You may be a part of a church that has had the same pastors and leaders for decades with very little turnover. Or perhaps, you’re in a church that seems to have frequent turnover among leadership. Have you ever wondered why? Many factors can contribute to this. Here are 6 reasons pastors keep leaving your church:
1. Unhealthy Church Culture
One reason pastors leave is because of your church culture. No matter how successful things may be in your church, good people won’t stay if there is an unhealthy culture. There are many ways you can have a bad culture, such as a lack of boundaries, expectation of perfection, no rest, and/or a controlling environment.
In the church, leaders are expected to give up their personal lives to make things happen. This can quickly become unhealthy if there are no boundaries for leaders to have lives in addition to their ministry role. Pastors cannot feel like robots who belong to the church but must feel like people who matter.
That said, all of us require rest. When someone must always say yes to everything and cannot recharge, they will not be able to sustain that pace. Rest is a critical element of a healthy culture, and a lack of rest is a staple of many unhealthy cultures.
In addition, churches can occasionally take the message of excellence too far. We can start to expect pastors to be perfect. They must have perfect marriages, families, and sermons. Perfection is an impossible goal, and it will always fail.
If you are experiencing a great deal of turnover in your church, your culture may be a great place to look first.
2. Consistent Conflict
Conflict is generally not fun for most people. When there is a lot of consistent conflict with others, it creates added stress and unnecessary pressures and takes the joy out of the calling. So, if there is a heightened amount of conflict (this also speaks to culture), good pastors will likely not stay. “Christ is the reason many enter the pastorate. Conflict is the reason many leave.”1 These conflicts could be with a specific person repeatedly or could be the ongoing cycle of constant conflict, but all of it ends up being challenging.
1Alfred Poirier, The Peacemaking Pastor (p. 9). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
3. Unmanageable Stress That Leads to Burnout
A major reason pastors keep leaving? Stress and burnout.
Stress is unavoidable in life and can come up at any time, but burnout is an entirely different story. Simply put, burnout is the result of exhaustion physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually that many of us feel after prolonged or chronic stress. We weren’t meant to live in constant stress. Yet, so many still do. Eventually, even the greatest of pastors will meet and exceed their limits and find themselves wondering if any of this is worth it. The exhaustion they experience will overtake the joy they felt in the call and will cause many to consider moving on to something else.
Burnout is extremely common among church leaders and pastors for many reasons. Some of those include being overworked and underpaid, having to operate under the duality of being business savvy and spiritually minded, and many other complex demands. It’s probably no secret that serving in ministry doesn’t exactly make the big bucks. To make matters worse, ministry also places a high demand on pastors. For many, they feel they are on call 24/7. This partnership of high demand but low pay can cause financial stress that eventually leads to complete burnout.
4. Discouragement from the Complaint Department
Pastoring can also feel a bit like you work in the complaint department. Pastors hear all about the things that others don’t like about the church, their preaching, or something someone did. While many pastors work hard to give space for people to express how they’re feeling, it can still be discouraging and lonely to be the recipient of that from each member of the church.
In addition, pastors walk through people’s hardest seasons with them. When you’re exposed to that much of the pain and suffering of others, it can start to wear on you. For some, the weight of it all is just too much, so they move on to other things.
5. Loneliness in the Church
Another reason pastors leave is because the life of a pastor can be lonely. It may be hard to make friends or find people who care about you, not just your position.
Pastoring can be a lonely position, but it is also especially challenging for the families of pastors as well. They may be feeling lonely or disconnected even more than the pastor on staff at your church. When this happens, some pastors will choose to move on to places and areas where their families can be better connected.
This is why it’s important not just to check in with the pastor on staff but also to check in with their family. Their need for connection and relationship is just as important as your staff Pastor. There have been many times when the wife’s lack of connection was the main reason for the staff Pastor quitting. The health of the family unit can be a major factor.
6. Times of Transition
Churches go through transition. Sometimes it is very healthy and natural, but other times it can be painful and chaotic. No matter the reason, some people use transitional times to reevaluate and decide if they want to hang around. If you’ve recently experienced a change of leadership or some other major transition, that could be contributing to pastors leaving. When there is new leadership, there is also new vision. While some may have resonated with the vision of the previous leadership, they may not feel the same connection to the vision being laid out today. If there is a pattern of staff transitioning in and out, this will cause anyone to rethink their position at the church (which is why point #1 is so crucial).
7. Feeling a Change in Call
Ministry is not a job. It is a calling. Sometimes, pastors leave because they begin to feel a shift in calling. Some move to a different position in ministry, while others may leave ministry altogether. No matter the reasoning, if someone is no longer feeling called, they are highly likely to move into other things. In addition, they may no longer feel called specifically to your church or area. Some pastors feel a deep calling to a city and will serve that city for life, but others may feel moved along to other places along the way.
In ministry, the hope would be to have the same pastor or pastors on staff for years and years. While this isn’t always the case, paying attention to these few important reasons that pastors may leave can help you retain more leaders.
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