Research seems to confirm what anecdotal observations indicate. The length of service by a pastor at a single church — his tenure — is growing.
Several years ago the average tenure of a Baptist pastor was about two years. People joked that pastors were like migratory birds. Every season they changed locations.
Now the average pastorate is between five and seven years according to one source at LifeWay Christian Resources. The exact length of service is still illusive. One study indicated the average is 8.2 years, another 9 years and still another reports 7.7 years. But Barna Research reports the average pastoral tenure among mainline congregations at about 4 years.
No matter the exact number, the length of service in a single church is growing. Perhaps that is because pastors and churches are both realizing that longer tenured pastorates generally produce healthier churches than a constant turnover of pastoral leadership. Lyle Schaller said it this way. “Longer tenure does not guarantee church growth but shorter pastoral tenure almost always insures lack of growth.”
Five stages
Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay, wrote in an article entitled “Five Stages of a Pastor’s Ministry,” “A church is likely to experience some of its best years, by almost any metrics, during this period (stage four — 6 to 10 years) of a pastor’s tenure.”
During years 11 and beyond, the pastor and church can be reinvigorated and ready to tackle new challenges, Rainer observed.
Even though the same person is leading a congregation for a longer period of time than in years past, it is important to recognize that the pastor is ever-changing. In fact, to say the same pastor stands before the congregation Sunday after Sunday may be a misnomer because it fails to recognize the pastor himself is ever-changing.
Perhaps that principle is most clearly seen in the contrast between the young, brash, eager, driven young man in his first pastorate. Ideas overflow. Things need to get done now. The new pastor may have little patience with those who don’t share his vision for the church or who are not as committed as he.
See that same pastor some years later. Now he may be more understanding of others, more sensitive to the circumstances of life. Differences do not frighten him because he has learned to work through them to reach common understandings. His appreciation of the family of God has grown and he is not as invested in his own ideas.
He is the same person but a totally different pastor. Neither is wrong. The difference only illustrates the pastor is ever-changing.
Consider the changes that take place in the pastor’s spiritual life. Each week he spends hours in Bible study and prayer. He reads and trains to keep his skills sharp. He attends seminars and conventions for inspiration and understanding. He even prioritizes time for continuing education.
New understandings come along the way, new insights to the meaning of Scripture. The pastor’s walk with the Lord is deepened and it shows in his preaching and ministry. The story of how Moses was changed by his encounter with the Lord is described in Exodus 3. He was a different person after his experience with God at the burning bush than he was before that experience.
Though not as dramatic, pastors are ever-changing, ever-growing through their devotion to prayer, Bible study and training. The result of their time with God is that even though it is the same person standing before the congregation, it is a changed pastor.
Life experiences have a similar impact. Experiences generally have a way of changing us. Occasionally someone acts as if he has all the answers when he has never really faced the problems. Years ago a pastor advertised himself in The Alabama Baptist as a marriage counselor. His qualification was that he had been married three months.
Walking through a serious illness or making a grief journey or experiencing disappointment in a family relationship — all of these have a way of changing us. Many people mark their lives by such events. Listen and you will hear people marking their lives with phrases like “before my illness” or “after my operation” or “since ______ died.”
Life happens — the good and the bad. We learn from both and so does the pastor. Standing in the pulpit after such an experience, he is a changed pastor.
Even time in ministry contributes to the ever-changing nature of the pastor. A different approach to ministry is required when every experience is new than when experience has made one comfortable, if not confident, in the mist of ministry needs.
Time in the ministry produces other changes too. A pastor is changed when his expectations of a church turn out to be misguided or inaccurate. He is changed when he recognizes he is unable to fulfill all the expectations some have of him. He is changed when a church acknowledges its own shortcomings as well as his.
A pastor is changed when conflicts and challenges are worked through rather than the church resorting to separation.
He is changed when he and his family become part of the congregational family rather than being the outsiders who will be gone soon.
Changes for the better
When trust replaces suspicion, when confidence replaces doubt, when inclusion replaces being an outsider, then everyone involved is changed. And these changes are usually better that those produced by the “remove and replace” approach to pastoral relations.
The point is whether your pastor has been there two years or 20 years he is not the same as on his first day. He is not the same that he will be as he continues to walk with the Lord and with the church. The pastor is ever-changing.
You and your congregation have a great influence in the direction these changes take — for good or for bad. Hopefully churches and pastors can work together so the results are God-pleasing pastors leading healthy churches of growing Christians.
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