As these thoughts have been weighing more heavily on my mind, I came across a random comment on FaceBook from a friend that prompted me not only to ask what was going on in their lives, but to ponder mine as well. You see, I gather that my friend is leaving the ministry to pursue a secular job and focus more on family responsibilities. He is not the first friend to do that, nor the only one. I have witnessed my fair share of pastors come and go. I always wonder why they are leaving. And immediately afterward, I wonder why I have stayed. Now, stay with me. I’m not going off on some pious tangent, explaining why I am so super-spiritual and these others are so carnal that they cannot handle the job. I have contemplated leaving the ministry on more than one occasion in these last 39 years; just ask my wife. On second thought, DON’T! We don’t want to get her started on that subject! LOL

I’m not saying that my friend is not sensing God’s leading or that he would be wrong in leaving. I remember Peter wanting to know about that OTHER disciple when the direct and difficult question of Jesus (“Peter, do you love me?”) kept the spotlight on him. He wanted to shift it to the OTHER disciple. But Jesus rebuked, “What has that to do with you?” (That’s my paraphrase, but you can find his full answer in John 21:20-23). Ultimately, Jesus, the Lord of the church, is in charge of calling and deploying his servants (see Ephesians 4:11-16). I’m just explaining the context that brought the question to my mind, “Dan, why in the world have you stayed in the ministry soooooo long? Are you a glutton for punishment? Does staying mean that you can’t do anything else, that you are trapped in this job, that it’s all you know?

It’s especially a challenging question, since I began to do some research.

A Duke University study found that eighty-five percent of seminary graduates entering the ministry leave within five years and 90% of all pastors will not stay to retirement (Kanipe, 2007, n.p.).

This study also found that the North Georgia clergy attrition rate ran as high as 90% for those having served 20 years or more. These ministers apparently left to preserve what was left of their families, their sanity, their health and their faith (Kanipe). These statistics further indicate a poor professional prognosis for seminary students and highly suggest an urgent need for interventions.

You can find the study I read on pastor attrition rates here:

http://www.oak.edu/~oakedu/assets/ck/files/Stewart+(SU+09).pdf

I attended a great many leadership training seminars and programs when I was younger and involved in administration and management. I remember hearing (although I cannot remember where or from whom) that, if a person fails in a job, it could be that the person did not have the skills, training, or motivation for the work. But if person after person fails in the job, you can’t blame the person. The problem is the job. What you have created is an impossible job.

Something is definitely wrong with what we see happening in pastoral ministry. Maybe some left because they were never called in the first place. Maybe some had unrealistic expectations. Maybe some did not have the skill set or proper training or right motivation. However, I also believe that what we have designed the role of “pastor” to be may be an impossible position to fill. I’m not talking about the Biblical role assigned to the pastor. Now, that is a challenging, yet rewarding and fulfilling responsibility. But we have tried to place on the pastor the administration, directing, managing, promotion, growth and effectiveness of the church. His shoulders may be broad, but at some point, he will falter under the burden of such unrealistic expectations. He can’t spend the week involved in 30 hours visiting and 20 hours preparing the Sunday sermon and 15 hours in services and 15 hours teaching and discipling and 20 hours counseling the hurting and troubled, while assigning 10 hours to designing, reviewing or implementing training programs, 5 hours to office management, 5 hours in extracurricular church activities, 10 hours in communicating, etc. He can’t do it all. He can’t make the church function correctly, force growth, or leap tall buildings with a single bound. The last church I pastored that tried to put that burden on my shoulders forced me to hand in my resignation.

In some places, church people are extremely prejudiced, judgmental, and unrealistic. They gossip, complain, and refuse to be understanding, forgiving, or sympathetic. Church squabbles and fights are legendary. These problems are as old as the church and pastoral ministry itself. Just read 1 and 2 Timothy to get a picture of the problems young Timothy faced in the ministry and how the Apostle Paul instructs him to deal with them.

What this has to say to those who oversee pastors in denominations and fellowships and what this should say to church members is that we need to sit up, open our eyes and pay attention to what is happening and what we can and should do about it. That is, unless we simply don’t care about the role of pastor, the people who are called “pastor”, or the plight of the unrealistic role we place upon their shoulders.

So here I am, a pastor who has spent the last 39 years in ministry, asking himself why he has lasted so long, how he overcame the odds and lived to tell about the harrowing experiences of ministry. Lucky? I think NOT! I want to briefly innumerate the reasons I am still here (unless things go south tomorrow in the pastoral vote 🙂 ).

1. I am CALLED to the ministry. I remember vividly the experience of feeling and responding to that call and it has held me with such a grip that I have never been able to wrangle from its grasp. I have tried, I have felt the temptation, I have toyed with the idea of leaving. But I have never been able to get away from the calling. I am not primarily answerable to my denomination, to some ministerial oversight committee or to my church. I am answerable to my Lord who called me and I must give an account to him.

2. I serve the GREATEST institution on earth. I serve the church of Jesus Christ, the leading force in advancing the kingdom of God on earth. This institution is backed by the promise that the “gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Whatever good I could do in serving others in secular employment, I count but loss for the excellency of serving God’s forever people and in building his eternal kingdom. Whatever temporal rewards, praise, bonuses, promotions, etc. that I could find in secular employment fade in the glorious light of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now I am not saying that, unless you are a pastor or full-time Christian worker, you cannot be a part of this great cause and kingdom or that you can’t accomplish great things for the glory of God. I am saying that I have the great privilege to serve the cause of Christ in a special role and I must be faithful to pursue it.

3. I took my vows of ordination which are as sacred to me as the vows of marriage. I will not innumerate those things that I promised to commit myself to do. The pastors in my denomination know exactly where they may be found. Others may consult your denomination’s book of Discipline or Handbook. Needless to say, should I go back on them, I would feel that I had forsaken the BRIDE OF CHRIST, and my sacred oath.

4. I love God’s people and feel a special burden for them. My burden is that the image of Christ be formed in them. My burden is that they accept the privilege and take up the glorious challenge before them to be ALL that God intends them to be. My burden is that they become the irresistible force that the Spirit of God can energize them to become in the world. Like the dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision, I see the potential for the Spirit of God to move upon the church’s dry bones, bringing them together, joining them together, putting flesh upon them and raising them up to stand for him, while energizing them with the breath of the Spirit to fill them with spiritual life, spiritual zeal, spiritual fervor, spiritual power.

5. I have been uniquely gifted and prepared to serve in this capacity. It’s not just that I have a Bible colIege education or have studied Biblical languages. It’s not that I have ordination papers or a certificate of recognition. I have been involved in ministry of some form since I was 15 years old. Early on, church leaders recognized and encouraged ministry gifts which I possessed. Not many teenagers are allowed, much less invited, to teach an adult Sunday school class. Not many teenagers are pulled into pastoring a nearby church while working with the youth of another church. This has been my experience and my life. God has given me so many opportunities for ministry. And just when I think I am shut out of ministry, He opens another door to serve, inviting me to continue, to persevere, and to press on in ministry.

6. Given all of the challenges, difficulties, struggles, problems, trials, disappointments, headaches, heartaches, and pain involved in ministry, I still find it the most satisfying and fulfilling employment I have every experienced. People can be difficult and perflexing. Helping people can be challenging and confusing. There is a lot I still don’t know and much that I need to learn, but I am finding out that much of life is about just showing up, just being there, just refusing to give up.

7. Ultimately, I can’t imagine doing something else to the exclusion of ministry. People who know me and have worked with me know that I am a person who pursues vision for ministry. Now, in many cases, my vision has been costly, extremely challenging, and seemingly impossible. A few years ago, I had a vision of a “Great Commission Church,” leading the lost to Christ, discipling them, advancing the gospel across cultural barriers, and deploying supported missionaries into far-flung fields of service. You might say I had a vision of a “full-service” church. The church I pastor is one of those churches. They adopted the vision and their former pastor passionately pursued it with them. Now, I am longing to see the vision fully implemented before my departure. I want to see and to show that it can be done, not just by a few mega-churches, but by even a small band of humble servants who simply submit themselves to the Lordship of Christ and the furtherance of his kingdom.

I am still here and I want to finish my course as a pastor serving the cause of Christ and his glorious church. This is not to put others to shame or place on them any blame. It is my answer to myself for my reasons for remaining a pastor, against the odds and overwhelming challenges of ministry.