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 Read More …
pastor
Being Prepared for Church Administration (#0485)
Yesterday I reviewed Robert Welch's Church Administration: Creating Efficiency for Effective Ministry, 2nd edition (2011). In that post, I noted that his research shows most pastors graduate from seminary with little or no preparation for church administration even though the average pastor spends around half of her or his time on such tasks. When I entered seminary, I already had a solid educational and experiential background in administration outside of the for-profit sector. Read More …
Your Pastor Wants to Tell You (#0479)
W. Allen Thomason recently wrote a post about things your pastor wants to tell you, but lacks the courage to say. He writes, "I know that every pastor has things on his or her heart that he or she would love to tell the church, but they never get said for fear that it might cost them their job in the long run." The following items are among those on Thomason's list: The Pastor is not responsible to do all your “Christian Stuff” for you You are not as loving as you think you are Read More …
The End of the Pastor’s Study (#0402)
Joe Smith is the pastor of St. John Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Lakewood, WA. Recently, he blogged about how overrated office space is for pastors. Then, a few days later, he continued the discussion of the topic with a guest post by Kirk Jeffery, an ordained United Methodist pastor who currently serves as a church growth consultant. Together these two posts effectively argue that while the pastor's study served a significant purpose in an earlier era it has outlived Read More …