalism or ministerialism can be defined as, “the tendency to read our Bibles as ministers, to pray as ministers, to get into doing the whole of our religion as not ourselves personally, but only relatively, concerning in it.”[14] Being a pastor is more than being a professional; it is the earnest and most sincere employment of the whole person in a single-minded manner.[15] The pastoral office has an established agenda by God and not the latest fads of efficiency. A pastor must have a drive that is different than the professional world, and a motivation for sticking through such difficulties that is greater than the ambition for success.[16]
Passing over biblical models for the pastorate are common and dangerous. The latest seminars, methods, and fads are implemented uncritically to the utter despair of the pastor when they fail.[17] Success is not dictated by numbers, but by fidelity to the Scriptures. Baptizing worldly business principles espoused by the ‘experts’ might prove to produce successful businesses, but they are lacking the genuine character needed in the pastoral office.[18] So, while the adaptation of leadership principles can aid in conducting business matters more efficiently in the church, a problem still remains when baptizing secular business models to establish the manner in which the church functions and how pastors view their duties as under shepherds. The heart of the Christian ministry is not ministerialism established by worldly business principles; rather, it is eternally and spiritually minded with the aim of being the aroma of Christ.[19]
The idea of professionalism is not one of loyalty or devotion to anything other than the bottom-line. A professional cannot operate in the arena of faith, love, devotion, and contrition to which the pastor is called.[20] A professional devotes himself to his workweek, and when he is not engaged in his office hours or duties of the pulpit, he is not a pastor. Biblically speaking, a pastor is a calling that extends beyond office hours. C.H. Spurgeon expounds on this clearly, “The thought of being clockwork ministers who are not alive by abiding grace within, but are wound up by temporary influence; men who are only ministers for the time being, under the stress of the hour of ministering, but cease to be ministers when they descend the pulpit stairs. True ministers are always ministers.”[21] As the true pastor is a pastor at all times, he must be loyal to the ministry that God has called him. Loyalty is not a blind devotion for the sake of devotion. Loyalty is also not unto men for their own sake. But loyalty is devotion to truth and duty.[22] Were more pastors devoted to truth and duty as a minister of the gospel is called, they would be far better equipped to love and serve those whom they shepherd.
The Pastor’s Dedication to Excellence. While the pastor is not a professional in the truest sense of the word, he is to do all things with excellence. Colossians 3:17, 23 gives great direction to Christians, especially pastors, in the manner in which they are to conduct themselves. Everything is to be done as unto the Lord and with excellence. Removing an attitude of professionalism in the ministry does not preclude striving to perform every task with the greatest amount of quality and integrity. Pastors are not to be lackadaisical sloths that meander about their days. They must be men fully devoted unto their duties as shepherds of God’s flock.
John Angell James in his book, An Earnest Ministry, encourages the minister of the gospel to employ not only all the arts and means available to them to carry about the ministry of reconciliation, but also to do so with the utmost earnestness, intelligence, and spirituality.[23] The pastor must be a man of resources, but these resources are not of the world—they are of God. Although a minister of the gospel does not carry the impetus of the secular world into his tasks, he still must seek to be wise in all of his labors.
The pressure and demand for pastors to be productive managers must be set to the side, so that they might fulfill their divinely appointed office in the power and strength of their Lord. The sincerity and earnestness of a pastor must be a single-minded devotion toward God’s ends and not man’s. God gives his minister the capabilities and sufficiency to be ministers of the New Covenant. At the same time, the Christian minister must utilize every gift that God has given him to the fullest for the sake of the body of Christ.[24]
The work of the pastor is not to simply implement programs and disseminate information for the purpose of Christian living, but he is to be first and foremost converted and is in the business of feeding the flock of God. Dedication to scriptural mandates and commands is of great importance, as the pastor must be devoted to the Word of God in all that he does. While ministerial success is to be desired in a biblical sense, success is not the driving incentive of a pastor. Longevity will be determined by patience and faith that God will bring the harvest.[25]
Study habits of a Pastor
Longevity of a pastor may also be influenced by the study habits of the minister himself. Seventy percent of pastors said that the only time they study the Word is when they are preparing their sermons.[26] This trend is disturbing, considering that the majority of pastors only study the Word to fulfill their pastoral duties. Studying the Word only for the sake of fulfilling ones obligations for employment is a demonstration of professionalism in the ministry. The study habits of a pastor need to be reflexive of his heart and motivation in the ministry.
George Barna, a California-based researcher, explains two patterns emerging from his research. "First, pastoral longevity seems to be tied to an active reading life. Those who have lasted the longest in ministry tend to read more than do their short-lived peers. Second, pastors who have been at one particular church for more than five years tend to read less."[27] The overwhelming desire of a minister of the Word should be to have his heart saturated with the Word. As Barna demonstrates, those pastors who are devoted to studying will tend to have longer lasting ministries. The pastor must not only prepare a sermon to be preached, but he also must prepare himself. Ministerial professionalism does not prepare a pastor to pour his entire life into the ministry. A pastor’s life is a preparation for his task, as the pastor is a man of one thing, which is to feed the flock of God.[28]
Biblical admonitions for endurance, perseverance, and fighting the good fight are what sound the alarm when the average tenure of a pastor is made known. Pastoral longevity has numerous different factors, and only a few of them have been examined here. The career-oriented and professional minister is one facet of the rapid turnover rate for the pastoral office. Turnover in the pastoral ministry is similar to turnover in the business world, which is illustrative of the necessity to remove the mentality of professionalism amongst the pastorate. With the evident need for change proclaimed, hopefully the solution of an earnest and single-minded ministry has been highlighted. If the pastor is most effective from the fifth to the fourteenth year, then pastors must devote themselves to a ministry of patience and endurance for the sake of the Name of the Lord our God.
[1]Scot McKnight, Burnout for Pastors (Beliefnet: August 13, 2007), accessed 30 November 2009, http://blog.beliefnet.com/jesuscreed/2007/08/burnout-for-pastors.html
Information on McKnight’s site was sited from: H B London, Jr., and Neil B Wiseman, Pastors at Greater Risk (Ventura CA: Regal Books, 2003)
[2]Booz & Co., CEOs Hold Steady in the Storm (written 5-12-09), accessed 30 November 2009, http://www.booz.com/global/home/what_we_think/reports_and_white_papers/article/45574145 The average tenure of the American CEO is seven years.
[3]James W. Bryant, Mac Brunson, The New Guidebook for Pastors (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2007), 59.
[4]C.H. Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1954), 35.
[5]Ibid., 28.
[6]Scot McKnight, Burnout for Pastors.
[8]Scot McKnight, Burnout for Pastors.
[9]Scot McKnight, Burnout for Pastors.
[10]Mark Driscoll, Death by Ministry, accessed 30 November 2009 http://adrianwarnock.com/2006/05/death-by-ministry-driscoll-explains.htm
[13]John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea To Pastors For Radical Ministry (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002), 3.
[15] John Angell James, An Earnest Ministry: The Want of the Times (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1993), 66.
[17]John MacArthur, The Book on Leadership (Nashville: Nelson Books, 2004), vii.
[18]Ibid., vii.
[19]John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, 3.
[20]Ibid., 2.
[22]John MacArthur, The Book on Leadership, 69.
[24]2 Corinthians 3:4-6 is the passage that presents the argument that it is God who gives men their competence in there ministerial tasks. And, 1 Corinthians 12:4-7 is the passage that presents the utilization of spiritual gift for the common good of the body.
[25]Charles Bridges. The Christian Ministry (London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1961), 72-77.
[27]George Barna, Half of All Americans Read Christian Books And One-Third Buy Them, January 27, 2003. Accessed 30 November 2009 http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/5-barna-update/114-half-of-all-americans-read-christian-books-and-one-third-buy-them
[28]D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1971), 166.
Bibliography
Booz & Co. CEOs Hold Steady in the Storm: written 5-12-09. Accessed 30 November 2009http://www.booz.com/global/home/what_we_think/reports_and_white_papers/article/45574
Barna, George. Half of All Americans Read Christian Books And One-Third Buy Them, January 27, 2003. Accessed 30 November 2009 http://www.barna.org/barna- update/article/5 barna-update/114-half-of-all-americans-read-christian-books-and-one- third-buy-them
Bridges, Charles. The Christian Ministry. London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1961.
Driscoll, Mark. Death by Ministry. Accessed 30 November 2009 http://adrianwarnock.com/2006/05/death-by-ministry-driscoll-explains.htm
Hartford Institute for Religious Research. Accessed 30 November 2009 http://hirr.hartsem.edu/index.html
James, John Angell . An Earnest Ministry: The Want of the Times. Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1993.
Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn. Preaching and Preachers. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1971.
2 comments:
Was this one to prove that you're a hot shot seminary graduate now Mister M.DIv.? Big deal. So you get to have the title, "Master!" Ha! Master of what? Divinity? I'll see your degree and raise you--Mike Gorski M.Univ. That's right, "Master of the Universe."
"By the power of greyskull...!!!"
Oh, and I actually did like this post. Conviction spread over me like gangrene when you described how we can see our study time as just preparation for teaching. For awhile now I've noticed that in my time in the word. My mind wanders off into thinking about how I might be able to teach something (especially in French) instead of letting God's truth pour into my soul, changing my heart, and preaching from THAT well. It's a hard habit to change.
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