Faith Works 6-9-18
Jeff Gill
When you know what you don't know
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Ministers in full-time calls to serve congregations used to stay on average about four years or so, and now it's more like six.
Last week I noted this shift, perhaps a trend, perhaps not, but it marks where I'm at as of this week . . . and that this is a new place to be, for me.
Averages mean, of course, that you have about as many tenures above that figure as below. The church I serve has had fourteen and sixteen year pastorates in the last seventy-five years, as well as a couple of three or five year stays. I'm the ninth pastor of this congregation since World War II began, and that makes our church stand out, with a nine year average term of service in the modern era (we go back to 1884, but the early years had some high turnover for understandable reasons).
In general, traditional denominational Protestant churches have tended towards short pastorates, and the thinking today is that this has contributed to a fair amount of instability, not just for clergy and their families but for their churches in general. That realization may be one of the reasons for longer tenures, but other factors are in play.
Some of this is due to Baby Boomer pastors delaying retirement. I could write a whole column on Boomers and retirement, but we'll save that for another day. There's plenty of room to say it's due to better health and simply the ability to serve longer, but reason to worry that some of it has to do with fiscal pressures keeping preachers working past where they'd really like to, so they can afford to retire some day.
And more constructively, there's just an awareness, especially among younger "Gen X" preachers, that the so-called career path in ministry is largely a myth. "Moving up" isn't all it's cracked up to be, and sometimes, it's a bad move both spiritually and practically.
Fiscally, though, moving is harder than it was just a decade, let alone two decades ago. This gets into the complexities of health insurance, how church groups are handling those matters, and the shift to spousal coverage as the primary way ministers gain access to health insurance. In general, a pastoral move doesn't take place for the same reasons they used to.
I'd like to think that a big reason for the increase in pastoral stability is because of increasing awareness and understanding that when you are called to a community, you have to develop relationships and build your connections over a long arc. Your ministry needs the deep roots of lengthy service to start showing some fruit.
This is where I draw no little encouragement from older and wiser colleagues who say that it's only in your sixth and seventh years in a church that you really start to know your setting, to understand your calling in that context, to be able to develop ministries and mission and evangelism that's really what God is calling you to proclaim.
Yes, there's what's called a "honeymoon" period where you can get away with making changes that in years four or five folks will push back against . . . but I believe there's a period of trust and partnership coming after six or seven years where you can present a vision for a church as a leader that people will hear and respond to in partnership, as fellow laborers in a shared vineyard.
It does take almost six years to know where the light switches are without looking, to understand the unspoken assumptions that everyone works under, to come to a comprehension of the stories not told that are as important as the tales that are retold and repeated with pride and confidence.
Some of that six or seven year horizon, I'd argue, has something to do with healing and recovery and restoration. Most communities have old wounds and ancient pains, including faith communities, which need a new balm from Gilead to come and ease the ailments and injuries of the past. Once those scars heal over, then new growth can occur.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; he's been serving for six years, or you might say ten years, where he is ministering now. You can ask him to explain that at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.
