Imagine that you are a governing leader in your church. The church hasn’t been growing, either spiritually or numerically, and you’re beginning to wonder if the pastor might be the problem.
In fact, you’re privately thinking that maybe the pastor needs to leave the church, the sooner the better.
Before proceeding further, be very careful about blaming a church’s lack of progress on the pastor alone. If a baseball team hires a great manager but the stadium is awful (think Oakland) or the players are abysmal (think Kansas City), the manager isn’t going to win. A championship team requires the right leader overseeing the optimal players delivering clutch performances (and a lot of quality pitching!). While the pastor obviously plays a central role in a church’s success, other factors are almost always at work as well. Honestly ask yourself:
*How clear is our church’s mission? How often and how well is it communicated? (You may need to create a new mission or better present the one you have. People forget a church’s mission within a month or so.)
*How effective is our system of church government? Have we created such a bureaucratic nightmare that we are taking the fun out of serving the Lord? (An increasing number of churches are letting the pastor choose the staff and the board – his own ministry team – and are seeing their churches grow rapidly. They would say – and I don’t mean to offend anyone by saying this – that the trained professional should lead the church, not the amateurs.)
*How are other churches in our immediate area doing? Are we in a resistant or receptive community? (While any church can grow, the community plays a large part in the rate of growth.)
*How possible is it that we are going through a temporary time of non-growth? (This happens in every church, regardless of size.)
*What kind of spiritual barriers might be causing the Lord to withhold His blessing? Could there be “sin in the camp?” (There could be, and it’s as likely to be in the staff or board as it is in the pastor.)
*How committed to Christ are the members of our governing board and staff? Is each leader attending services faithfully? Walking with the Lord? Serving with joy? Giving generously? (Both the pastor and the board/staff must be spiritually-oriented for the church to experience God’s blessing.)
*How likely is it that our pastor has been stung by criticism, tackled by burnout, overwhelmed with responsibility, plagued by family problems, or needs some time off? How can we discover this information so we can encourage and strengthen him? (Ministry is more difficult today than ever before. If a board doesn’t learn how to care for this pastor, it will need to learn how to care for the next one. Might as well start now.)
Too many times, one or two key leaders in a church come to the conclusion that their pastor needs to leave. While the rest of the church would totally disagree – after all, they’re attending that church largely because of the pastor – these leaders only need to persuade the other governing board members to make the pastor’s departure a reality – and sometimes that doesn’t take very long to accomplish. Why not? Because of anxiety.
Anxiety can ruin a church because it easily becomes contagious. If a couple of leaders can’t rest until the pastor leaves, they can make everyone else anxious until he goes. This is where the other board members and key congregational leaders need to stand up for patience over against anxiety. Unless the pastor’s messages and behavior are truly destroying the church, the governing leaders need to take their time in dealing with the pastor. When God’s people are anxious, it’s a sign they aren’t praying biblically, but when they are praying biblically, anxiety vanishes (see Philippians 4:6-7). So take the time to bathe a situation like this in prayer first. Who knows? If the pastor is the problem, maybe he will choose to resign on his own initiative.
When a church calls a pastor, it’s like a marriage. When a church chooses to remove its pastor, it’s like a divorce. Before a married couple gets divorced, they need to make sure they have done everything possible to save their marriage. In the same way, before a governing board forces out a pastor, it needs to make sure it is has done everything possible to identify and heal any problems it might have with its shepherd.
Sometimes a board will force out a pastor because “that’s how it’s done in business.” (If a church is a business, then maybe Peter Drucker should have written the New Testament. But the New Testament was written by Jesus’ apostles, and they have given us specific instructions on how a church is to be managed, and we can’t solve spiritual issues using secular solutions.) In addition, sometimes a board will force out a pastor because it is unwilling to address the glaring problems that are on the board itself.
If I’m a governing leader, and I have concerns about the pastor’s effectiveness, here’s what I would do:
*I would set up an appointment with the pastor – maybe breakfast or lunch – and ask how he’s doing spiritually and vocationally. I’d listen so as to understand. Then I’d share my viewpoint about his ministry and the church as a whole, letting the pastor know that this is how I personally feel, not how my family or friends or the board feels. I’d speak for myself, not for others at this juncture.
Sometimes this is all it takes for a pastor to turn things around. Years ago, I was experiencing and expressing frustration with some board members, and the chairman took me out to breakfast and told me I needed to change my attitude or the board might do something unpredictable. I changed.
*Find a way to evaluate the effectiveness of the pastor, staff, and governing board members on an annual basis. (It’s not fair to evaluate the pastor alone without also evaluating other leaders. Ministry is a team effort.) The evaluation should be measured against the pastor’s job qualifications and position description – and it should be simple rather than complicated. A friend of mine once served on the staff of a megachurch and he showed me his evaluation. It went on for pages and pages. It’s no wonder that he quit the minstry soon afterwards. Churches that criticize their pastor for the least little thing slowly turn their pastors into perfectionists. Why? Because, pastors reason, the only way I won’t be criticized is if I’m perfect. (But then someone will ding you for not being human enough!)
One caution: be careful about criticizing the pastor for what he’s not doing. This is done all the time with political leaders like President Obama. I hear people say, “He’s not doing this. He’s not doing that.” Well, of course – there are thousands of things that the President could do, but if you criticize him for not doing Number 65 and Number 876 and Number 1,295, you’re just not being fair. Sometimes this same tactic is used on a pastor. I always felt I got in more trouble for what I didn’t do than what I did do. One person thought I should promote home schooling. Another thought I should become more politically involved. Different people have their own private agendas for the pastor, and he can’t possibly know or meet them all. A leader should be evaluated on the basis of what he has been called by God to do, not by what everyone else wishes he would do.
When you have evaluated the pastor, let him respond to the evaluation. If he’s honest, he will probably agree with much of it. Agree together on what he will do differently.
*Measure his progress on a regular basis, maybe quarterly or semi-annually. To be fair, measure the progress of everyone else in leadership as well so you’re not picking on just one person. The evaluators will be more compassionate if they know they’re also being evaluated.
In many ways, this approach takes Jesus’ directives in Matthew 18:15-20 seriously. Work the steps carefully. Don’t rush through them or skip them. (See my previous blog Skipping Steps on this matter). The board can feel good that it’s clearly communicated its expectations directly and fairly to the pastor, and the pastor can feel good that there are no hidden agendas at work. And, once again, if the pastor doesn’t like what the board has told him, he can start looking for another ministry.
It is possible that what the pastor really needs is some continuing education, or a leave of absence, or a sabbatical, or some counseling. If the church can arrange to pay for some of these possibilities, both your pastor and your church will greatly benefit.
But what if the board creates expectations, shares them with the pastor, takes its time, and yet things spiral downward from there?
*Bring in a church consultant to work with the pastor, the board, the staff, and some of the key leaders in the church. While this step might seem expensive (think $5,000 to $10,000), it’s a pittance compared to the price a church will pay down the road in departing attendees, withheld giving, and congregational disharmony if the pastor is forced to resign. Remember: do everything you can to prevent a spiritual divorce, even if you are personally convinced that the pastor is the problem.
But if you’ve done all you can, and things still haven’t improved, what then?
I’ll deal with that on my next blog.
Restoring Kingdom Builders 
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