It’s a Southern Baptist cliche: “We are a convention of small churches.”
We are indeed. The median SBC church will have 70 souls in average weekly worship attendance this coming Sunday which means that around 25,000 SBC churches have a pastor who looks out when he preaches at a few dozen hearers. The pastor almost certainly is the only clergy staff member in the church although he may have a part time paid or volunteer music leader, student or children leader.
This would be the place where there is a church of people who all know each other.
This would be the place where there is a single pastor and no one else who has the title “pastor.”
The Single Staff Pastor…and he is the stalwart hero of Southern Baptist churches and, therefore, of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Not that multi-staff, multi-site, multi-millions in budget, megachurch, megapastor, megastaff are not important. Not that the vast army of lay volunteers who actually run the church and the church ministries are unimportant. We are not sacerdotalists, after all. But the single staff pastor is the most common pastor in the SBC…and sometimes, the most underappreciated.
Most of our trained clergy will spend most if not all of their ministry as a single staff pastor.
Almost all of our clergy will have at one time or another served a single staff church.
Almost all of our denominational leaders will have served in a single staff church, even if only for a short time.
The single staff pastor will likely, maybe, hover around the $40,000 to $50,000 salary range for his entire ministry. Some will do better. Some will do worse. It’s modest pay.
The single staff pastor will never store up for himself a great accumulation of retirement benefits unless his wife is able to find a good job with benefits.
The single staff pastor has little chance of being elected to any position of prominence in the state conventions or SBC and this mainly, and wrongly, because being seen as single-staff guy or small church guy is code for not much of an achiever.
The single staff pastor likely knows better than the larger, multi-staff church pastors the stress of church finances, since large and megachurches do well in picking up the better giving families who transfer membership from smaller to larger churches. This is a clear trend I’m told.
The single staff pastor likely has to endure more of the petty issues in the church, stuff like the temperature of the sanctuary, length of the grass, and who gets which room.
The single staff pastor isn’t likely to be asked to preach at conferences, since it’s not much of a draw to have single staff guys at these events.
The single staff pastor is more likely to be forced to resign a church or to be forcibly terminated and this at least once during his ministry, probably for no fault of his own.
The single staff pastor with sufficient tenure is the one who is the key person in the attitude and personality of the congregation.
The single staff pastor with sufficient tenure will be the one who keeps a church on track with Cooperative Program giving and the mission offerings.
The single staff pastor likely has to address more issues with his spouse and kids and the church than larger church pastors. He learns how to handle this with time.
The single staff pastor doesn’t have a hat rack large enough for all the hats he has to wear as pastor.
The single staff pastor is more likely to declare, “They didn’t tell me in seminary I would be doing this kind of stuff” along with “I wasn’t prepared for this.”
The single staff pastor has to be a generalist, or, as church folks might think, a specialist in every possible church-related job and ministry.
The single staff pastor gets to see generations of people impacted by his ministry.
The single staff pastor looks at his few dozen congregants on Sunday and knows exactly what issues they are facing.
The single staff pastor knows his folks well enough to judge by their casual comment when shaking his hand after Sunday worship if there is something afoot in their lives that he might need to ask about or help with.
Anybody can be a single staff pastor…right?
This is an excellent piece, honoring men who deserve our respect and admiration.
Dave, you hit the nail squarely on the head! Single church pastors get frustrated by posts about the pros and cons of sabatticals, the benefits of having an executive pastor, etc. Next to nothing the SBC offers in the way of training and conferences is accessible to single staff pastors. Many of the articles in SBC publications are also irrelevant. Everyone seens to know this. But very little has been done about the situation. …VERY frustrating for 70% of SBC pastors.
Allen,
It’d be comical if not so sad – when conventions advertise “conferences for small church pastors” and then announce that so and so mega is the speaker and the workshops are essentially about “ways to turn your little church into a mega”.
Perhaps you meant William?
Yes, Dave, I should have addressed my comment to William .
Thank bro for this article iv been involved with this single staff church since I became a Christian in 1993. All my pastors and men who ordain me were single staff and bivocational! Iv had one pastor mentor along with many others that had large flys that had extremely hard jobs as there trade and still pastored with lil are no pay from there very rural SBC ‘s along with doin many yearly revivals while working full time in rural areas at logging , mechicing, and farming jobs , etc!! They were spirit filled men some with lilttle education they were single staff pastors but had all power from heaven and were very fateful to there calling being unlearned men but having proof that they had walked and been with GOD!!! Thank You again for this reckonizing of the many fatefully single staff pastors that make so many of our church’s !!! In CRIRST !!!
William,
Good piece. In the churches I served, I was only ever the single staff pastor. I just want to add my agreement to the comments already offered.
John
May I have permission to pass this on verbally (or perhaps in writing with credit due)? Precise insight.
Sure
As usual, William makes good points. In my training at Southwestern Seminary, it seemed to me the faculty was training us to become the pastor of a county seat First Baptist Church. For example, we were taught how to write a job description for a full-time minister of music. I went to foreign missions, but my classmates went to serve in churches. Some did become pastors of larger churches, but they began as pastors of smaller churches with no staff.
I have been a single staff, bi-vocational pastor most of the 45 years of ministry. I did a 19 year tenure as bi-vocational associate pastor within that time period. I currently serve a church that has grown from 20 to 70 in a declining rural town. At 18 years of age, sitting in the (old) Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas Texas the summer of 1972, listening to Billy Graham preach at the Explo ’72 Crusade, God called me and gave me a heart for rural, single-staff churches. I have been blessed beyond measure; faithful to His call. I entered the ministry at a time when bi-vocational pastors were frowned upon by our own convention. So much of that has changed over the years when someone decided to take a survey and discovered the truth of pastors and churches in Missouri. Thank you for the encouraging words, and the acknowledgement.
I was in that stadium with you, Walter. Thanks for the comment.
I was present for that same gathering as well. Good memories.
Truth! This will be my 20th year in the ministry, only pastored two churches, in both churches gave 10% to the Cooperative and 2% to the local association, and support other missions and most the time it has been a single staff church. It is wearisome but God is good and continues to be good. Thanks William, appreciate your insight.
I was in the stadium, too. That was a great night.
Small churches are not just the staple of rural small towns. There are a plethora of suburban small/mini churches as well. I pastor one. We are the churches that thousands of people drive past to get to one of the half dozen megachurches just down the freeway. I don’t harbor any feelings of bitterness or competition. I applaud mega churches that are doings things right. We need more of them that are sound doctrinally and methodologically. But, it can get lonely for guys in their shadows.
Brothers in smaller churches- you are very important and can make a significant impact where you are!! I would encourage you to get out into the world and chat w people, get to know your community. Adopt a personal ministry outside the church ie chaplain to a baseball team, visit your shut ins etc. Also, adopt 5-6 people as a special mentor and teach them the Bible on Tuesday night? That is exactly how to raise up leaders.
Buy $20 worth of booklets which share the Gospel and actually hand them out in your community. Offer a financial seminar and a marriage seminar.
Til Christ comes!
Wonderful article, William. I dont always share the same perspective as you do on issues, but completely concur with the contents here. I have been a single staff pastor for 14 of my 15 years in ministry(had a part time music minister for a short time). You are absolutely right that you get to know a little about plumbing, electrical, rental agreements for leased space, obtaining requisite documents to obtain church loan for land purchase, besides all the other issues like preaching, counselling, driving the church van for picking up children, etc.
It has certainly not been easy along the way, given that last 9 years I have been at least 40 hrs bivocational outside the church, but over time, people understand that the pastor is human and cant be everywhere all the time. Apart from a small handful of isolated instances, the church family God has allowed me to shepherd has been good to me. I honestly dont know if a larger church would be any better or easier…maybe just different.