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Proper Care and Feeding of Pastors
Posted by Guest Author in Church & Missions
Denizens of sbcImpact, I need your help.
For the last year and a half, I’ve served as the Intentional Interim pastor of a Southern Baptist congregation. During our time together, we’ve addressed some of the difficult issues that contributed to the departure of their previous pastor. They have now begun the search process that will culminate in the arrival of a new pastor. Consequently, my time as their intentional interim minister is drawing to a close.
But one last task remains before I leave: preparation for future leadership. This task involves preparing the congregation to minister properly to the one that they will be calling to serve as their shepherd. This last task is, without a doubt, my favorite part of the process. As an intentional interim pastor, I get to preach a sermon series that the next pastor will never get to preach. I will get to share with them the proper way in which a church should minister to the needs of their pastor.
Because I will be leaving shortly, the congregation understands that I am not saying these things out of self-interest. Thus when I thunder righteously about the (mis)treatment of the pastor’s family by the church, or the lack of adequate time off the church clock, I am advocating for the pastor who will be following me.
Examples of a few of the topics that I will include are the following:
- Explaining the strange world of ministerial salary packages
- The fishbowl life of the pastor’s family
- A pastor’s work week
- How to express disagreement with the pastor
Here’s where I need your help. If you had the opportunity to preach a series about how the church should minister to their pastor, what issues or concerns would you want such a series to include? Not to put too fine a point on it, but what are some of your personal pastoral pet peeves.
Or to ask it another way, if you now serve as a minister, what series do you wish had been preached at your current church before you arrived?
My overall theme of the series is to remind the church that God’s calling has sway not only over the minister, but also over the congregation. God calls not only the pastor to minister to the congregation, but just as importantly, for the congregation to minister to the pastor and to his family.
Church ministers, what say ye?
(Taran is a sbcIMPACT reader and occasional commenter. He blogs at cafespoon.blogspot.com.)
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1) It kinda goes w/ your last point “how to disagree”: if you don’t like something your pastor does, was offended by him, or didn’t understand something, then tell/ask him about it. It’s amazing how problems fester when we don’t communicate, but they often are quickly resolved when we do!
2) From Hebrews 13:17 — They need to know how to be a “joy” for their pastors. And I’m talking about simple things: invite them over for dinner, give ‘em a card of encouragement, maybe buy them a book or something… just something that lets the pastors know you care and want them involved in your life…
Those would be mine from my experiences.
Congregations should respect the right of the pastor to schedule his own time. For some reason church members feel they have a right to the pastor’s time and feel like they are best suited to set priorities, something along the lines of, “Well, what he OUGHT to be doing is…” This can be poison. Judas complained about the ointment that was spent on Jesus and said it could have been spent on the poor, but Jesus rebuked him. We need men willing to rebuke the same in today’s saints, even the most well-meaning.
I’m a firm believer that we should follow scriptures example in how we treat our pastors. So, I think the best route would be to take your topics:
* Explaining the strange world of ministerial salary packages
* The fishbowl life of the pastor’s family
* A pastor’s work week
* How to express disagreement with the pastor
And ask, “What does scripture say about each of these things?”
If you can answer those questions using scripture, you will be golden.
If you cannot answer those questions using scripture, maybe we should be asking why they are such a big part of “being a pastor”…
God Speed.
Lew
1. Writing a Job Description before the Giftedness, Skill set, and Aptitude of the NEW pastor is known. Many times it’s like trying to fit a round peg into a square hole.
2. Failing to take into consideration the Pastor’s service to other congregations when setting vacation policy.
3. Failing to see the obligation of taking care of the pastor’s healthcare and retirement contributions.
4. Unwillingness to pay a salary that is at least average among the church members.
5. Mission Trips are not Pastoral Vacation time. Neither are Revivals.
The pastor is not the church’s (or more so a church committee’s) “go-fer.” He is not there to run errands for the church, committees, deacons or church members.
I would also agree that if a church member has a problem with the pastor – talk to the pastor (not your Sunday School class, the prayer chain or the spit an whittle club at the coffee shop.
Sorry – don’t mean to sound whinny.
Grace,
Wes
As a layman, I look at the pastorate much like a single man views marriage. I’m sure it is different when you are in the position than it is when peering at it from the pew. However, there is one thing I have understood prior to marriage that has better established mine. It is looking beyond my wife and focusing on God. Like Karate, you look past the object in order to apply the force necessary to break the board. If I just look at my wife I want her to be submissive, clean house, cook and the rest of the stuff we men seem to expect; not all, but most.
My last few sermons and teachings in this church would be to establish a foundation of God’s attributes, His control and His conforming us to Christ. He is the genuine article and He should be the one high and lifted up. We must realize that the church also has to be able to distinguish between a sheep and a wolf. If the church is well established in who God really is and how He works and His proper worship, they will be able to submit to the truth and also respond to lies without teaching the how-to methods of doing so. This would be a mature church and salary, time and other things would fall in line better over the long run. When God’s people are focusing on the man they have begun to digress from the truth.
Just some thoughts from the pew. Good post.
I guess we don’t want to open the can of worms regarding the biblical basis for a church calling a pastor? Where do we see a church calling a pastor from outside the congregation rather than appointing men from within the congregation or receiving men sent by others (e.g. the Jerusalem Council, Paul’s and John’s appointees, II Timothy 2:2, etc.)?
Since this isn’t germane to the conversation, you can ignore this altogether. I just find it interesting that we have an institutionalized practice that has no precedent in the Word of God, yet we describe the Bible as our “sole rule of faith and practice.”
Rick,
I believe you are correct. One of the prerequisites now should be for the new pastor to prepare the church to change their paradigm in this area. They would approach this vital decision the right way in the future. It seems that a church would have had to been immersed in this knowledge and practice long before they found themselves looking for a pastor.
I like it when Rick goes to the scripture….! I was wondering when this might surface.
The pastor/overseer is only different in their gifting, not their responsibility to everyone else in the congregation… and visa versa.
-Chris
Having spent 18 years intentionally serving dysfunctional churches, my outlook may be a little skewed to most of you–at least I hope it is. But from that perspective, the first issue to me is for the congregation to be HONEST with the perspective pastor. At the first church I served, I asked what was the biggest problem they were facing. The answer they gave was the usual, “Getting people into church,” but it turned out, their biggest issue was really the lawsuit pending against them over a kid killed at VBS, followed closely by a conflict between the two main families in the church. My second church told me they wanted “just someone to help them beat the bushes for members,” but failed to mention that the tensions between factions in the church was so tangiable that I had to serve (officially) as moderator at the Deacon’s Meetings to keep them from coming to blows. All churches have problems; being honest about yours will guide you to the pastor God has prepared to address your problems. Of course, that knife cuts both ways: the candidate must be honest too. I know a church that went to hear a pastor preach at his current church, and called him, only to eventually discover (when problems arose) that his “home” church had fired him a month or two before they went to hear him preach, and was just trying to get him off the church field when they let him preach that Sunday for the committee. The pastor, the church, and the DOM of their association withheld that information from the Pulpit Committee. From either side. . . do I need to list verses?
Second for me is a variation of your #4, how to express disagreement. I would say to assure the congregation that sooner or later, there WILL be disagreement/dissatisfaction. The relationship between pastor and congregation works almost exactly like a marriage: there will be a honeymoon period in which each thinks the other is perfect. But then little problems will start appearing. They will grow and grow, until a crisis comes. In a marriage, that is the couple whose relationship blows up after (usually) 5 to 7 years, at which time, they either seperate or deal with a few superficial issues and muddle along anyway. If they stay together, things get better for a little while, but eventually, problems start mounting again, and eventually (usually after 12 to 18 years), there comes a second major crisis of the relationship. At this point, band-aides no longer work, and either they divorce bitterly OR deal with the real issues between them. That is painful, time-consuming, and costly (not so much in money as in energy), but if you work through it, you can break through to a whole ‘nother level of love. I don’t know what the current average tenure in a SB church is; a few years ago, it was 18 months, then it went all the way up to 24. But I cannot help but wonder if taking the easy way out of a pastoral relationship (wither the church pressuring the pastor to leave or outright firing, OR the pastor seeking greener pastures elsewhere) is related to the abysymally high divorce rate in our churches. Couples see the church taking the easy way out of relationships that have become painful, so why shouldn’t they do the same? If our churches (and pastors) took the perspective that, “We’re going to make the relationship work,” might that affect couples facing relationship problems?
Beyond these, I afirm your other priorities.
John
John, let me say first of all, “Wow.” Just “Wow.” You covered a lot of ground and probably account for the vast bulk of church/pastor issues. Excellent.
Chris, I think this relates, tangentially anyway, to the distinct way we handle issues locally vs. internationally. We see no problem commissioning a missionary couple to go serve on a particular field. In fact, the IMB likes to be involved in helping folks choose an area based on a variety of criteria (without getting into a long discussion on the validity of those criteria, wink, wink). Then we send them. Often help is recruited and sent as well. I cannot think of a single instance where a foreign congregation got together, had a series of candidate missionaries, and then called the mission pastor they wanted to serve. At the same time, I know many, many missionaries who appointed men to local congregations and areas of service without an official call from the church or mission they were sent to.
How well do we think that approach would fly here at home?
About the only thing I’ve seen is where healthy churches work very hard to establish a succession plan to transition from one long-time pastor to a new one. I’m sure we can all think of examples where this has worked well. And even when it doesn’t run seamlessly (like Tullian Tchividjian at Coral Ridge in the wake of D. James Kennedy), it still seems to be preferred to the Beauty Contest alternative of calling a pastor.
I am just now getting to the comments, so I thank each of you for your gracious responses.
@Mike, very helpful thoughts, thank you for sharing them. I find your reading of Hebrews helpful and had not considered it in the context of the pastor before.
@Rick(1st comment) Agreed. I think that this would generally fit under a proper understanding of the duties and responsibilities of the pastor. He’s there to meet needs, not whims.
@Lew Absolutely. Scripture would be a prerequisite for any topic. But I am also concerned with praxis. Scripture commands us to respect and to pray for our leaders, what I would like to do is put some flesh on these commands and give concrete examples. But I did not make that explicit in my post, so you offer a very important reminder.
@Jim, You offer a series of specific, excellent points, several of which I have not considered. But would you mind explaining #2? Are you talking about service to other congregations in terms of revivals?
@WesinTex, What do you mean by errands? Do you mean doing work that should more appropriately fall under the responsibility of a committee?
@Bruce (1st comment), I think that if a church has a proper understanding of who God is, and a proper understanding of the role of the pastor, then I wouldn’t need to preach any other messages. I agree completely with your observation.
@Rick (2nd comment), Bruce(2nd comment), and Chris, I thank you for your always thoughtful remarks. We have had an earlier verse of this
hymnconversation in a previous post of mine (relating to the process of running a Pastor Search Committee). I see that (shockingly!) we didn’t convince one another of our respective positions. As Rick anticipates, I am uninterested in returning to that conversation.But I would say that as written, this post does not specify that the pastor must come from another place of ministry. I think that this post would equally apply to home grown leadership. Even if the next pastor were to come from within the congregation, his predecessor could share with the church advice about how we can best honor the one God has called to lead us. Or to ask it of you in a more palatable way, how does YOUR church train the congregation to honor the next (home grown) pastor. Thanks!
@John, thank you for your hard earned wisdom (born of experience). I think you touch upon a key point which is to focus on the relationship between the pastor and the church and how it is similar to other relationships. I am certain to steal both your ideas and illustrations!
Another layman’s perspective:
Tell them what you are going to tell the new pastor about them.
Tell them not to expect too much.
Tell them to take responsibility for the church and not to try to dump it on the new pastor.
My opinions, possibly worth about what they cost. Best wishes in your endeavor. May God bless you and the church.
In response to your question…..
@Jim, You offer a series of specific, excellent points, several of which I have not considered. But would you mind explaining #2? Are you talking about service to other congregations in terms of revivals?
I’m talking about combined length of service in churches. For example, if a church has a vacation policy that allows only 2 weeks of vacation until the pastor has been there 3 years then that penalizes the pastor who has served other churches for a total of 15 years before he comes to the church.
Is it fair to call a pastor who currently has four weeks vacation in his present church and then ask him to revert back to two weeks vacation until he has earned more?
If we believe God is in the Call Process then we should not penalize the man God leads us to in this area.
Taran,… well put…
….and yes there is still is that thorny question of Pastor swapping that goes on in the Baptist tradition as mentioned by Rick. Since it is clear that most SBC seminaries teach that it is the norm for the church to look outside to find another “one”(Pastor)I’m sure these situations will continue to be numerous.
For me personally, I am finding it difficult to engage in answering the questions put forth (it would have been easier 15 years ago),… but I will give it a shot anyway. It’s not because I don’t understand the tradition and history of SBC congregations that have been taught to think this way (I think I do understand, being raised all my early years of life in those churches) …but, it’s more difficult to answer the questions because the scriptures are so foreign to the concept that centers or puts focus on the Pastor,.. instead of Christ.
You said……
“Here’s where I need your help. If you had the opportunity to preach a series about how the church should minister to their pastor, what issues or concerns would you want such a series to include? Not to put too fine a point on it, but what are some of your personal pastoral pet peeves.
Or to ask it another way, if you now serve as a minister, what series do you wish had been preached at your current church before you arrived?”
The series I would preach would be: (whether coming or going)
1. Our Faith – Both Yours and Mine
Romans 1:8-12 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. (9) For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, (10) always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. (11) For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; (12) that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine.
2. A Faith Tested – Realizing the Truth
2 Corinthians 13:5-8 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you–unless indeed you fail the test? (6) But I trust that you will realize that we ourselves do not fail the test. (7) Now we pray to God that you do no wrong; not that we ourselves may appear approved, but that you may do what is right, even though we may appear unapproved. (8) For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth.
3. Fellowship With One Another – Don’t Make God a Liar
1 John 1:5-10 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. (6) If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; (7) but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. (8) If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. (9) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (10) If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
4. Know Why You Are a Member
Ephesians 4:17-25 So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, (18) being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; (19) and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. (20) But you did not learn Christ in this way, (21) if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, (22) that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, (23) and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, (24) and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. (25) Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another.
If these messages were to be preached while I was leaving or before I came,…the congregation would at least have heard the truth concerning the relationship of how the members are gifted to edify one another as they live out and maintain the unity of the Spirit.
Blessings,
Chris
@JND Thank you for taking the time to comment.
@Jim I understand completely. Good points and one that I will share.
Some of this material I will cover not in a sermon, but with the appropriate committees (e.g. the Search Committee and the Personnel Committee).
I wish more pastors discipled their people on how and what to do when calling a pastor. I also wish the SBC did more in this area in order to prevent the wolves who go through Seminary to get a paying job that they milk the rest of their lives. The sheep of the normal SBC church are ignorant to the expectiations and requirements necessary of the pastor. They basically do not know what to look for and do not know what is required in a pastor. They, having itching ears, call the political CEO who makes them feel good. It seems we are following scripture in that direction more than we should be in the biblical direction of replacing a pastor.
Taran,
I think the “go-fer” would be a good example of what I’m talking about. I don’t know of many pastors who we actually mind doing things for the members of the church. I’ve mowed lawns for members, made runs to the drug store, baby sat and driven over to help people up off the floor and never thought twice about it. Its when people get the idea that since the pastor has all this time on his hands, let him run to town to get the light bulb.
Wes
Chris,
I would start #4 earlier in the chapter:
11And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Rick,
Good point… but that may take about six-eight weeks to cover on its own
Blessings,
Chris
Taran, are you going to make these available by MP3?
Chris,
Taran,
Feel free. Just remember, before you begin the sermon, to raise both hands at about a 45 degree angle, with the first two fingers on each hand extended, and briong the fingers down. Those will serve as quotation marks to bracket all you say.
LOL
John
I think more pastors prepare their churches for transition than you think.
When we returned from overseas missions, we worked with troubled churches for several years in long term interims. Our purpose was to bring the church to a point of revival and install a new pastor.
The very first agreement I had with each church was that we would operate business in a particular way using an agenda which would be published at least two weeks before the business meeting. Nothing would be acted on which was not on the agenda. Each item to be discussed was required to be written out and published thereby not allowing anything to be voted upon which everyone was not aware of.
When I returned to the pastorate, we included that in the constitution and by-laws of the church. Today, those few items we vote on, are usually done with a yes or no referendum. We have what I call “Town Hall Meetings” from time to time to discuss matters of importance and concern to the body. These are informal and almost anything can be discussed as long as it appears to edify the body.
Those items which the leadership deems important to pursue, investigated and if necessary put to a vote. Both sides of the issue are published and folks have a couple of weeks to prayerfully discuss and consider them. Then, we vote via referendum. We adopt budgets, elect officers, build buildings, etc through this process.
Every pastor who has followed me since I’ve been doing this has come to me and thanked me for instituting those procedures.
I’m convinced that more time and money is wasted, and more feelings hurt, and more division created through monthly business meetings than any single thing the local fellowship does.
Hope to keep up with your discussion on this topic. I’m involved in six hours per day VBS/Summer Camp. Today is Wednesday, and both the workers and horses are tired because the heat has been oppressive in the arena. Tomorrow we start some trail rides, maybe that will be a little easier.
That is some good advice …thanks Mike R.
Blessings,
Chris
@Chris, Thank you for these texts. As you correctly point out, this would be excellent for any time of transition, either arriving or departing. Thank you also for your gentle spirit. I have long admired the way you interact on this blog, especially concerning those with whom you disagree.
@Bruce, I agree completely with your concerns and they are exactly the sorts of things that I am attempting to address.
@Rick, the sermons will not be recorded. Shortly after I arrived, the church made the decision not to inflict my sermons upon future generations. Actually, they’ve never recorded messages. What I might do, for those interested, is post an outline on my own blog and then a note on this thread to direct others there.
@John,
@Mike, Clearly, I want to be like you when I grow up. My goal is to leave the congregation a healthier family than when I found it. Thank you for serving God and affecting the lives of so many through your work.
I think you should include that the congregation should be willing to learn from the new pastor and be willing to do the work of ministry in their community. Ephesians 4:12 says, “to prepare God’s people for works of service” which I think is the most important job that the pastor has in his church. (And,imho, the one that I think is most absent in today’s church life.)
A problem each for pastor and church.
For the pastor: You get what you get when you accept the church. Future assurances mean nothing. Be specifice and rigorous and plain-spoken.
For the church: Pay your pastor according to what you all get paid. You don’t want to pay the preacher 80K when your average income is 40K, nor do you want to pay him 20K when you all get paid 60K. Think about it.
GaBaptist
Or, better yet….be like the departing preacher who left the new preacher 3 envelopes in the pastor’s study. A note beside them said, “open each one each year you have a problem!” 1st yr, new pastor opened first. It said, “Blame it on the music minister!” He did…no problem until next year. 2nd yr, opened second envelope. “Blame it on the chairman of the deacons.” He did and no problem for a year. 3rd yr, opened last envelope….It read, “Make out 3 new letters and envelopes.” Nuff said.
GaBaptist, Agreed on all counts. The point I will emphasize–with both church and search committee–is to be absolutely clear on the issue of expectations. A primary cause of conflict is when there are unstated expectations (on either side) that are subsequently not met.
When Judas was replaced, the search committee consisted of the remaining disciples (or the 120 disciples – Acts 1:15). They chose out two (2) to be considered and allowed the providence of God to make the final selection, as I understand it. Most search committees are made up of those selected from among the influential people of the church much like they did with the 12 tribes going to search out the Promise Land.
Taran said:
“A primary cause of conflict is when there are unstated expectations (on either side) that are subsequently not met.”
I read a book by Aubrey Malphurs a few years ago entitled Values-Driven Leadership: Discovering and Developing Your Core Values for Ministry. In it he makes the helpful suggestion that pastor-search committees and potential pastors both make out a relatively thorough, well-thought-out list of core values, before entering into dialogue with each other. Then, it will be easier to determine at what point these core values clash with each other, potentially preventing a painful parting of ways later down the road. If I remember correctly, Malphurs argues, there doesn’t have to a perfect match, but at least this will help you identify the issues that need to be addressed up front. Almost always, these underlying issues that are not addressed come back to bite you a few years down the road, if not sooner.