1.5% of Pastors Forcibly Terminated Each Year
Posted by Todd Rhoades in Staffing on Oct 26th, 2011 | 9 commentsFor the past seven years, about 1.5 percent of senior pastors have lost their jobs each year due to forced terminations.
via Christian News.
Have you ever been ‘forcibly’ terminated? What was your response? Anger? Relief?
And how did you recover?
Todd
9 Responses to “ “1.5% of Pastors Forcibly Terminated Each Year”
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I’m in the middle of it now. There are such a mixed bag of emotions – most of which are not great. I’m not the head guy…but he didn’t like to hear that I entertained an offer from somewhere else.
…recover doesn’t seem to be underway, yet.
The problem is that it became a job. How it was so not meant to be this way.
I can’t believe the number is actually that low.
Still on the road to recovery…
Todd,
The term “forced termination” could be spelled out more clearly, but when talking about senior leaders in a church we also have “forced resignations” that I have seen which are as messy or perhaps worse and would surely make that statistic hire, in my opinion. Nothing is clear when a church governing body plays it out to make it look like the leaving leader’s decision. My former pastor in the scenario below was a forced resignation. Now, I followed him with a forced termination.
So, it happened to me once and that was over a year ago. I was pretty sad that there was only a couple weeks severance and that it happened the same week the new lead pastor was unloading his moving van. I had offered my resignation, as is standard, to the new pastor.
I gave that word to the board and other staff leaders 6 months previously. But, they chose to force a termination. No moral issues, to clarify. But I know finances and tension were there under the decision. A thick 20-page poop sheet was hastily put together with little scrutiny.
Relief and anger are normal. My anger was mostly in how poorly they handled it. My view was that spite was involved, since I was outspoken about a couple ethical matters in the interim without a lead pastor. Leaving was a relief, and I do not think separation was a bad choice for either side. This makes their call to do it this way saddening.
As a senior leader, I offered my resignation at the end of the interim period as a way to let them know I would be speaking openly and honestly, not to keep my job but to act as I thought would be best for the church during that period.
I am still recovering in the 14th month past the event. I have had interim work, but recovery has not been easy. Financially, it has been terrible, for one. And, the one thing that stings badly is how poor churches are at managing employees. I had to read them the state code for what they owed me, as my last check did not have my full pay on it.
I even suggested that they call an HR helpline service to get advice so we could walk through the termination appropriately and with less emotion–since the handbook was sparse and not even complied with and calmer voices were not in power. I had to halt a letter that would have publicly gone out that really left more questions for all. Friends of mine, who you may know of, told me to get a lawyer in this case. It was that ugly. I did not, thank God.
So, I am not done recovering on all fronts. I do have hope that the 20+ years I have served in ministry can be returned back to the local church. My fear is that this could be the end for me as far as a local church employee, however.
My summary is that the church system is dysfunctional in managing leaders, employees and the changes that are normal as time progresses. A lot of talk needs to be in how we view the organizational ETHICS. And, for only 1.5% annual to be let go is a big gap compared to all employees. Something has to be asked here with that.
Thanks Todd!
Anon. Assoc. Pastor
That number should probably be a lot higher.
2 years out and still working through it. I work in sales and make a solid living, but not satisfied. However the thought of the financial instability that goes with a pastoral position leaves me conflicted. I know what I feel called to to, but I don’t want my family to be subject to the crap that goes with being on staff.
I too am surprised by how low that number is. I think the problem is a combination of churches not knowing how to follow and pastors not knowing how to lead. Seminaries do a great job educating but a lousy job building leaders. Weak leadership in the church has led to people who have forgotten what the church is about. Most churches, in my experience, think the church is for them. They do events that make them happy, sing songs only they like, demand messages that they agree with and sum it all up as the fellowship of the church. When a pastor challenges that fellowship, he/she is forced out. They are forced out by gossip, antagonism, threats, lethargy, unwillingness to help, and even simply fired.
I experienced a lot of this at my first church. I was not a very good leader and my church was very focused on maintaining what they had in place, aka their fellowship. I on the other hand was very focused on growing and developing the church. This led to a lot of conflict which neither of us handled well. I was able to change my leadership style and recover. I also voluntarily left that church much sooner than I originally intended.
Of course, this is not everybody’s story but I do think it is a significant issue in the church today.
That is a very low number. I believe FAR more prevalent is forced termination of staff serving under Senior Pastors. This happens very often and i believe goes very much under the radar. It is far more likely for a Senior Pastor with far more power and influence than he should have to fire those on his staff that he no longer wants around (with little to no oversight) than it is for a church to dismiss a senior pastor. In most churches dismissing a senior pastor is nearly impossible from an administrative standpoint.