For Ministers about to Start...or about to Give Up

Travis Collins

• Publisher: TCP Books
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9780827210967
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

"From Moses and the Israelites to Paul and the Corinthian Christians to all who have served the church since then, this thing called spiritual leadership has been thorny." In For Ministers about to Start... or About to Give Up, Travis Collins lays bare the realities of church leadership while affirming the call to ministry. Stories of his many years of experience as a senior minister, a missionary, and a church consultant are laced with practical tips on treating burnout, wrestling with divisive matters, and recapturing the hope, the faith, and the joy in the call to vocational ministry.

1

What You Do Is Hard

“I’ve worked in state government, a Fortune 500 company, and even a political campaign. The worst experience I’ve ever had at a job was working full-time in ministry.”

—JOHN, A FORMER EXECUTIVE PASTOR¹

Now that we’re rolling, let me state the obvious but necessary: What you do is hard—really hard.

In the February 25, 2014, issue of Forbes online (at Forbes.com), Rob Asghar ranked the “10 Hardest Leadership Roles.” Coming in at number five was “Pastor, Rabbi, Mullah or Other Holy Leader.”² What you do is hard. It is an honor. It can certainly be thrilling at times. And we often see the gift of God’s mercy in the work. But it is still hard. When I talk about this with ministers, I hear shocking stories of abuse: from slashed tires to physical threats made to children and spouses. The job has struggles and hurts that many jobs do not. It can be so tough that theologian Stanley Hauerwas has declared, “God is a nasty employer.”³ Of course it’s true that lots of other vocations are hard as well, so I don’t want to over-dramatize what ministers face. This is not a whine fest. Nevertheless, the fact that many vocations are difficult does not negate the often painful truth: What you do is hard.

Let’s face it: (1) there is nothing quite as ugly as Christians acting badly; (2) no hurt hurts quite like church hurt; and (3) when you combine unhealthy, unhappy people with the accommodating (“we have to be nice even to the mean folks”) environment of church, things can go sideways quickly. This is why a lot of the folks who start out optimistically in ministry will spend most of their vocational lives selling shoes, real estate, or retirement plans. Many will be terminated by their congregations because they either didn’t “produce” or they couldn’t do important things like maintain sexual purity. Many ministers will grow so tired of the congregational bickering over trivial things that they will walk away shaking their heads incredulously. Many will leave their ministry posts with nowhere to go because to remain would jeopardize the well-being of their families. J. R. Woodward reported that “Bobby Clinton and his team, after studying over a thousand biblical, historical and contemporary leaders’ lives, discovered that 70 percent of those who begin their spiritual journey well end poorly.”⁴

Lots of newly called ministers decide at the outset to serve in some ministry role other than on the staff of an existing church. They’ve heard too many bad stories from those who’ve been there.

What you do is hard.

New studies seem to come out monthly noting the crisis of hurt and burnout among vocational ministers. Some data are communicating things such as: “The majority of American ministers are suffering from burnout”; “Fifty percent of pastors surveyed are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living”; and, “Eighty percent of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.”⁵

People are describing the current situation with words like epic proportions, scourge, and plague. We clearly have a big problem. Bill Wilson, President of the Center for Healthy Churches, called it a “pandemic.” I’m talking about a plague of pastors hurting so deeply that they are leaving vocational ministry, thinking about leaving, or choosing to remain in vocational ministry with such an albatross of discouragement around their necks that they are not reaching their leadership potential.

I found this “pastor burnout joke” on the website www.pastorburnout.com:

Jesus made a quick return to earth for a visit. He came upon a lame man, had compassion on him, and healed his leg.

Further down the road, our Lord came upon a blind man, had compassion on him, and healed him.

A little further down the road, Jesus came upon a man sitting on the curb sobbing his heart out. Jesus asked him what was wrong. The man cried out in agony, “I’m a pastor!” Jesus sat down beside him, put his arm around him…and cried too.

A lot of pastors aren’t laughing at that joke.

Large numbers of pastors are drinking too much and looking for love in all the wrong places. Words like coping and surviving have replaced words like visioning and growing. Dreams of Kingdom expansion are giving way to dreams of early retirement. I’m not whining, mind you. It ain’t whining if it’s true.

I can’t get over these statistics about our fellow ministers⁶:

• 28 percent of ministers say they have at one time been forcefully terminated.
• 33 percent say that being in ministry is an outright hazard to their family.
• 75 percent report severe stress causing anguish, worry, bewilderment, anger, depression, fear, and alienation at some point in their careers.
• Doctors, lawyers, and clergy have the most problems with drug abuse, alcoholism, and suicide.
• Only 1 out of 10 local church ministers will retire from that role.

The research is both alarming and consistent.

Pastors’ waistlines and blood pressures exceed the average citizen’s. Certainly, some of that comes from a surprising shortage of self-discipline and a shameful lack of self-care. We’ve got to own that, and we’ll talk about that later. But some of our health problems are undoubtedly a result of the stress of the job. So is the fact that depression is becoming a widespread curse of vocational ministry, and get this: the life expectancy of ministers is falling.⁷

We pastor-types have always had our problems. A desire to please everybody—a common trait among ministers—never has served us well. Projection onto the pastor of congregants’ anger at parents or God or bad bosses also has forever been an occupational hazard. Moral failures of ministers might get more press in recent years, but they aren’t new. And bullies who can’t get away with intimidation at work have always found the church to be an easy place to push people around. Those issues aren’t of recent origin.

Why So Hard?

I’m sure that being a spiritual leader has never been easy. But something’s different nowadays. Sheri Ferguson noted that “radical changes in our society over the past 50 years have fundamentally redefined the very nature of what it means to be in ministry.”⁸ Why does life seem harder for ministers now? Here are some suggested reasons.

A Matter of Trust

There was a day when trust was the minister’s to lose. Now it is his or hers to gain. The growing distrust of all leaders⁹ makes it tough even on clergy. The proverbial pedestal might have been embarrassing and uncomfortable for ministers in the past, but it gave us a platform that we no longer have.

Incivility

Incivility is also growing in our culture, and it’s infecting churches. Conflict is often cited as the number one killer of ministers’ passion. Churches have always been mixed blessings to those who labor in them. Just read the New Testament; some of those churches were beyond dysfunctional. Nevertheless, Peter L. Steinke writes a lot about congregational conflict, and he declared, “Not only are the number of incidences rising, but also the number of people who are stubborn, deceptive, and mean.”¹⁰ Nastiness is rather ubiquitous. It’s so bad across the pond that our British brethren are forming a ministers’ union for protection against church bullies!¹¹

Respect under Siege

There is a universal lack of respect for authority and expertise. Physicians, for example, are being chastised and challenged by their WebMD-educated patients. Likewise, people who have a theological education and who make church leadership decisions every day are challenged on their leadership like never before by people in their congregations. Being the pastor of so many people who know best how to run the church can be exhausting!

Loyalty Decline

Institutional loyalty hasn’t been popular since Nixon was President. Meaning that if your church is the Cathedral of Cool or the First Church of Perpetual Hipness, then you’re in good shape. Until, that is, the Community Church of the Latest Happenin’ moves down the street from you. Then those who found it easy to switch to your church will find it equally easy to switch from your church.

Stunted Growth

It’s hard to make changes without the momentum that comes from growth, and church growth is rare in North America.¹² People who are otherwise resistant to new things often look around at lots of new people and are awakened to the inevitability of doing things differently.

The Youth Deficit

The growing scarcity of young adults in so many congregations makes it more difficult to make changes, and the inability to make changes makes it more difficult to reach young adults. It’s another catch-22. We’ve got to have young adults to attract young adults, and we are not likely to reach young adults without intentional new approaches.

Secularization

The culture in North America (in fact, in much of the Northern Hemisphere) is becoming increasingly non-Christian,¹³ so attempting to grow a church is swimming against the tide. When the church isn’t growing, fingers get pointed at the ministers. In addition, when a pastor stands up before an assembly that only half fills the sanctuary, he or she is likely to deliver a half-assembly kind of sermon! Most of us are energized by the electricity that comes from a number of God’s people getting together to worship and hear His word preached. When the room is not electric, the preacher is usually not electric either…which makes it less likely that people will come back to hear him or her…which makes it less likely that the preacher will preach with energy…which becomes a vicious cycle.

Elusive Relevancy

The culture is changing so rapidly that finding relevant means of communicating the unchanging story is like trying to hit a moving target. For example, if your church is just now fighting over starting a contemporary service, it’s probably too late to start one. Meaningful forms of worship, as well as outreach efforts like how to “market” your church, are hard to figure out with people’s routines and even worldviews changing so quickly.

The Missing Alarm

Nobody talks about sin and hell anymore!¹⁴ It is not in vogue to mention “sin” these days. “Frailties,” “foibles,” and “faults” are far more fashionable. And how dare a minister suggest that some people might actually spend eternity in a hopeless, Godless existence. I’m not advocating fear-based leadership, but it’s significant that the congregation has lost its sense of urgency and that the role of the minister has lost some of its weight.

With this urgency gone, it has been replaced in many churches with the atmosphere of a family-friendly club. Church has commonly become a place for fun and fulfillment, group therapy, and avenues to get involved in care for our planet. We look a lot like a really good, nonthreatening, nonoffensive gathering for dogooders. But so do lots of organizations, like your local Community Service Club, Rotary, the Sierra Club, and Girl Scouts. So, given the fact that there is not all that much difference between church and other nice organizations, and the fact that other organizations meet at more convenient times and don’t ask for 10 percent of our income, why should people go to church?

In fact, it’s telling that the “Atheist Churches” have become something of a phenomenon! Two British comedians were just looking for a laugh when they started the “Atheist Church,” but it caught on. There is good music, a motivational message, an emphasis on righting society’s wrongs, and opportunities to improve their communities. “The only thing missing,” said a November 10, 2013, USA Today article, “is God.”

I’m not suggesting we ought to try to “scare the Hell out of people.” I’m just saying that the dispensing of pabulum is not serving the church well. After all, folks can go to Atheist Church for that.

The Search for Predictability

People are so frightened by the unnerving changes going on around them that ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Editor’s Foreword
• The Leadership Dance
• 1 What You Do Is Hard
• 2 There and Back
• 3 Keep Watch “Keep watch over yourselves…”
• 4 All the Flock “…and all the flock…”
• 5 The Call “…of which the Holy Spirit has made you…”
• 6 Overseers with Authority “…the Holy Spirit has made you overseers;”
• 7 Shepherds vs. Hired Hands “Shepherd the Church of God…”
• 8 The Church of God “…the Church of God which He bought with His blood.”
• Notes
• Bibliography