Thom Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, recently shared some observations on church staffing trends in a piece for the Christian Post. One of the six trends he discussed is the percentage of senior pastors who lose their jobs each year because of forced terminations. Over the last seven years, approximately 1.5% of senior pastors have been subject to forced termination each year.
So What?
Basic math indicates that over that 7 year period, 10.5% of senior pastors experienced forced termination. Looked at differently, if any senior pastor served a congregation for the last seven years, he/she stood a 1 in 10 chance of losing that position due to forced termination.
- Is the percent of senior pastors of local congregations who lose their employment due to forced termination higher than, about the same as, or lower than you would have guessed?
- Have you ever been a part of a forced termination of a pastor or church staff member? If so, what did you learn as the result of that experience?