Could pastors stay longer in their churches if their local association is strong?I firmly believe that the health of an association of local churches is essential and essential to the health of pastors and their churches. Many of us in the ministry have heard somewhat depressing statistics about pastoral exhaustion and its relative effects. According to Thom Rainer, a pastor rarely spends more than three years of ministry in a church.
I have been pastor of the same church for almost sixteen years and I simply cannot imagine the problem for my family if I had served in four other churches during this period. My experience, however, is not the norm. When I moved to Bardstown, Kentucky, I befriended a pastor, but usually after about a year he was gone. With depressing regularity, did my wife and I help change friends when they left their church?Some left the ministry altogether. Around the fifth year, I somehow became the “veteran”, the oldest pastor in our city, although I still felt like a newcomer and a stranger. I felt like I was just getting started, when many were already gone.
- I recently realized that something had changed The shepherds in my area stay longer!Some of my closest friends today are local pastors and I’ve known them for the most part for over five years.
- The shepherds stay.
- The shepherds persevered in battles with far greater success than their predecessors.
So what changed between the first half of my department and the second half?A lot of things, I’m sure. But perhaps more than anything else, our local Baptist association has changed!
Ten years ago, the Nelson Baptist Association turned around and emerged from the death spiral it was in; it is no longer an unnecessary and tedious institution. Instead, our partnership has become a dynamic and active network of truly partner churches to build healthy churches in our region and around the world. Churches now trust each other. Pastors now support each other.
There are two key factors that often lead to a pastor’s short term: loneliness and a sense of inefficiency. As our association was revitalized, the pastors began to pray for each other. We met, often informally, for lunch or breakfast, just to update ourselves. Our women have done the same. A pastor and his wife may have felt isolated in their own church, but now they no longer needed to feel isolated in their community. We began to travel to conferences and make missionary trips together. We began to gather our resources so that the pastor of a small church could come with us.
Now, with some regularity, a friendly pastor asks a group of us to come together to talk about both personal struggles and ministry. This association of like-minded pastors has provided us with a safe and valuable outlet to serve one another.
Many men can often be frustrated in the ministry because their church is not growing; they feel trapped because many of their aspirations simply don’t seem possible, especially in their church; however, our healthy partnership has given us the ability to work together to succeed. We have begun a ministerial internship so that we can work together to train interns. We have pooled our resources to establish churches together. We have partnered to organize conferences and fund an advisory department. Pastors are used in the ministries of other churches, as well as in their own.
When I consider many pastors in our area today, I see men who have become dear friends and I see brothers who are part of the same team. It’s much harder to escape this. In addition, supporting all the problems, frustrations and burdens of our own congregations becomes much easier when we support them together. This motivation to unite has less to do with the benefits to our own church and more about how we can benefit our sister congregations and our brethren in the ministry. Because? The reason is simple: brothers, we’re in the same boat.