Defend Clergy: It's Not All Your Fault Pastor

It's Not All Your Fault Pastor

Many pastors believe that "getting fired", "having a church fight", "getting involuntarily moved", "getting attacked by a nasty members" is their fault. Often it is not. We pastors often see ourselves as the watchmen (and women) for our congregations. We are responsible for our congregations so when something goes wrong, we often hold ourselves to a higher level of accountability. To a point, this is true, we are more accountable given our calling, however we often forget many factors which we have no control over.

Cultural Changes: Less Volunteerism

With changes in culture, people have less disposable time to give to the institutional requirements of the Church. There are many traditional activities of the Church which take up a lot of time. Most congregations have a building and it must be maintained. Most congregations have elderly/sick folks that must be visited. Most congregations have funerals and weddings. These are the main three, but pastors know that there are a host of other obligations. In the past, most of these activities were done solely by congregants and some with the assistance of congregants. With the advent of two income families, it is more difficult for congregants to give time to the institutional upkeep of the Church and to assist the Pastor. If the activities are not done, many expect that they will fall to the Pastor. An additional factor, is the increase in entertainment like TV and Internet. People are giving more time to these activities and less to the Church due to individualism.

Not just Individualism but Hyper-Individualism

Sociologists talk of the master trend in our age being not just individualism but hyper-individualism. Human beings live their lives through the stories they tell themselves. In the past, issues of loyalty, duty, and honour were part of a persons self-identity. People understood more readily that they live within a web of communal relationships where there are mutual obligations and necessary self-sacrifices. How one was viewed by others was more for good or bad, was important. The current self-identity is about serving the self. While people may or may not be so crass as saying it, but many believe that the role of the Church is to serve them and their family. Not everyone of course, but if a pastor comes into a congregation (I have) where the common understanding of the members is self-serving, don't expect people to serve. If people think watching television is a better use of their time that helping you set up for a funeral the following day, they will stay home to watch TV. And, they will not feel bad about it. If you complain, they might give you an odd look and think "If you didn't want to do these things, why did you become a pastor, dummy?" Don't get me wrong, these folks may be very nice and often do good things, however the key to understanding the current context is that they will often only do them if they want to do them. There is little understanding of duty, loyalty or honour. It's not your fault that you entered your pastorate at a time of hyper-individualism.

Loss of Respect for Right Authority

"Question Authority" is still a common bumper sticker and I really don't have a problem with people questioning authority. The problem however is that when people receive the answer that the Pastor has a lot of right authority given to him/her by Christ through the discernment of the wider church, individuals often do not respect it. I use the term right authority to differentiate from authoritarianism. If you must bully to be the boss, you are not washing the feet of the Christian friends in your care. Bullying is often not the problem, but lack of right authority. One friend of mine told me how she insisted at a worship committee meeting that the Sunday prior to Easter would have a Good Friday focus not a Palm Sunday focus. One elder disagreed since she thought Good Friday was too "gloomy". The Pastor insisted on the Good Friday theme because most of the congregants worked on Good Friday or did not come. Her position, right or wrong, was that it was good for the faith formation of the congregation that the focus be Good Friday. The elder said, "Why do you care about the theme, you'll be away at a Church leadership conference anyway (Individualism)." The pastor replied, "I care because I am your spiritual leader." It may seem odd, but the congregational elders did not see their pastors as a spiritual leader, but something else altogether.

Employeeism

Sorry for the neologism, but the word is needed. I made it up to describe the phenomenon of turning a called position into an employee position. The Pastor is not a Christian leader, but a paid Christian employee whom the congregants pay for services rendered. It is difficult to lead if no one will follow. Employeeism in some denominations is rampant. In the first congregation I was placed in (the first is a placement and after that it is a call system), when the pastoral relationship hit a crisis when I was told at one angry Council meeting, that I must do what they said because they were paying my "salary". I them realized that the Council's understanding of my role was radically different than my own. I was called as a spiritual leader who would build up faithful disciples who loved serving Christ in the world. The Council through I was there to make sure the weddings/funerals were done, anyone who came regardless of commitment would be baptized, and generally make sure that no one in the congregation (at least amongst the main families) was unhappy. It was at this point, I realized I had stayed with the congregation 1.5 years too long (I had made a 3 year commitment and could have left after the first year without losing too much respect from my fellow denominational pastors). The point here is that if your congregation thinks you are paid staff, you can expect them not to give much credence to your understand that Christ has called you for another form of leadership. When the conflict comes, the congregation will feel rightly grieved for you "not doing what you are suppose to do." Their story of the role of pastor will preclude most from seeing what your real role is; which is to build faithful discipleship which is joyfully obedient to Christ as it serves the world Christ loves.

Enabling the Time Strapped Hyper-Individualistic Anti-Authoritarian Employeeism Culture of the Congregation.

"Pastor, I come to Church to feel uplifted on Sunday, but today your challenging sermon made me feel bad. Your not doing your job right." Sometimes we pastors get passive aggressive and do preach a lot of finger waving sermons instead of giving people the good news. However, as the hymn Amazing Grace puts it "Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear, and Grace my fears relieved." When preaching we are speaking for Christ yet often sermons which sound more akin to a Cosmic Teddy Bear than the Crucified One who loved the outcast, cast out demons, called for repentance and most importantly spoke Good News to the despairing. If your sermons are without hope, there is something spiritually wrong. If you are burned out after being beaten up for years, this is understandable. Wrong, but understandable. The complicity and enabling factor I want to challenge you one is whether you've been contributing to the very thing that is killing you. I know I have. I want to be liked. I don't want trouble. However sincere in my own discipleship I am like Peter and resist carrying the cross.

The first congregation I served in had a nice pastor who did most everything with his equally committed wife. Together they must have worked a 100 hours a week and in how they did it, they destroyed the spirit of the congregation. The guy was there 23 years, and much of the problem was not all his fault, but listening to his sermons he rarely challenge the people to change. He made sure the doors were open, the weddings done, the babies baptized, the funerals attended to. His sermons were fluff and his congregation contented in their spiritual stuntedness.

Now, I made some mistakes. The main one was employeeism. I developed a job description. Very Bad Advice!!! I developed boundaries around my hours. Another Very Bad Idea. I refused to do some stuff that the previous pastor did. A Tough but Good Idea. In retrospect, I was not claiming my role as spiritual leader and wrongly handed this authority over to a Council that lacked the maturity to use this shared power. It was a rookie mistake, but along with the other mistakes it undermined my authority and reinforced the understanding that I was an employee there to serve the congregations needs.

This difference in congregation and pastor self understanding was apparent when I challenged the Council. Remember, mature Councils and elders will welcome (they may not like it) being challenged, immature ones will react with threat. The challenge I gave the Council was that of the 100 infant baptisms done in the last 10 years, I observed only 4-10 families which were living up to their commitment (you adult baptism folks look at how many teens come back and you might feel less smug) and vows. I said, "Things are clearly not working." I recommended more pre-education and turning some of the people clearly not interested in discipleship away. Many were confused about such a move and spoke of God's love for everyone. It was an infantile theological position and I pointed out that it clearly was not working and that Christ expected more from discipleship than just a baptism. What about following him and growing in faith? I was new, so I pushed the point. On another occasion, an unchurched lawyer married to a nominal Christian asked the golden question, "What commitment goes with this baptism?" I put the question to the Council and they responded, "Come to worship at least quarterly, give some unspecified amount of money, and when your kids are old enough, bring them to Sunday School with you." At the time, I was a coward and did not tell the "elders" that they were being foolish or perhaps my silence did tell them that.

Now, I can hear some saying that it is nominalism which is the problem, however in strongly evangelical Churches pastors re-enforce the named problem by strongly individualistic preaching and teaching. Discipleship is all about you going to heaven. Discipleship will make you feel good about yourself. Discipleship will save you from evil in this life. Yes, yes, yes, but where is the cross. Where is the move, as Paul says, from the bottle to meat? When do people move from baby disciples, into mature disciples and elders who will begin to sacrifice their TV time in favour of passing on the faith to new Christians or even just vacuuming the worship space so it is clean? Paul reminded us that spiritual gifts are for the benefit of the upbuilding of the community, not primarily for the individual, so why is Evangelical preaching often so Individualistic. Yes, yes, you have to meet people where they are and often people will only hear if the Good News is first put in individualistic perspectives, however we pastors often leave people there and in time they become the elders. In time, they still are so self focused that they do not comprehend your role or even the need to preach the cross (other than to tell them the cross opens the door to heaven) when it comes to joyful sacrifice of their time or money or relationships to the poor/others/etc.

Simple Conclusion

It's tough to lead in the culture we are in. Understanding that will help you stop blaming yourself for your congregation being so screwed up. You are working in a culture where it is very very hard to lead, let alone lead well. If you are reading this, it means your probably in the thick of it. Most times, moving on to less rocky ground having learned better how to discern the state of the congregational fields better, is the best course. If you stay, the goal is an exorcism of those factors which undermine your being able to pastor. It will take time, and perhaps you will only be removing a few of the rocks so the next pastor does not get stoned by the congregation with them. There are issues you can't deal with since most congregants will think you a wing nut for telling them to live on one salary. There is much that you can do, which is to start talking about yourself as a faith leader, preaching a more community interpretation of scripture (did you know that most of the you's in the New Testment are communal. Someone should change them all to Y'all, or as you southerners will correct me Y'all Y'all". Inn the north the best translation for the collective "you" is "you guys". The New Testament speaks to the Church not to individuals (except in two places). Christianity without community is not Christianity. By promoting community faith over individualistic self serving spirituality you'll be adding some good compose to the soil of your congregation which will blossom in God's time.
If you don't know what I mean about individualistic preaching (and God save us from the Anecdotal Sermon) give me a shout.

Peace.
James Love