Scripture clearly indicates that no pastor – except Jesus – is a “permanent pastor.” As many have put it, “every pastor is an interim pastor.” Jesus went to great lengths – throughout the gospels but especially in the “Upper Room Discourse” of John 13-17 – to warn his leaders-in-training that He would be leaving them […]
Pastoral Succession: “Nailing” The Handoff
Good handoffs can be hugely important. Witness the muffed handoffs that happen on the football field every week. Then there’s the infamous story of the 4X100 meter men’s relay at the 2008 Olympic games, when the American team – expected to win the event handily – literally dropped the baton on a handoff. In the […]
The Ideal Pastoral Handoff
I don’t want to be guilty of promising too much, so I should say up front that there’s no one perfect way of doing a transition from one pastor to another. As Gary Smith put it in his book, Pastoral Transitions: “The cardinal rule [in pastoral transitions] is that there is no cardinal rule.” Or […]
Why Did Our Good God Send Us A Bad Pastor? (Part One)
I confess that no one has ever put it quite that bluntly as my title, but I’ve heard a number of softer versions of it over the years. It usually sounds something like this: “We prayed and worked through our pastor search process but the guy we got was not what we were looking for […]
Why Did Our Good God Send Us A Bad Pastor? (Part Two)
One week ago, we began wrestling with this painful question. While I’ve seldom had it put to me as bluntly as my title, I’ve heard little speeches like the following, several times: “We prayed and worked through our pastor search process but the guy we got was not what we were looking for or expecting […]
Why Did Our Good God Send Us A Bad Pastor? (Part Three)
I’ve heard my share of horror stories about bad pastors. Very few of them are as unfortunate as one I was involved in personally. Near the end of an interim pastorate, when we were just getting our pastoral search team organized, our church was approached directly by a young man who seemed like God’s special […]
Why Did Our Good God Send Us A Bad Pastor? (Part Four)
Here’s the last “bad pastor” horror story I’ll share for a while: Even before I completed the interim pastorate, Donna and I were beginning to have concerns about the new long-term pastor who had taken my place. He had expressed anger with our church members for not hosting him as enthusiastically as he thought they […]
Recovering From A Pastor Disaster
The parsonage was empty…again… This time it was left a little dirtier and messier than it was a year ago. It looked like somebody had departed in a hurry, and they had. The rookie pastor’s first year with the church turned out to be his last year with the church. He loaded the moving truck […]
Why Did A Good God Send Me To Pastor A Bad Church?
I recently dedicated four posts to the question of “Why would a good God send us a bad pastor?” (Click here for the first of the four.) I followed it up with a post on how to recover from a “bad pastor” and what a church member should and should not do if his church […]
Why Did A Good God Send Me To Pastor A Bad Church? (Part Two)
Back in my childhood there was a TV show called “Queen for a Day” which I watched with my mother when I was home sick from school. Each show was a contest between women – mostly housewives (we called them back then) – who had endured miserable lives, dealing with one catastrophe after another. After […]
Why Did A Good God Send Me To Pastor A Bad Church? (Part Three)
Back in the 1990’s, I attended the same big, wonderful pastor’s conference year after year. I often showed up at the conference in tough shape physically, for it was always held during the peak days of my “big-time” allergy season. I would cough all night – sleeping in a storeroom at times so as to […]
Why Did A Good God Send Me To Pastor A Bad Church? (Conclusion)
I would guess that most pastors have believed, at one time or another, that they have been sentenced to serve as the pastor of a “bad church.” The problem is inherent in the job itself: In the best-case scenario, serving as the solo or senior pastor of a church is a challenging role. In far […]
How To Not Get Fired Next Time
This is going to be a long post. I know it’s not for everybody but it might be for you, or someone you love, so please read the next paragraph. A couple of weeks ago I read a new post by Thom Rainer, founder and CEO of Church Answers and the author of over 40 […]
Worn-Out Shoes And Fair-Haired Boys
“Why don’t you love me like you used to do? How come you treat me like a worn-out shoe?” Hank Williams Here’s a phenomenon I’ve seen a number of times. If you’re an experienced leader, I’m sure that you’ve seen it too. An older, generally respected, long-time leader of an organization recruits or hires a […]
A Great Opportunity For Older Pastors
Many pastors in their fifties and sixties are facing a similar scenario: They sense that they are nearing the end of their current pastorates and they are highly uncertain regarding the future. They know that most congregations don’t want pastors who are over sixty, and, in fact, many don’t want pastors who are over fifty. […]
Twenty Ways (15 wasn’t enough) To Solve Our Pastor Shortage, Conclusion
Over the past three weeks I’ve shared fourteen ways in which we might move towards solving our pastor shortage in the evangelical world. While I’ve done some bemoaning of our situation, your responses have been encouraging. I have not felt like a “voice crying in the wilderness.” I’ve found that many of you share my […]
Ten Ways An Interim Pastor Can Jumpstart The Revitalization Process
Before we can consider the role of the interim pastor in church revitalization, I think I would do well to clarify who these guys are that I’m talking about. Broadly speaking, there are two categories of interim (or some say, “transitional”) pastorates: The exploratory or trial interim pastorate is undertaken by an individual who is […]
