PASTOR CRISIS

I don't know if this is in the right forum but here goes. I was sorting out the vast amount of paperwork on my desk and came across some disturbing facts which I share with you and ask "what on earth is going on to cause this." I know but I thought I would canvas your ideas. it is all about pastors.

1. 80% of pastors believe that the job has negatively affected their families.
2. 95% of pastors do not regularly pray with their spouses.
3. 90% feel they are not properly trained for the job.
4. 70% of pastors constantly fight depresssion.
5. 70% say they do not have a close friend.
6. 50% of pastors are so discouraged they would leave the ministry if they could find another way of making a living.
7. 50% of the pastors starting out will not last 5 years.
8. 80% of spouses feel the pastor is overworked.
9. 80% of spouses feel left out and underapreciated.
10. 66% of members expect the pastor to be more moral than they are.
11. Over 1,700 pastors left the ministry every month last year.
12. over 1,300 pastors were terminated by their church each month often without cause.
13. over 3,500 people a day left the church last year.,

Number one reason why pastors leave the ministry....The congregation will openly oppose the direction the pastor wants to go.

Over to you.

#11 #12 #13 - sure seems like a "falling away" of sorts, doesn't it?

#12 terminated often without cause..

Nonsense

I have met quite a few young pastors through my profession. It is very true. They are under tremendous stress. Them as well as their spouses. Many times they are full of enthusiasm but are ill equipped to set proper boundaries. They may find themselves burning the candle at both ends. In an effort to please the church business and needy congregation they neglect themselves and family. I pray for them.

No, not necessarily. Our family has decided to not gather by traditional means of doing church each Sunday. We gather with our friends, share a meal, what God is doing and or what He is showing us, our burdens in intimacy. We've never been free in the faith more in our lives. Actually, I even recognise that my relationship with Jesus is slowly going back to what it was before I regularly attended institutional churches, something I've been wanting for years.
Some people I've encountered instantly jump to the conclusion we are backsliding when we say we don't attend any church when they ask what church we go to. Once we explain, some understand, others don't and that's OK

Mustal............you needed to include the LINK from which you got this information

I think pastors do too much and bear burdens they shouldn’t be...whether its from their own egos or from the expectations from church members, I think today’s pastors are taxed with making their church big..who can carry such a burden?

Okay, let's take these one at a time:

1." In an effort to please the church business."

Since when did the church become a business? 1 Corinthians 12:13 states:

For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

That doesn't sound like a business to me. So why do we treat the body of Christ like an Amazon seller complete with a business model, rules, regulations, and a board of directors?

2. Needy congregation

This one really gets my ire up and is the main reason why I don't "go to church." The modern pastor today views the people in the church as time vampires, sucking the life out of him.

He's so busy running the church like a big corporation or landing the next book deal, or starting a radio broadcast, that he doesn't have the first clue about how to make a single disciple. Why? There's no time!

I don't blame a pastor for being depressed. The current church model is depressing. It's not even close to what Christ envisioned for His body of believers.


Here's the cookie-cutter, Sunday program:

1. Drive to a building
2. Sit quietly for an hour listening to one person speak
3. If you happen to be in the clique, you may get to be in charge of a collection plate (yippee!)
4. When the service is over, make a mad dash out the door
5. Repeat next week

I won't go "to church." I have trouble finding God there.

I believe this problem centers around the word "job." I would suggest that if we all became "pastors" for each other, we wouldn't have this problem. I also believe that the role of pastor has shifted from head shepherd to corporate CEO.

On one hand, you have the business side of the church with all its growth demands tugging at you. On the other hand, you have the "needy" congregation tugging at you because they hold out hope that there may still be the shepherd somewhere lurking in the church.

When I was a kid, we used to have a saying, "If you can't go to your pastor, who can you go to?"

Now we just say, "You can't go to your pastor."

Congratulations! You are worshiping exactly how Christ wants us to worship with each other. This type of gathering is how the early followers got together in Acts chapter 2.

They ate together. They worshiped together. They ministered to each other (something today's pastor is loathed to do for their congregation).

You're accomplishing a hundredfold what most churches with a professional pastor can ever accomplish. Kudos!

Good point, I agree. There are pastors that may have forgotten the real purpose why they choose to become shepherds. It does become taxing when people have you on speed dail. They shouldn't forget where their energy source come from and it is more blessed to give. Even pastors don't have all the answers. David said he had more knowledge than those who taught them. If we will become like a child, God will reveal more to us. Sometimes pastors are lead astray and also are deceived. But it depends if they are sincere and willing to listen even to the congregation or layperson.

I'm still researching for myself how the early church gathered, not that I'm basing our direction on it but out of interest. Some people can somewhat idolise how the early church did things, in my research so far it looks like Christianity has evolved so much over the thousands of years. Core doctrines, ideas etc were debated out amongst men (and still are) It's not like Jesus handed down the rules and regulations of Christianity for man to follow, how it looked then is not how it is now. Gosh, some even shared meals over the grave of a passed believer, believing they were sharing a meal with them because they were alive in the spirit. Such practice today would be rendered cultish and demonic!
So for anyone to say to us, the only way to gather is to attend an institutional church every Sunday I would say is ignorant of the history of Christianity.

# 6 tells a sad story. According to the bible pastors are a gift from God to the church. If the people do not want a God given pastor they will find one among themselves.

Pastoring is not a job it is a calling from God.

Wouldn't it be interesting to overlay these numbers with a gender specific breakdown.

Eph 4:11 is where you can find how God sends pastors into His church.

For the cause of Christ
Roger

Not if we believe the facts which they are.

Like so many others.

They came from the Fuller Insititute, George Barna and Pastoral Care Inc.

The entire problem devolves around the concept of "the pastor".

The Lord never intended one man to be "the pastor", nor be an "employee" of the church. Please note carefully: For this cause left I [Paul] thee [Titus] in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee: (Titus 1:5).

A careful study of the New Testament shows:

1. That every local church was supposed to have a presbytery -- a plurality of elders -- not one man as "the pastor". These men would need to meet the qualifications of elders as spelled out, and women would be excluded. Elders would need to be mature married Christian men, who had the gift of teaching.

2. The elders were to be the pastor/elder/bishops within that church. There would be no one-man ministry, and that pattern had been established since the time of Moses. Each one would exercise the spiritual gifts he had received.

3. The office was that of elder-bishop and the spiritual gifts within the presbytery would be (1) evangelists, (2) pastors, (3) teachers (4) exhorters, (5) ministers, (6) rulers or governors, and (7) helpers. Perhaps seven would be the ideal number, just as seven deacons were appointed in the church at Jerusalem.

4. The elders would be the shepherds and would focus on prayer and the ministry of the Word, while the deacons would be the money-managers and general managers, making sure that the material needs of the flock were addressed.

5. Those elders who excelled and labored in the Word and doctrine would be well-compensated, but not all elders would need compensation if some were self-supporting. However those who preached the Gospel would live of the Gospel.

6. The shepherds would watch carefully over the flock, and minister to the individuals as well as the group. The pulpit ministry would be only one aspect of shepherding, which would include personal oversight of each sheep, as spelled out in Ezekiel 34.

7. Faithful men would teach other faithful men within the assembly, so that none would have to go outside the church to be "trained" for the ministry. The ministry would not be a career but a calling, and the money-motive would need to be secondary.

All of this was subverted early on within Christendom. The Orthodox and Catholic churches veered away from this, and created a division between clergy and laity, while appointing one bishop over several churches. This was further enhanced by a hierarchy within the Catholic church (leading up to the pope), and the introduction of Scholasticism and seminaries made academic qualifications more important than spiritual. Today churches want their pastors to be Masters of Divinity else they won't even bother to talk to them. Many have the title "doctor" when Christ expressly forbade the clerical titles of "doctor" or "rabbi" or "reverend", "right reverend" etc.

Chances are that there will never be a return to the NT pattern, thus the problems will remain.

If you substitute moses for pastor.....many of those items fit moses.