As many as four in ten pastors will be forced to leave a church — either by firing or pressured resignation — at least once during their ministry careers, according to researchers.<\/p>\n
But experts in pastoral ministry say many forced terminations can be prevented by wise leadership, and very few terminations disqualify a pastor from future ministry.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes the best pastors are still going to be in bad situations, and they have to know how to handle it when it comes and still walk with the Lord,\u201d Hershael York, a preaching professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and pastor of Buck Run Baptist Church in Frankfort, Ky., told Baptist Press. \u201cThe main thing a guy has to realize is that even when we go through this, it just cannot affect our faith and trust in Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
Preventing terminations<\/p>\n
Between 23 and 41 percent of pastors experience \u201cforced termination\u201d at least once, according to an article published last year in the Journal of Religion and Health. Some 452 Southern Baptist pastors and staff members were forcibly terminated in 2012, according to a forced terminations report compiled by state Baptist convention workers who deal with church in conflict.<\/p>\n
The most common causes of forced termination among Southern Baptists are \u201ccontrol issues,\u201d \u201cpastor\u2019s leadership style\u201d and \u201cpoor people skills on the part of the pastor,\u201d according to the forced terminations report. Among the top 15 causes of forced terminations, only two are related to sin by the pastor — \u201cethical misconduct\u201d at number 8 and \u201csexual misconduct\u201d at number 10.<\/p>\n
The \u201cmain cause\u201d of terminations \u201cis almost always personality conflict,\u201d York said. Church members \u201cbuy on emotion and justify with facts. If a pastor does something that emotionally ticks someone off, what they\u2019ll often do is start looking for a justification of why they don\u2019t like that guy. It may be something fairly trivial and they know that, and so they can\u2019t say the trivial thing that upsets them. Then they\u2019ll look for the thing they can use\u201d to force the pastor out.<\/p>\n
Developing good people skills is a key facet of establishing a pastor\u2019s ministry and guarding against forced termination, York said, noting that ministers must \u201cthink on the perceptual level\u201d and determine how they can speak the truth without being \u201cunnecessarily offensive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the most self-defeating statements a pastor can make are possessive references like \u201cmy church\u201d and \u201cmy pulpit,\u201d York said. He also cautioned against appearing arrogant and advised pastors to express their love for the church frequently.<\/p>\n
\u201cA pastor really needs to tell his church he\u2019s grateful to be there, he\u2019s thankful to be their pastor, he loves them,\u201d York said. \u201cIt\u2019s just hard for people to dislike somebody who\u2019s always being grateful and expressing his affection for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Social media and text messages make it easier than ever to stay in touch with church members and express affection, York said, though he cautioned pastors to use social media appropriately.<\/p>\n
When conflict comes<\/p>\n
Even when a pastor has good people skills, occasions may arise when a faction in the church pressures him to resign. In such instances, Jeff Iorg urged the pastor to seek outside help and pursue dialogue rather than conflict.<\/p>\n
Baptist associations, state conventions and independent mediation ministries all offer assistance to pastors and congregations experiencing conflict, Iorg, president of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, told BP. He added that directors of missions and neighboring pastors can be valuable in helping to resolve conflict.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes it\u2019s hard for pastors to admit that they\u2019re wrong,\u201d that \u201cthey need to adjust\u201d or that \u201cchurch members are perhaps right\u201d in their perception of problems, Iorg said. \u201cAn outsider can help\u201d pastors see their mistakes and adjust.<\/p>\n
Iorg acknowledged \u201cthere are people who are so entrenched in their opposition or so angry or so bitter or so difficult that [outside help] won\u2019t solve the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Confrontational meetings and votes are almost never the best forum in which to settle disputes between a congregation and pastor, Iorg said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPastors — unless there\u2019s a clear doctrinal or moral issue in play — don\u2019t need to force division into a church, if at all possible,\u201d he said. \u201cSo they need to be as patient as possible to bring about a solution that doesn\u2019t involve that kind of public confrontation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roger S. Oldham, vice president for convention communications and relations with the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, said a 1986 article in The Quarterly Review, a publication formerly produced by the Baptist Sunday School Board (now LifeWay Christian Resources) proved helpful to him many times in counseling pastors facing pressure to resign. The article advised pastors not to be intimidated into a resignation at the first signs of conflict with individual church members.<\/p>\n
\u201cDifferences of opinion about vision and leadership within a local church are inevitable,\u201d Oldham, a longtime pastor before assuming his current role at the EC, told BP in written comments. \u201cThough powerful personalities can make it seem the easier way out, uprooting one\u2019s family, with all the upheaval that entails, is seldom the best way to deal with those differences.\u201d<\/p>\n
The article, titled \u201cForced Termination?\u201d and written by Howard V. Pendley III, summarized common arguments made by church members seeking a pastor\u2019s resignation — including the \u201cit\u2019s better for your family\u201d argument — and showed how those arguments are often inaccurate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is seldom \u2018better\u2019 for one\u2019s family to abruptly sever their friendship networks, move to a new location and face economic uncertainty merely because a few members may be dissatisfied with the pastor\u2019s vision for the church,\u201d Oldham said. Church members who use this line of reasoning \u201coften show their own lack of support within the congregation and hope the pastor will meekly acquiesce to their wishes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Other arguments discussed in the article include:<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cA large number of the members have expressed dissatisfaction with your ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is the supposedly dissatisfied group \u201ccomposed essentially of a fringe group of perennial malcontents; or does it represent the most highly respected, mainstream leadership of the church?\u201d Pendley wrote. \u201cIf it is the former, the pastor may be intimidated into resigning; but so long as he maintains the support of the latter group, it\u2019s not going to be easy to terminate him forcibly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cPlease don\u2019t force us to take this to the church. If you do, there will be a terrible church fight, and the congregation will probably split.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pendley noted in response, \u201cChurches do split; sometimes it\u2019s better for everyone concerned if they do. But a church rarely splits over a dispute concerning its pastor. Unless the minister leaves, taking with him a substantial number of the church members, it\u2019s not likely that the church will split. When the smoke clears, however the vote comes out, the composition of the church will usually be almost exactly what it was before the vote was taken.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cPastor, everyone knows that it\u2019s easier to find a job when you\u2019ve got a job. We won\u2019t be unreasonable. We\u2019ll give you up to thirty days (or ninety days, or six months) to relocate. Your next church doesn\u2019t even have to know about all this trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n
While it is true that finding a job is easier when a person has a job, \u201cit\u2019s unrealistic to believe that the pastor\u2019s prospective new church won\u2019t have investigated extensively enough to know at least something about the circumstances under which he left his former church,\u201d Pendley wrote.<\/p>\n
Pendley also presented do\u2019s and don\u2019ts for pastors under fire, including:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Don\u2019t panic. \u201cYou almost never have to make an instantaneous decision. Don\u2019t let your critics force you to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Don\u2019t be intimidated.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Don\u2019t let the matter come to the church for a vote unless you\u2019re reasonably sure you will be sustained.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Do conduct a discreet poll of as many of the significant congregational leaders as you can identify.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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