Over the last few years, a stunning shift has taken place in church culture. Successful, influential, and powerful pastors are being dismissed from their churches. Not for the typical moral failures or money scandals but for unhealthy leadership practices. Why has this become such an issue?
Understanding the problem
The simplified version is that decades ago as the church began to lose new generations and influence in the culture the church began to adopt a more complex strategy to compete with society. Basically, everything the culture offered people, the church tried to make a Christian alternative. The church became increasingly complicated which changed the role of pastors dramatically. A good pastor was now expected to manage multiple staff, cast vision, oversee building projects, train high-level leaders, and look really good while doing it. Basically, become a Spiritual CEO. Eugene Peterson made this piercing observation, “The vocation of pastor has been replaced by the strategies of religious entrepreneurs with business plans.”. Soon plans began to suffocate the soul of the pastorate.
The lost soul of a pastor
As churches ballooned in size pastors began trading in their shepherd’s staff for S.M.A.R.T. Goals, their counseling couch for a conference table, and their relationships for staff. Pastors were forced to think in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, instead of faithfulness. Once the machine starts it doesn’t slow down for anyone, even for the those keeping the machine running. Success was measured in “How many people are we are reaching?” but a more important question wasn’t being asked, “How many people are we burning out to do this?”. All that mattered was the “mission” and building a platform for Fortune 500 Jesus.
Fortune 500 Jesus
Fortune 500 Jesus wants you to join his dynamic team. Be a part of something bigger than yourself and build a legacy that will last for eternity. I was once given this sales pitch by the pastor of a large church. He was trying to find staff to volunteer to keep up with the growth and shed some responsibilities from the more “needy” members and staff. Which was confusing because he had been so excited to have reached them just a few weeks earlier in the big baptismal service. He let me know we would not be spending much time together and I should not expect a relationship because he was so busy meeting “new” people. That I should also plan on working 40 to 50 hours a week and somehow work another job that actually paid. This was a rising compa…church that had so much potential if I would just sacrifice my family, my health, and my life. Fortune 500 Jesus didn’t sound so good. To his surprise, I didn’t bite but others did and it cost them dearly. Those who made the sacrificial plunge soon found out the thriving church ran off their lifeblood. Those who didn’t make his cut were quietly ushered out the back door as the new recruits were brought through the front. Anyone who spoke up was labeled as trouble makers who didn’t get the “mission” but something was changing. There began to be too many trouble makers…
C.E.O. Vs Shepherd
Remember the premium mentioned earlier? It came due and the aftermath has been devastating. Abusive pastors have been dismissed which caused some churches to close and others to struggle to restore a healthy culture of leadership. Worse than that, it’s left a high body count of staff members who didn’t meet the unrealistic expectations or dare stood up to the C.E.O. So what’s the answer? Close all megachurches? Burn all the business books on your pastor’s bookshelf? No. We must reclaim the calling of the shepherd. In John 10:11 Jesus said to his disciples, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” This one verse teaches more about ministry than all the ministry strategy books ever written put together. There is nothing wrong with having a plan but it is sacrificial love that transforms people. Zach Eswine writes, “But for a church, when greatness is defined as “big, efficient, and now,” ruin follows, even if the shell of the ministry boasts of strength. Imagine if Jesus would have followed the council of many well-meaning ministry strategy books written today. I wondered if he would have stopped to speak with the woman at the well? If he would have picked more efficient disciples based on their enneagram or entrepreneurial score. If would have bothered to stop for the leapers or those who afforded him no platform. If he would have leveraged Zacchaeus’ wealth to expand his brand. Or if he would have gone to the cross for all those needy people desperate for grace. Thankfully he didn’t, he painfully and slowly loved people. He only had 3 years of earthly ministry yet he extravagantly loved those in obscurity, those who had been pushed to the margins by the important. Not only did his example defy common wisdom; he changed the world.
It would appear the church in desperate need of shepherds instead of C.E.O.
A word to the shepherd pastor
You may feel like your life has been spent without any recognition or accomplishment but I beg you to reconsider. When you brought food to a family struggling you had an audience. When someone asked you to visit their neighbor’s brother-in-law in the hospital and you went even though you didn’t know them, you had an audience. When you mowed the church’s lawn because no one else did, you had an audience. When you stayed up late working on the bulletins, you had an audience. When you talked to that couple for the 20th time about their marriage who just isn’t getting it, you had an audience. When you spent time discipling and training people to serve the church, you had an audience. When you serve God with a shepherd’s heart you might not work under the spotlight but you do work under the smile of your Father. I pray you know your worth is in the acceptance of Christ and not the audience of the church. Thank you for faithfully serving God and the church.
The Shepherd and the C.E.O
Below is a comparison between the Shepherd and C.E.O. I pray God moves in our hearts and we reflect the heart of The Good Shepherd.
- C.E.O. Leaders use people for progress
- Shepherd Leaders love and invest into people
- C.E.O. Leaders see friendship and pastoral work as an obstacle to success.
- Shepherd leaders see friendship and pastoral work as success.
- C.E.O. leaders see accountability as a challenge to their authority.
- Shepherd leaders see accountability as caring for their heart.
- C.E.O. leaders know how to work the system and manipulate to get their way.
- Shepherd leaders know how to work through things with others to get God’s way.
- C.E.O. leaders build a talented team to carry out their vision.
- Shepherd leaders build a talented team to cultivate the church and each other.
- C.E.O. leaders see other churches as competition.
- Shepherd leaders see other churches as family.
- C.E.O. Leaders use the Bible to reveal their vision
- Shepherd leaders use the Bible to reveal Jesus
Clayton Pruett is an SBC pastor and woodworker living in Illinois.
What a great thought! Not a shot fired across the bow or a demeaning treatise. Rather, a call to reimagine and reembrace the call of the pastor being the shepherd. True discipleship is not efficient. It’s messy, down in the trenches, and if we go it alone, is limited by our own limits of pouring into people. A true shepherd builds a team to connect people, build people, and equip people to reach their OIKOS in a way to influence people to the true shepherd. Thanks for a great article!
I’m sure this happens somewhere in the SBC but with declining growth and most churches being small I imagine it is a rare occurrence.
Coram deo
“I wondered if he would have stopped to speak with the woman at the well?”
That’s a little risky in ‘this climate.’
I began stepping away from volunteering for so many reasons. But one that sticks out is how I was repeatedly told how some of the staff is protective of their family time and that’s why they wouldn’t show up outside of their normal work hours. That was a big slap in the face given how much time I had taken away from my family to help support their ministry efforts beyond the long and stressful work hours I put in for my job. Realizing there is no relationship, and that I could have more satisfying relationships in my corporate job — that the men and women there were much more concerned in my day to day well being and that of my family was so incredibly painful. And this wasn’t everyone. But enough to walk away for a while.
Kimberly, Yours is a good , thoughtful and relevant. I am now 71 and seen the change in attitude both in the four different churches I have attended though the years, visiting relatives churches and just listening to other church goers. It is not uncommon for lay volunteers to put in more “hours” and effort than some of the paid staff, in a larger church or the non involvement of some Pastors in the smaller churches. I do think there is developing a “time clock’ in the head of some who want to keep it about 40 or 45 hours.
I know this is a touchy subject but really believe many Pastors have going away from it being a calling to being a job. I do appreciate the points made in the article but you touched a nerve with me as I share your observation.
Comes from top down, how many SBC “leaders” can relate to the average SBC church and its members?
Thanks. And I do feel compelled to say that though I heard it from multiple people on multiple occasions it wasn’t the senior pastor. He always seemed to go above and beyond.
” …. to compete with society…”
No more need be said.
Nice summation of where we find ourselves. Hopefully, some good comes from this theological misadventure! We live in a drive through world! Stopping in to pick up a week’s religion is on the menu!
Excellent! Thank you Clayton.
There is a lot of truth in the overall thrust of your argument. However, there are certain economic and logistic realities which have led to the current situation of the “CEO Pastor”. In my view, it’s not the size of the churches that’s the problem. Instead, it’s the lack of humility and prayer ministry/dependence on the Holy Spirit which is the real issue.
These are some of the realities faced by churches which you are describing:
1. The large growth in the metro areas of the south has led to mega-churches. It would be almost impossible to find land to build a church of 500 membership size in the close in areas of Atlanta, Charlotte, or Dallas, and even if you did find the land, it would be very expensive.
2. As a result, there are large churches with 2,000 or 5,000+ members -e.g. FBC Dallas and Second Baptist Houston. It is impossible for the senior minister of such a church to personally know the majority of the membership. Added to that, it is impossible for him to make personal hospital visits to all of the membership, so as a result, he doesn’t visit any – If he did visit some, those he didn’t visit would be upset. This is the same for weddings/funerals.
3. This reality has led to large staffs to address the needs of the membership where these responsibilities are delegated to other staff members, thus a large staff and as a result, the senior pastor becomes the “CEO” over a large staff.
4. A consequence of this is that the senior pastor becomes distant from the hurting members of his congregation and often at the same time his and his wife’s circle of friends are some of the most successful members of the church who are often CEOs or in top positions where they work. He takes being CEO as the norm since most of his friends are too.
So how should this situation based on these realities be addressed?
1.The pastor can make a deliberate effort to be personally involved with hurting people in ministries outside of his church – whether it’s a Dream Center or homeless shelter so that he may gain empathy for those who are struggling. In doing so, he won’t face the issue of ministering to some church members and not others.
2. The pastor should encourage the church’s prayer ministry to pray specifically that he would stay humble and the church would as well so that it doesn’t become the Fortune 500 company you describe.
3. The other staff members should take on more of the role of shepherd to the congregation. This is more than keeping tabs on small groups. Looking at the website of large churches, one will see many staff members – why can’t these perform the role of shepherd? It’s not restricted to the senior minister.
Obviously, there are always exceptions to every rule and I’m sure there are some large church pastors out there doing a remarkable job despite the size of their church. That said, I would take your point further and argue that you are NOT a pastor of the church when you have 5000 members. You may be a great bible teacher and preacher, but you can’t begin to be the pastor to all those folks because you can’t know them. I have to wonder if much of the decline in our church membership and attendance is related to the general trend you’ve recognized – if we look like the world, we have nothing to offer. Big organizations have inherent value (efficiency in particular) but where do we read in Scripture that God is about efficiency? Relationship never works efficiently.
Thanks for a well-timed post.
When was the last time a plum assignment at the SBC level went to someone who was NOT a CEO Leader? Maybe it happens all the time? How would I know? I don’t know any of them personally. Many of you do.
Change comes slowly. The last generation was focused on producing consumers in seats and CEO pastors. The current generation seems focused on reproducing and replanting elders – more of a Board of Directors model.
I still think traditional Baptist polity was best at producing a community of mature lay believers. Hopeful that the next generation gets that back.
Could not agree more. This was the essence of the second sermon I preached in my preaching class at SWBTS in the late 80s, the beginning of the church growth movement. I received much criticism from colleagues..but not much from my preaching professor…It has always been obvious to be if we are not shepherds we are not pastors.
Pastors who think they are punching a clock aren’t going to make it. I think the “family comes first” talk is good if a guy is truly neglecting his wife and kids, but you aren’t going to have that problem with most guys. It seems these days pastors resent being availability at all hours. It’s one thing if you don’t consider every benevolence case an emergency, but if a church member calls and needs you, you go with a good attitude.
Good stuff.
I post this reply anonymously, in order to protect the identity of my church and its pastor.
My family is part of one of the campuses of a well-known megachurch. You would all know this church and its pastor. We are not, by nature, megachurch people. I have been involved (paid and unpaid) in various types and sizes of churches, and I have been held just about every role in a church except senior pastor and custodian. I have a degree from a Baptist college and a degree from a SBC seminary. I currently serve as a deacon and adult Bible study teacher.
I do not believe one type of church is superior to the other. The megachurch is not for everyone. And that is ok. In our family’s situation, it has ministered to us in ways that we did not expect. For example, several years ago I had emergency surgery, and was in the hospital for almost a week. We were between Bible study classes, so we weren’t really plugged in with a group of people at the time, though we did attend there. Somehow word got back to the church that I was in the hospital. I was flooded with visitors from both staff and laypeople. I learned that there are different staff members assigned to visit hospitals every day (including worship and student ministers), and that there is an active team of volunteers that visits hospitals. I had no idea! In addition, for what it’s worth, my wife got a call one day from the staff assistant for our senior pastor. It went, “(Famous Megachurch Pastor) asked me to call and see how you are doing”. I’m sure she’s asked to drop his name when she calls the hospital list. We know better than to expect the senior pastor of our megachurch to visit us in the hospital. Nonetheless, it still meant something to us that he hadn’t forgotten that there are people in the church with needs. From my experience, even though he is rich and famous with a huge megachurch, this pastor remembers the lessons learned from the smaller churches where he learned his craft. We’re not always successful at it, but we try to make our large church small. Our pastor serves as a shepherd (really as a bishop), but we have a large staff and an army of deacons serving our people.
And to the comment on burnout: We are friends with at least two former staff members who left due to burnout, and to spend more time with their families. They are probably most likely making more money outside the church, as well. I can’t speak for other churches, but our people work hard.
I don’t mean to come out with a full-throated defense of the megachurch. It takes all sizes and types of churches to fulfill the work of the Kingdom of God. No church is more or less important than the other. I do want to say that our church has been a blessing when we least expected it to be.
Again, thank you for this well-written post.
(Mod: Edited version of my reply. Please replace earlier comment with this one. Corrected grammar in first paragraph and modification to burnout comment. Thank you for your good work with this site!)
Good stuff.
I post this reply anonymously, in order to protect the identity of my church and its pastor.
My family is part of one of the campuses of a well-known megachurch. You would all know this church and its pastor. We are not, by nature, megachurch people. I have been involved (paid and unpaid) in various types and sizes of churches, and I have held just about every role in a church except senior pastor and custodian. I have a degree from a Baptist college and a degree from a SBC seminary. I currently serve as a deacon and adult Bible study teacher.
I do not believe one type of church is superior to the other. The megachurch is not for everyone. And that is ok. In our family’s situation, it has ministered to us in ways that we did not expect. For example, several years ago I had emergency surgery, and was in the hospital for almost a week. We were between Bible study classes, so we weren’t really plugged in with a group of people at the time, though we did attend there. Somehow word got back to the church that I was in the hospital. I was flooded with visitors from both staff and laypeople. I learned that there are different staff members assigned to visit hospitals every day (including worship and student ministers), and that there is an active team of volunteers that visits hospitals. I had no idea! In addition, for what it’s worth, my wife got a call one day from the staff assistant for our senior pastor. It went, “(Famous Megachurch Pastor) asked me to call and see how you are doing”. I’m sure she’s asked to drop his name when she calls the hospital list. We know better than to expect the senior pastor of our megachurch to visit us in the hospital. Nonetheless, it still meant something to us that he hadn’t forgotten that there are people in the church with needs. From my experience, even though he is rich and famous with a huge megachurch, this pastor remembers the lessons learned from the smaller churches where he learned his craft. We’re not always successful at it, but we try to make our large church small. Our pastor serves as a shepherd (really as a bishop), but we have a large staff and an army of deacons serving our people.
To the comment on burnout: We are friends with at least two former staff members who left due to burnout, and to spend more time with their families. I can’t speak for other churches, but our people work hard. Both of them and their families have remained in our church.
I don’t mean to come out with a full-throated defense of the megachurch. It takes all sizes and types of churches to fulfill the work of the Kingdom of God. No church is more or less important than the other. I do want to say that our church has been a blessing when we least expected it to be.
Again, thank you for this well-written post.