516 Where Pastors Go To Be Renewed …And Why It Isn’t Working (This column is the cover story in the latest Plain Truth Magazine)
Ask any pastor why he/she entered the ministry. Invariably, their eyes light up and a smile will break across their face. I’ve asked 100’s and they say things like:
“I wanted to preach and teach the Word of God full-time so I could help others love God and their neighbor more.”
“I wanted to introduce as many people as possible to Jesus while equipping as many people as possible to introduce as many people as possible to Jesus.”
“I left the secular work force so I could devote myself completely to helping fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus.”
Myself? I entered the ministry over 20 years ago because God’s love so dramatically changed me that I wanted to spend the rest of my life helping others discover that same life-changing love.
Now, ask those very same pastors what they spend most of their time doing. Invariably, tired lines replace the smile as they say:
“Putting out fires in our congregation. No sooner do I get one extinguished when another one erupts.”
“Busy work - meetings, paperwork, event planning, problem-solving, you name it. I am always scrambling to find enough time to get my sermon ready by Sunday morning.”
“Most of the time I feel guilty about all the things I’m not getting done. I go, go, go, but I never seem to catch up or accomplish anything that lasts.”
Several years ago I would have answered, “Keeping the church afloat. I’m always thinking, planning and enacting programs and events that will keep people coming back week after week.” And if I was being completely honest I’d add, “…so we can pay all the bills.”
Few pastors actually get to do what they feel called to do. They end up spending most their time doing what they least like to do. There is a gloomy disconnect between the calling of a pastor and the vocation of a pastor. How tragic.
Furthermore, many clergy are the hardest working, least paid professionals in their community who constantly sacrifice family and personal time to do all those things that they weren’t called to do. All of this leads to frustration and exhaustion. No wonder stress, burn out and drop out rates with clergy are among the highest of all professions.
How do pastors rediscover their first love? Where do they go to renew their calling? How do they recharge their batteries so they can keep on going, and going, and going…
PASTOR’S CONFERENCES
More than anything else, they attend pastor’s conferences. These events promise to reinvigorate pastors by placing in their hands the latest and greatest programs and tools available so they can become more effective and successful in ministry. That is an irresistible carrot for pastors because more than a bigger salary or a good night’s sleep, pastors desperately want to glorify God by being effective and successful at what they do for God.
I assumed years and years that pastor’s conferences could and would deliver on their promise of renewal. I can’t tell you how many of these events I’ve attended. They had names like: Growing a Healthy Church, Disciple Making Church, The New Church Revolution, Purpose Driven Church, Natural Church Growth, How To Pastor a Growing Congregation, Growing Bigger By Growing Smaller, Preaching That Works, The Equipping Church, Leading Like Jesus, Habits of Highly Effective Pastors – and the list just keeps on going, and going, and going…
These events typically feature a pastor who has done something remarkable - like grow his church from 50 to 5000, or write a book that has sold millions of copies. He recounts awe-inspiring stories of the tremendous things God has done for him.
I’d listen and imagine what it must be like to be part of such an amazing move of God. The speaker would conclude by telling us that if we applied his principles of ministry surely God would do the same for us as he had done for him.
I’d leave renewed and armed with a bag full of the speaker’s books and tapes and a field manual detailing how to duplicate his remarkable success in my church.
“Jeepers God,” I’d pray, “just adding 100 new people to my church would be enough to make me happy – you don’t have to knock yourself out for me like you did for that dude.”
However, a few months later those books and tapes would be collecting dust on my shelf …next to dusty books and tapes which I had purchased at previous pastor’s conferences. My church would pretty much be where it was before the conference and my frustration and exhaustion levels were again rising. Soon I would be looking for a new pastor’s conference I could attend to try to get renewed.
WHY DO WE KEEP FALLING FOR GLITZY NEW PROGRAMS?
Every pastor in America knows exactly what I’m talking about – including the speakers at these latest and greatest conferences because behind the hype most of them are just as frustrated and exhausted.
The reason for this debacle is obvious, but like the emperor’s new clothes, we pastors can’t see it.
Think about it. If a primary source of pastoral frustration and exhaustion is the disconnect between our calling and our vocation, then why would we expect to be renewed by attending a conference that is designed to increase our vocational work load while drawing us yet further from our calling?
(Let me insert that I’m speaking in general terms. There were some very good concepts and nuggets that I gleaned from these events, but they were like panning an ounce of gold from a ton of ore.)
What’s even more insidious is that most of these glitzy new programs have the shelf-life of a loaf of bread. Just about the time I would get a program up and running it was already stale and no longer attracting the crowds. I’d have to be off to another conference to find a new program, a fresh loaf of bread, for my hungry congregation so they’d keep coming back to church.
Is that crazy or what?
DOING THINGS FOR GOD …OR KNOWING GOD?
As I examined my irrational behavior more closely I discovered there were also two deep-seeded institutional problems that contributed to my exhaustion and frustration. Every pastor needs to pause and consider the impact of these upon his life.
First, most churches are deeply entrenched, program-based systems. Despite our catchy slogan which says that Christianity is a relationship not a religion; the fact is, mainstream Christianity is more a religion than it is a relationship. It’s about doing things for God, not knowing God. Even the way we get to know God is by doing things.
I remember attending a conference where the featured mega-church pastor beautifully explained how we can’t get to know God simply by doing things. He then spent the next day and half outlining his seven step process that we need to do so we can get to know God.
If pastors are going to succeed in this program-based, religious system called church, they must offer a steady stream of new and exciting programs for their people to do - even though most of these programs draw pastors further away from their gifting and calling. But pastors are tremendously dedicated and want what’s best for their church, so off to the latest and greatest conferences they go so as to be on the cutting edge of church evolution.
As I explained above, most of these events don’t renew a pastor; at best they temporarily mask their symptoms like a narcotic. In reality they exasperate the pastor’s problems because with every failed program comes a growing sense of despair and disillusionment with the system in general and with themselves in particular (not to mention the negative impact upon their congregation).
LEADERS OR SHEPHERDS?
The second deep-seeded institutional problem that fuels pastoral frustration and exhaustion was revealed to me by Christian pollster George Barna. I heard him say that a primary reason why so many (including himself) are leaving mainstream Christianity is because leaders are not leading the churches – thus many (probably most) churches are dysfunctional.
What? Isn’t that what pastors do …lead?
Barna asserts that pastors are gifted and called by God to be pastors (shepherds). Leaders are gifted and called by God to be leaders. But rarely are pastors also leaders. There’s a conundrum. Mainstream Christianity has ordained pastors to also be the leaders of the church. So once again pastors are forced by the system to function outside of their gifting and calling.
Not surprisingly, when gifted leaders attempt to lead, the defacto leaders (pastors) feel threatened. Instead of welcoming the freedom and relief these leaders offer, Barna says pastors tend to become territorial out of their insecurities. They use their ordained institutional authority to neutralize the real leaders so as to maintain their life-draining power.
How do they treat this problem? They attend pastor’s leadership conferences that attempt to give them leadership gifts that are bestowed by God, not hottest mega-church pastor.
Put all these pieces together and is it any wonder why so many pastors are perpetually frustrated and exhausted? Yet, like the emperor’s new clothes, these tremendously dedicated servants press on oblivious to the fact that it is the religious system to which they are enslaved that is slowly sucking the life and passion out of them.
Lord have mercy.
LEAVING BUSY WORK BEHIND
Some years ago I reached my breaking point. I was setting at a pastor’s conference when my eyes were opened and I realized I was as naked as an emperor. The calling and passion which had drawn me into the ministry had been sucked out of me. I was depleted and spiritually bankrupt. I had been so busy doing church stuff for God that I didn’t really know him anymore and I sensed that if I kept going at this pace I might never know him again in this life.
I tried to stay through the rest of the conference but they kept feeding me more busy work – work that I absolutely dreaded doing. My “to do” plate was overflowing before I came and now they were trying to serve me another huge portion of “to do.” Yuck. I left.
It was a horrible, wonderful day – a day when everything started changing for me.
I stopped attending most pastor’s conferences. I also removed tons of materials I had purchased at past conferences from my personal library. I called some of my pastor buddies and invited them to take any of the books, tapes and manuals they wanted – there were 100’s of them.
“Holy cow,” they gasped when they saw the enormous pile of materials, “are you leaving the ministry?”
“No, I’m actually trying to get back to the ministry,” I smiled. “I think this stuff is keeping me from it. I actually feel bad pawning it off on to you guys.”
They were elated to take that straw off my hands. However, I know for a fact that just about all of it ended up collecting dust on their shelves and that three of those four guys have since left the ministry.
Perhaps pastor’s conferences have gotten better over the years since I quit going but judging by the pastoral carnage I see along the roadside of churches I’d guess not.
But the problem is so much bigger than pastor’s conferences. Mainstream Christianity is systemically sick and pastors experience the side affects of this illness the most. My heart breaks for them.
As for me, I’ve been one of the revolutionaries Barna talks about for some time now. I left mainstream Christianity just before frustration and exhaustion forced me to leave. And though I no longer attend pastor’s conferences, or perhaps because of not attending them, I’m thrilled to tell you that my answer to why I entered the ministry and what I spend most of my time doing are now one and the same.
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