Running with patience: Encouraging the long-term pastorate

Wrong assumptions

Brown’s observation about the assumptions pastors and churches make is so obvious one wonders why it is easily overlooked—that pastors should not and will not stay long at one church, and that extended tenures are abnormal. ¹⁵ Ministers often accept a model of advancement borrowed from the business world, staying on the lower rungs of the ladder (i.e., in more modest churches) only as long as necessary before moving on. Church consultant and author Mike Bonem fully agrees with this assessment: “I believe there’s a tremendous amount of the world’s society thinking about careers in ministry … The thought is ‘I’ve got to put in a few years here so that I can then move on to the next step on the ladder.’ And so if that opportunity presents itself it’s just automatic that I should do that.” ¹⁶ Ministry is perceived as a career path rather than as a calling.

These assumptions, especially if formed early in a pastor’s ministry, can set a pattern for the future. Brown believes that the pastor’s early experience will often set the stage for duplication later on, either for long or short stays. Churches exhibit the same tendency to repeat previous patterns. ¹⁷ Brown claims that pastors who deal effectively and correctly with challenges, conflicts, and failures rather than running from them will be more likely to experience longer pastorates. ¹⁸

Two factors can help overcome the problem of wrong assumptions. The first is better information. Pastors need to be more aware of the advantages of the LTP, as well as the strategies they can use to pursue this rewarding ministry path. The dearth of books on extended pastorates is disappointing, which is something Brown addresses effectively in his book, Restoring the Vow of Stability. ¹⁹ The second key factor for overcoming wrong assumptions is the availability of pastoral mentors. George Somers notes that pastors in long-term positions typically have received support from others who share the calling, and they generally become mentors themselves. Giving and receiving support and guidance in this manner helps pastors to value and stay committed to the calling of God. ²⁰

Lack of personal growth

The Oswald study collected data from parishioners in LTPs and discovered that almost fifty percent of the responders addressed the concern that their pastors are already “going stale” or may do so in the future. ²¹ The authors are convinced of the need to address this issue. They observe that only about 20% of clergy engage in at least one week of continuing education each year. This seems completely inadequate given the responsibilities and calling of the pastorate. Communities of faith require ministry leaders who bring ongoing renewal and refreshment and who are always pursuing their spiritual growth. ²²

Hobgood believes pulpit ministry is particularly vulnerable to this staleness. He advocates “ongoing stimulus and information, gotten from current reading or participation in regular study activities, [which] are critical for maintenance of a quality pulpit discipline.” ²³

One of the most important ways to address this concern is by making personal spiritual growth a priority. Eugene Peterson’s prophetic book, Working the Angles, calls the pastor back to integrity in ministry. In his perspective, “‘working the angles’ is what we do when nobody is watching.” For Peterson, the angles that anchor the lines of ministry are prayer, Scripture, and spiritual direction. ²⁴

There are many helpful resources for pastors seeking to address this need more fully. Glenn Ludwig offers six ideas: meditation, journaling, finding a spiritual director, fasting, pilgrimages, and kinesthetic spirituality (running, walking, swimming, or other forms of physical exercise). ²⁵ Oswald’s Clergy Self-Care expands on Ludwig’s list with enriching explanations, examples, and practical exercises. ²⁶ Marjorie Thompson’s Soul Feast is another excellent resource which serves as a beginner’s guide to some of the classic spiritual disciplines. ²⁷

Ministry burnout

Stress and burnout are terms that we bandy about freely in our culture. ²⁸ Church consultant Ed White suggests that we must learn to distinguish between the two. He notes that stress is not always bad, but burnout is deadly. Stress involves “having too much on your plate” and simply requires good management. Burnout, however, requires serious intervention. The former is like running out of gas, while the latter is akin to running out of oil. White defines burnout as “the overtaxing of your caring capacity.” Burnout results when not wanting to care degenerates into not being able to care. ²⁹

There are other factors that help to distinguish stress from burnout. Stress taxes one’s adjustment capacities. It results from too much newness and change and can cause regressive behavior, toxic relationships, fatigue, depression, physical illness, and a loss of ability to perceive one’s options. By contrast, burnout overburdens a person’s ability to continue caring. Overuse of one’s facility to listen, too many needy people, and too much responsibility can leave a person physically and emotionally drained, cynical, disenchanted, and self-deprecating. ³⁰ Ludwig offers a helpful definition that is specific to ministry:

In the world of work, burnout occurs when energy is expended without fuel being added. The fuel that supplies the energy to minister is a conviction that what we do has meaning and importance … When we no longer find meaning, even the smallest of pastoral actions can drain us. Burnout, rightly understood, is the result of the lack of meaning in what we do. ³¹

Oswald says that burnout is more common in long-term ministries than short-term ones. “In my stress and burn-out seminars, one in five clergy score high on the burnout rating scale. Among clergy who have been in their parish for ten years or more, the number doubles.” ³² Laura Miraz, who studies the question of why ministers leave church work, surveyed 218 ordained American Baptist ministers and concluded that “the presence of high levels of emotional exhaustion in ordained clergy cannot be ignored given its association with turnover of clergy.” ³³

Unfortunately, recovery from burnout may not be simple, quick, or easy. An extensive discussion of solutions goes beyond the scope of this article, but we can identify some ways to begin. First, pastors must take personal responsibility for their own recoveries. H. B. London, Jr. and Neil Wiseman note that, “Just as no one else will get you to a doctor for pain in your side or a dentist for pain in your jaw, no one else is likely to take drastic steps in dealing with your burnout or stress. You alone control the action.” ³⁴ Support groups can offer a bulwark against the pain of burnout. Having a circle of caring souls is an important place to begin. ³⁵ Ludwig recommends that such groups engage a facilitator to give them leadership and to promote trust and sharing. Groups can function well with about six members, and no more than eight. ³⁶

Individual relationships of spiritual care are another important ingredient for health in ministry over time. Malcolm Bane, the pastor of First Baptist Church in College Station, Texas for more than thirty years, reflected on the value of having a colleague in the ministry who serves as a confidante. Gaining a sympathetic listening ear can be of great benefit in preventing burnout. All pastors need people with whom they can be honest about their struggles and complaints—colleagues who will allow them to unburden their hearts. Bane recommends finding a minister from outside one’s geographic area or from a different denomination with whom there is no sense of competition. ³⁷

Taking a Sabbath day is another discipline that encourages personal spiritual growth and helps ward off burnout. Pastors are particularly guilty of ignoring the Sabbath commandment. They may preach good sermons on the topic but then exempt themselves. Eugene Peterson notes that this is not the case for some of the other commandments. For example, pastors generally do not vigorously preach about the seventh commandment while actively engaging in adultery. ³⁸ In Peterson’s perspective, the act of Sabbath-keeping is “not devout thoughts or heart praise but simply removing our bodies from circulation one day a week.” ³⁹

When a pastor has already reached the burnout stage, it is important to look at recovery options. Seeking out professional help may be a good way to begin. George Stahnke notes that admitting a need for help may be humbling, but one cannot permit that to be a barrier. ⁴⁰ Oswald argues that when cynicism, disillusionment, and self-depreciation are deeply entrenched, we need professional help to find our way out of the quagmire and back to vitality and optimism. Therapy may provide the support the minister needs to make the fundamental changes necessary for survival, health, and wholeness. ⁴¹

Conflict mismanagement

There is a general consensus in the literature on pastoral ministry that poor conflict management is a barrier to the long-term pastorate. The inability to resolve conflict in healthy ways is one of the most common reasons pastors leave churches. ⁴² The Oswald group demonstrates that the majority of long-term pastors in their study have learned to deal with serious issues in the church effectively. They offer three basic observations about conflict and congregational leadership: (i) when conflict is acknowledged and managed, congregational life is healthier; (ii) long-tenured pastors tend to manage organizational work better than conflict; and (iii) the most significant danger to healthy leadership is the avoidance of tension through an absence of communication between the pastor and laity. ⁴³

Mike Bonem notes that conflict avoidance on the pastor’s part can be unconscious. Feeling-oriented pastors can “create all sorts of unspoken messages about how I want you to like me and therefore we shouldn’t have any kind of conflict.” ⁴⁴ Bonem’s advice is for the pastor to directly counteract this behavior by genuinely soliciting negative feedback from church leadership. By doing this, pastors are saying, “I want to start trying to break that mold. I want to make conflict okay. I want us to learn how to handle hard issues and deal with them.” ⁴⁵

Ludwig draws welcome attention to the congregation’s need to be partners with the pastor in properly managing conflict. Noting how some congregations acquire the reputation for being “difficult,” he speaks to the need for change. “A congregation that wants to support a long-term pastorate needs to learn the skills necessary to allow conflict that will lead to productive ministry, not tear anyone down. If a pastor has to deal with brush fire after brush fire … he [or she] will have little energy left to do the creative stuff.” ⁴⁶ Jim Herrington, Mike Bonem, and James Furr also address the role of the congregation in conflict management. Life-threatening conflict causes people to lose the vision to which God has called them. On the other hand, life-giving conflict permits understanding and commitment to grow out of serious issues. The amount of spiritual and relational vitality a group possesses is an important factor in deciding whether the conflict will be harmful or beneficial. ⁴⁷

Managing “the gap”

The essential genius of Hobgood’s Doctor of Ministry thesis lies in his “gap theory.” Hobgood observes that effective care of a congregation during the first decade of ministry can sabotage several aspects of ministry in the second decade. Practices that build successful pastoral care early on can have unintended harmful effects for overall ministry in later years. ⁴⁸ This gap in the later years of tenure arises not because of a problematic ministry, but because of a fruitful one. Eventually, rising personal trust between pastor and parish begins to blind them both to a growing deficit in the congregation’s overall health and ministry. This dynamic may insidiously go unnoticed from either pulpit or pew. Neither party may recognize it until the relationship of pastor and congregation is endangered, sometimes beyond repair. Oswald emphasizes that this issue emerges over long-term ministry, and pastors who are still early in their tenure (perhaps years six to eight) will be unaware of the growing problem. ⁴⁹

Hobgood suggests that typical pastoral care opportunities such as births, marriages, baptisms, funerals, and other significant life events are occasions for building deep personal trust between the minister and the flock. Over an eight-year period, at least one major life event will likely take place in the life of nearly every family in the church. ⁵⁰ Hobgood believes the LTP’s chief characterization is that of mutual trust and intimacy between the pastor and church members. ⁵¹

This growing personal trust depends upon the character and gifts of the minister. Both Hobgood and Oswald point to evidence that long-term pastors tend to rank unusually high on the “feeling” scale of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Feeling-oriented pastors have a higher likelihood of staying in a pastorate long-term and are more vulnerable to developing a “gap” than are thinking-oriented pastors. ⁵²

The gap occurs when personal trust with individual congregational members grows, but the congregation’s collective confidence in the minister’s effectiveness in broader church ministry declines. In Hobgood’s words:

When a pastorate has reached ten years or longer, it will be true that, while one to one trust between the pastor and individual parishioners in the congregational community will be sound and seem to be growing sounder, corporate trust, that of the pastor and “the people” as a whole for one another, will begin to decline, unless preventative dynamics are taking place. ⁵³

Ludwig defines corporate trust as “the confidence [that] the congregation, especially the leaders of that congregation, has in the pastor as a leader. Can we be trusted in decision-making? Can we be the leaders they need? Can we push, pull, guide, and challenge in healthy and appropriate ways? And can we deal with the conflict that naturally arises from change?” ⁵⁴ One might think of corporate trust as the congregation’s confidence in the minister’s ability to “get things done.”

As personal trust grows stronger and corporate trust falls, their lines cross, and a gap forms between the two. ⁵⁵ Ministers may prefer to avoid making difficult corporate decisions that bring conflict with those congregational members who have developed close friendships with them. ⁵⁶ As a result, church members find it increasingly difficult to share negative feelings with the pastor. They are so deeply appreciative of the excellent personal care they have received, that they do not want to hurt the minister’s feelings about any shortcomings, such as poor sermons or ineffective administrative leadership. ⁵⁷ Hobgood notes that “familiarity is the great gift of the long pastorate and also its liability. And if the effects of that familiarity are not checked, then corporate trust and effectiveness will decline!” ⁵⁸

Figure 2 illustrates how corporate trust can diminish over time, even while personal trust is growing. Sometime around the eighth to tenth year, a gap begins to form between the two.

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Figure 2.

The gap between personal and corporate trust can develop over time.

The gap theory raises several important concerns. A feedback gap may form between the feedback a pastor needs to hear and the feedback a congregation is willing to give. ⁵⁹ According to one study, “The longer pastor and parishioners stay together, the more difficult it is for them to give and receive feedback. This is especially true if there is growing affection between the two. It is a simple fact that it is most difficult to give painful feedback to a close friend or family member.” ⁶⁰ As Bonem observes, “[I]f a pastor knows that his [or her] tendency is to be the feeling type … it makes it hard for him [or her] to give feedback, it makes it hard for them to get feedback.” ⁶¹ Hobgood expresses the notion with even more force: “[T]he most significant pitfall in the long pastorate is the absence of clear feedback between the pastor and laity.” ⁶²

Closing these gaps is best accomplished by improving communication between pastor and parish. Soliciting candid feedback from the congregation may require creativity. Hobgood suggests that careful use of congregational interviews, questionnaires, and focus groups can yield valuable information. ⁶³ He also believes that “it is critical that the pastor and congregation agree to re-negotiate their relationship during the ‘window’ period [years eight to ten in an extended pastorate].” ⁶⁴ This assessment should be flexible and could include exploring continuing education for the pastor and laity, examining trends and directions with an eye to charting their future, and evaluating whether or not they will both benefit from continuing in a relationship. ⁶⁵ These will not be easy conversations, but they may be necessary for health and growth in the long-term pastorate for both pastors and lay people.