Joanie and I are enjoying the days with our new grandson and his parents. It has given me a few moments to pause and reflect. I just read my friend Lloyd Moritz's blog and it has prompted me to write this one. His facts and figures about what is happening to ministers are disturbing, to say the least:Within 5 years of graduating from Bible College or Seminary 80% have left the ministry.
The average tenure of a pastor in a church today is only 3 years.
The average tenure of a pastor's ministry career is only 14 years.
Two thoughts strike me about these disturbing figures. First, as someone preparing to teach seminary students who are either about to enter the ministry or are already in ministry and seeking more knowledge, what do I need to do to combat these alarming statistics? What are the implications for teaching and preparing candidates for ministry?
Second, what is wrong with our churches that they have this kind of effect on ministers? I realize their is a corollary to this - what is wrong with our ministers that they are leaving in such huge numbers? I don't doubt that there are numerous candidates for pastoring that are seeking pastoral ministry for all the wrong reasons. I don't doubt that there are ministers out there that make a mess out of their situations and leave the ministry or the church because they have done the wrong things in the wrong way. I'm sure I can count myself among those who have done the wrong things and gotten himself into trouble.
However, I have had my ministry shortened at two congregations by the actions of men and women who should never have been given the power to make life miserable for the pastor. At one church, the culprits were three leading laypersons whose personal lives were a mess and whose actions were immoral. Yet, they were trusted and the pastor was "the hired hand". One of them went on to create the same havoc in another congregation before the leaders stopped him by supporting the pastor and creating church discipline. One of them left the church after his moral failure came to light. The other one stays at the church and continues to make life miserable for both pastors and laypersons alike. I should note that the other culprit at this church was a fellow minster and staff person. He was believed and affirmed while I was chastised and condemned. He became the pastor, lasted 18 months, had a moral failure, destroyed his family, and left the ministry. Obviously there was no spirit of discernment that undergirded that church.
The second congregation decided to listen to a faction of people led by two men who have no moral or ethical character. They spread lies and rumors; they made untrue and slanderous statements about my wife; they gathered around them spiritually immature believers who had this thing or that against me (though they would never talk to me about it) and made huge claims of power and support that they never had. I left because God called me to go into this PhD program, but I could not have stayed very much longer under the kind of attack these folks put me and my family under. Where are those two "leaders" now? They have left the church. One a layperson who now fancies himself a minister (hmmm) and the other, again, a staff person. The staff person has shown his colors by becoming a Baptist and joining the staff of a local congregation whose doctrine and polity are directly opposite the Church of God. Folks, something is wrong with our churches when the pastor is the object of scorn and distrust and church "leaders" are given more power than the witness and testimony of their lives deserve. If we keep doing this, the numbers at the top of this blog report will only get worse.
