“Since their ministries were long and successful,” we reasoned, “if I have a long ministry it will also be successful.”
That was a poor deduction. Those long ministries were a result of the pastor’s success, not the cause of it.
They were also the result of the sovereign choice of God – see I Corinthians 3 for the Apostle Paul’s teaching on the “coming and going” of church leaders.
The truth is that for most pastors and churches there are benefits from the pastor getting a fresh start:
The fresh start can be a chance for the pastor to solidify his own resolutions.
Turning over a new leaf is hard when you’re still hanging around the same old tree. Maybe you’re ready to start praying more, studying more, or spending more time with neighbors. You might need a new church and city to make those changes.
As a new Christian, I obtained a fresh start by moving three hundred miles from home. George Sweeting, former president of Moody Bible Institute, said that “The secret of the Christian life is a series of new beginnings.”
The fresh start can be a chance for the pastor to re-invent himself. I reinvented myself while driving a Penske truck from Wisconsin to Arizona. Here’s what I mean.
For almost twenty years I read about leadership zealously while doing it poorly. Eventually I was ready to become an effective, turnaround leader, though it was too late for me to be that leader in that church. I had tried so many things for so long that the dear folks there were no longer willing to trust my leadership (though they loved me personally).
While seeking counsel about a possible move, a friend told me that a great benefit of being in the US Army is that “By redeploying you every three years, you’re given the opportunity to cut your losses, learn from your mistakes and get fresh starts.”
Fortunately for us, the same is true in the Christian ministry. Re-deployment, even when forced upon us, can be a blessing.
The fresh start can give the church the leader it needs for the next phase of its ministry.
A friend surprised me by relating that when he assumed his position as a denominational leader, he intended to try to persuade pastors to stay in their churches longer. To his surprise, a few years later he found himself doing just the opposite: encouraging pastors to move on sooner, for their own sakes and for the benefit of their churches.
Paul speaks of the need for “fresh leaders” for new phases of a church’s existence with his illustrations in I Corinthians 3. In the first, church leaders are likened to migrant workers, moved on and off the fields of God as our work is completed.
In the second illustration, church leaders are likened to sub-contractors on a building site, moved on and off the scene by the general contractor as our foundation laying, building or remodeling work is completed.
We need different kinds of physicians as we go through life. Teams need different kinds of coaches for different eras. When the highly successful Pat Riley left the Los Angeles Lakers he said that “Sometimes the players just get tired of the sound of your voice.”
My friend John Herman, a leader in the Evangelical Free Church, has written a great little article about “right length pastorates.” He said, simply, that “the answer” isn’t necessarily long pastorates or short pastorates. What we need are “right length pastorates” which are just long enough for God to accomplish His purposes through the pastor. Amen.
