On two consecutive days this week I learned of the termination of church staff members. These were in unrelated situations having in common only that a church staff member went to church on Sunday and Monday with a job and left without one. The firings were unexpected, sudden, and final. Such things always trouble me and since I knew both individuals, I was saddened by the situations.
Most of us can be forgiven if we entered the Christian ministry with a view of the road ahead that was excessively idealistic and that lacked a sufficient measure of sober realism. Serving Southern Baptist churches is a hard road where there will likely be lower pay, higher expectations, and less security than may other occupations and employers.
LifeWay has done a good bit of research on the subject and there is an abundance of material available the most salient of which is a 2014 series on how to avoid the top five reasons for pastoral terminations. You can start at the first one and follow links to the other four. The articles are based on a 2006 survey and the five reasons are:
- The church was already in conflict.
- The pastor’s leadership style was too strong.
- The pastor has poor people skills.
- The church is resistant to change.
- Control issues: who runs the church?
While I wouldn’t argue against these, LifeWay has data while I have anecdotes, it looks to me like these are framed so as to be in the pastor’s favor, ‘Yeah, I got fired but it was mostly the church’s fault.’ The reasons may be less profound. The poor work habits, the lack of ministerial proficiencies, and the low level of social skills of some ministers astonishes me.
The old list of pastor pitfalls, I’ve heard it preached and spoken since my own ordination decades ago, includes just three areas from which failure comes: women, money, and laziness. If the pastor wants to insulate himself against failure then he should avoid any problems with women, should not steal or be less than completely circumspect in regard to his own and the church’s finances, and he should plan to work hard and fulfill his responsibilities.
I admit to a change in my view of forced terminations over these years. Early on, I’d view churches as being too hard on pastors. I would hear DOMs speak of a termination as the pastor’s fault and such would make me angry. Now, regrettably, I view many pastors as not doing the things necessary to fufill their job tasks. No need to spiritualize it farther than that in most cases.
The two cases mentioned above, apparently, show the two sides. In one case the pastor was incapable or unwilling to do what was expected of him. In the other, the pastor did a creditable job, was diligent about the work, had adequate skills, but the church wasn’t satisfied.
It’s a tough road for SBC clergy who plan to serve churches. Some days, it makes me long for the hierarchical Methodist system.
Regardless, being terminated is a traumatic event. My prayers for the both of them.
William, you started off by saying these two were church staff, but by the end of the letter it seems you mean they were pastors. It is one thing to fire a church staff member abruptly. Firing a pastor that way often means trouble, especially for the church. Hearing a sermon from a man on Sunday, and then receiving an email Monday that the deacon board fired him tends to cause hurt feelings!
They were non-senior pastors. No argument from me that staff suffers more and more quickly than the main pastor.
The two problematic words for me are “unexpected” and “sudden.” I can understand a “flash firing” if the church learns of serious misconduct by the employee that requires an immediate response. But if the termination was based on poor job performance or a lack of social skills, there should have been some process in place for the staff member to improve, or at least a transition plan so he could try to find other work without unnecessary hardship on him and his family.
One of the occupational hazards of church ministry is that a pastor or ministerial staff member has so many facets of his life tied into his job at the church. Not only is the church his source of income, it may also provide his home (if he lives in a parsonage), his insurance, his church family, and his circle of friends. Many pastors come to their job at the church without any previous ties to the area. Finding new work usually means another significant move for the family. Churches need to take this into consideration when making personnel decisions.
Jeff Johnson,
You write the truth here.
Yep. Flash firings should be rare.
Also, am I understanding correctly that these pastors were suddenly fired on a Monday?
How/did the church acting as one body participate in that decision?
Sunday afternoon and Monday morning. One was the pastor’s pre-cleared decision. The other was a committee.
Odd. We’re these people hired in the same way they were fired?
Tarheel,
I was just thinking about that. In general, the removal process should be just as deliberate as the hiring process.
If you’re a diner looking to hire a short-order cook, you might post the opening, interview an applicant, hire him, and have him working the evening shift all in one day. If it turns out that he can’t cook or has disgusting food prep habits, you might fire him the same day, too. It may be disappointing to him to be fired so quickly, but he probably hasn’t uprooted his family and moved cross-country to work for the diner.
OTOH, calling a pastor or church staffer is usually a pretty laborious process that can take months. There are applications, questionnaires, multiple interviews, trial sermons, etc. If a call is made and accepted, the pastor then has to make transition plans to inform his current church or employer and move his family. It would seem that if the church and pastor invested in this hiring process with a lot of thought and prayer, there should be just as much consideration in letting him go.
(I would also say that if the pastor plans on resigning or retiring, he should try to do so in a way that gives the church as much notice as possible.)
Agreed, wholly.
It takes about $4500.00 for a staff person to change his membership when they leave abruptly… per a church decision. It takes .45 cents for a disgruntled member to change churches.
Costs who $4500? Can you please explain your math/logic?
Just a comment of the fired staff who has to relocate his whole family to another part of the country and the local only needs to send letter of transfer.
Not All would fit that scenario, but many would.
This triggers an interesting thought. I wonder if anyone has studied pastoral migration. A study that would answer how far is a pastors new post from a previous one. 50 miles? 100? 1000? I don’t know if there would be any point to it, but it would be interesting.
Get your PhD on this. It’s an interesting question. Ancecdotally, pastors stay reasonably close to home. I don’t recall seeing any hard data on it.
Last I heard on it was in seminary in 2005, evangelism professor mentioned a study(?) that indicated over 75% of MDiv. grads ministered within 100 miles of “home” after graduation.
I am a lay elder at a small church who has witnessed, up close and personal, the voluntary departure of four pastors since 1992. One was relatively free of acrimony while three were much more traumatic for the pastor and the church. All were characterized by lack of communication, relationship, and a lack of true Christian maturity on the part of the pastor and the members. I regret all four departures as well as the role I played.
If I could go back I and relive these events I would pray more, alone and then with my pastor. I would “run towards the gunfire” of discord earlier in its life, and press my life and love into the life of my pastor (as much as he would allow). I would not remain passive, assuming that “things would just work out.” I would embrace the truth that Satan is intent on bringing discord to each fellowship of Christians. I would not assume that the pastor was, or should have been, more mature and wise simply because of his training or position. I would not assume the same about myself and the other members.
There was blame to share in these departures. But my eyes are now open. I will not be this same Christian again.
After being part of this community my entire life (first as the son of a pastor/missionary and later as a denominational employee in various capacities – campus ministry, missionary, DOM, State Exec., pastor, etc.) I have seen and felt many of the various issues involved in this discussion.
Earlier this year I published my own reflection on the subject in a book called Wounded in Ministry: Finding Hope Through Forgiving [Revised Edition] (http://tomlaw.org/books/wounded-in-ministry). It is a collection of stories, including my own, about relationships in the church from various perspectives. The names and places have been changed to protect the guilty as well as the innocent. The subtitle reflects my own pilgrimage as I have discovered that it is in forgiving that you find hope. Not forgiveness which it something you give others but forgiving which is a gift you give yourself.
When I first wrote the book I was thinking about church staff and church members. I hoped that the book would help each of the parties understand each other and the issues involved. After writing it, I realized that this is the kind of book I wish I had had early in my career to give me a heads up about the pitfalls ahead of me in this kind of work. Not that I would have changed careers, but I might have been able to deal with some of the difficulties more adequately.
This cuts both ways. I’ve known pastors that were fired because of immorality and because of laziness. On the other hand, I knew a pastor who was fired because “too many new people are coming to our church.” That firing happened while the pastor was away. I knew another pastor who was fired because he refused to ordain a young man in his church. The young man did not believe in eternal security. When the pastor refused the young man, he complained to his parents who complained to the deacons. The deacons called in the pastor and demanded that he ordain the man. When the pastor explained his refusal, the deacons replied, “You are right about the Bible, but these folks are making our lives miserable. If you don’t ordain him, we’re going to fire you.” He didn’t and they did. Another pastor was fired for reporting child abuse in a church family. The deacons were furious that he had done so. He explained that state law required him to report the abuse. They answered, “That is not the way we do things around here.” They fired him immediately. All three pastors came to me for counseling. I told them that sometimes pastors suffer for the sake of righteousness.
These stories, and what I saw of church-staff relations over 17 years, are probably the primary reason why when we moved to a new town I did not want to consider Baptist churches. The polity seems dysfunctional.
In contrast: This week the founding/lead pastor of our current church, a nondenominational Bible chiurch, announced he will transition out of his lead pastor role next year. The successor plan has been in the works for 8 years – prayer, preparation, seeing who God has highlighted, mentoring, testing, creating a rotating teaching/preaching team, education, etc. The two men are also telling their story to the church through a series of short video devotionals based on Joshua’s succession following Moses. It’s been pretty evident to all that this was quietly in the works. We are not shocked. I am happy for both of them.
I’m over 60, and sadly this is the first well-planned, nontraumatic pastor succession i’ve ever experienced. In my Methodist years, the good pastors were short-term because they’d be moved to a larger church. In Baptist churches, I have seen ministry staff disappear never to be mentioned again; fall suddenly when infidelity is discovered; be arrested and taken to jail (true); walk out of the pulpit during Sunday morning service never to return: be voted out on a closely split vote; and be “separated” at a business meeting where we vote to approve severance pay and a nondisclosure agreement (of course not knowing what can’t be disclosed). These all happened. And it has been terrible, for everyone. I personally have not seen Baptist polity ‘work.’ Just a ton of church hurt and spiritual damage in this area of church life.
Karen, first, I am sorry you experienced all that. Those happenings should never have happened. That being said, there is no such thing as “Baptist polity.” Some churches are congregational, others are elder led, some call their elders deacons, etc., etc., etc. Let me encourage you by saying that since being saved at 19 years of age, I have never once experienced anything close to your testimony in over 26 years. All is not lost!
Good points Mark Smith. In our town most of the Baptist churches seemed to go through traumatic staff shakeups and terminations. There seemed to be common areas of misunderstanding leading to power struggles. That seems like polity problems: the fickle voting congregation, the hidden hand of deciding “deacons,” or the give-our-the-pastor-free-reign-until-he-crosses-the-wrong-people systems. I haven’t been in an elder board system before, but I’m really liking it.
No matter the reason for dismissal, there is a world of hurt which comes into the life/ family of the former minister. On a personal level, I was fired from a church in the late 1980s when Pastoral firings were epidemic, so much so the paper in the state’s largest city did a front page expose on the subject. My firing was the result of my not being the former pastor. We were opposite in just about every way. He left to go to the foreign mission field and the church would not let him go. I was a outsider from day one… to everyone, staff and membership. Nothing I did was right in their eyes. I was finally challenged over a decision I had made by the leading staff member and he came into to my office with the threat, “either do this or I will resign”. When I accepted his resignation he was in shock. Long story short after about 19 months of turmoil the deacons were sure that it was all my fault, so I was most painfully shown the door. Months after my firing the former pastor returned from the mission field to resume his pastorate for many years following. It took me five years to get back into active ministry. Healing was illusive. I am still at it, now in my mid sixties. I can think more freely about this time, but still with great sorrow. No person is perfect, so did I make some mistakes. Certainly. But not on the scale of what I was caused to walk through. At one of my low points when I had reached out to a denominational person I was told to get over it. Pastors, I was told, get fired every day. If there is not a moral reason for a dismissal, I try to encourage and listen to every “fired” minister I can. So should all in ministry. The next one could be you.
The two cases I mention are merely the backdrop for the LifeWay series on top reasons for termination. One of the churches would be quite traditional in systems and protocol for hiring and firing. The other would be seen as having granted the senior pastor authority to hire and fire staff, though committees are involved.
I don’t think polity can be the culprit for dysfunction in this area though it does make churches susceptible to unhealthy patterns. Fact is, most pastor transitions in SBC churches are quite smooth and routine. Naturally, these are not newsworthy nor interesting enough to write about. Train wrecks, though, are…so here we are.
All of us have a list of warnings and suggestions for ministers and churches in the area of hiring and termination.
If pastors are summarily fired without church involvement that is a polity problem… in fact it’s not in keeping with Baptist polity.
I disagree, TD, if the congregation instills the pastor with the authority to terminate ministerial staff that is a congregational decision.
Yeah, Dean – I don’t think we are disagreeing. The situation you described is church involvement.
Personally though, I think there should be s grievance process for staff who may be unfairly treated….but you’re right if the church ceded full and final (as William said these decisions were “final”) hiring and firing to a single person (or committee) – then they’ve acted. Foolishly, imo but acted.
I didn’t want to get involved in the details, Dave. Many churches have, through a congregational decision, given a committee or even the pastor authority to hire and fire staff. This may be wise or foolish, generally depending on the church and individual(s) involved. I’m generally with you though in believing that the congregation should be involved in such decisions. Multi-staff churches would find that to be excessively complicated.