Why Pastors Should Commit Themselves To “Extended Stays”

Pastoral terms are too short.  The average tenure of three to five years¹ is not working well for anyone.

There are, of course, no Bible verses that say that this is too short, for the pastorate as we know it today was not yet commonly practiced when the New Testament was completed. So I’m not going to say: “Short pastorates are unscriptural.”

That’s not the point.

In fact, some of you know that I’m a big fan of one type of short pastorate: the strategic interim or transitional pastorate, in which the pastor functions like a middle-relief pitcher in baseball. Far from just “holding down the fort” by preaching sermons and providing some pastoral care, the strategic and focused interim pastor can help a congregation to process its past and prepare for its future.

But that’s not my topic. I’m arguing that normal pastors – I call them long-term pastors² – should commit themselves to staying in their God-given assignments as long as possible.

The argument is made convincingly in the new book from my friend Rich Brown, Extended Stays. If you’re a pastor, this book is well worth your time.

What I’m going to give you here is a short list of good arguments (mostly Rich’s) for making a serious faith commitment to settle down and stick by the stuff as long as one can productively do so.

That last phrase takes me back to a great little article which I’ve had on my web site for several years: Long Pastorates: An Alternative View, by John Herman. I’ll plug this in as an important caveat and then we’ll get to my list.  Herman argues that the best pastorate isn’t necessarily short or long; it’s simply productive.  It’s effective. The right-length pastorate is one that is fruitful for God’s glory from start to finish, whether it’s one year or thirty years long.

In fact, I think we can safely say that:

• The best pastorate is good and long. And in most cases, it’s long because it’s good.
• The 2^nd best pastorate is good and short – like the interim pastorates I described above.
• The 3^rd best pastorate is poor and short. Some pastorates need to be put out of their misery relatively quickly.
• The worst pastorates are poor and long. Some pastors commit themselves to a long pastorate – usually for worldly reasons such as home ownership or the proximity to extended family – without committing themselves to having good, effective, fruit bearing ministries. There are pastors who don’t know when to quit, remaining in unproductive ministries for years, or even decades. But that’s another post for another day.

Having said that, here are some good reasons for pastors to make a long-term commitment:

1. The longer pastorate gives the pastor the time to form deep, meaningful, satisfying, God-honoring relationships with his church members. Everyone needs these of course, because deep friendships lead to deep change, deep growth and deep satisfaction.
2. The commitment to a long pastorate motivates the pastor to work hard at making it “good and long” by pursuing personal health, relational health and the kind of cultural climate that he’s going to enjoy living in for decades to come.
3. The commitment to a long pastorate becomes evident, whether we voice it or not, and leads to a greater level of trust on the part of our church members. Greater trust leads to greater ability to help individuals and a greater opportunity to lead the church where it needs to go. Many churches have been subjected to a long series of two-year (or even shorter) pastorates. Why should they trust the leadership of someone who’s not going to stay anyway? For this reason, short pastorates lead to stagnated churches.
4. The longer pastorate gets the pastor through the first few years of adjustment, adaptation, role clarification, authority and power struggles, etc. Many observers say that pastorates don’t get fully “up and running” for about five years. If this is true – and I believe it is – many pastorates end before the pastor even enters into what could have been his most productive years with the church.
5. There’s no question that the longer pastorate is easier on the pastor’s wife and children than a series of short pastorates and moves to other communities. When my son was seven years old we moved to what was his fifth home. Even though we had landed on Easy Street (literally) and it was crawling with kids, ours stood looking out the window, unsure whether he wanted to venture out and make new friends (who would turn out to be only temporary anyway). Shamed by what I had subjected him to, I vowed that I would keep us in that town until our son was out of high school.  God graciously honored my rash vow; we didn’t move until he had graduated from college.
6. The longer pastorate allows the pastor – in his role as a leader – to develop ministry strategies that work effectively in that community. Pastors who “come and go” are seldom able to identify effective methods and leave their church members more skeptical than ever about their fly-by-night pastors with their fly-by-night strategies.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:

1. How long have pastoral tenures been in your church?
2. If your church has had any “glory years,” did they occur under the leadership of a good, long-term pastor? If so, how was it that “Pastor Best” was able to stay so long?
3. If your church typically has had short pastorates, please discuss why this has been the case.
4. What can be done in your congregation to make the current pastor’s ministry good and long?

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¹Extended Stays, Rich Brown, p. 5

²Please don’t call them “permanent pastors” – at least when I’m around – for the only permanent pastor is Jesus (Hebrews 13:20).