Coaching and Pastoral Retention

In season 4 episode 5 of The Voice, the musical artist Usher stated, “Being a coach on The Voice is to make an investment in people.”¹ Coaching is a self-investment by the minister and an investment by the coach in the minister. When congregations and presbyteries encourage pastors to have a coach -- and to help fund the coaching costs -- they are making an investment in the minister. Through this multi-level investment, coaching has the potential for lengthening pastoral tenure and stemming the attrition rate of those in the early years of pastoral ministry.

Every minister can benefit by having a ministry coach, especially those in their early years of serving a congregation. It does not matter whether one has taken the path from high school to college to seminary to first call, or is a second career pastor. Serving a congregation is different than anything done before. Pastoral ministry is an art learned best through intentional reflection on one’s ministry.

Coaching is not therapy dealing with issues from the minister's past. Coaching is not a consultation seeking answers to problems from an outside agent. Coaching is not mentoring, being guided in practices and procedures by a seasoned minister. Coaching begins with the conviction that the minister is whole, resourceful and creative. Coaching draws upon the minister's gifts, skills, knowledge, insights and wisdom to establish future oriented goals addressing personal and ministry oriented issues, and developing concrete steps to realize the fulfillment of the goals. Coaching focuses on the minister not the ministry context. The coach maintains a strict standard of confidentiality. Unless it is part of the coaching contract, the coach does not report to the session or to the presbytery about the person being coached or the coaching content.

No pastor goes into their first, or any successive, call expecting it to be short-term. Coaching helps the pastor avoid the short-term call syndrome by:

Ø  Providing a safe arena for intentional reflection on the practice of ministry

Ø  Clarifying one’s role as a pastor

Ø  Dealing with multiple expectations from congregation members

Ø  Sorting the important from the urgent

Ø  Gaining perspective and avoiding blind spots in ministry

Ø  Dealing constructively with conflict

Ø  Handling frustration, failure and anger

Ø  Being a less anxious presence in a highly anxious situation

A Google search for “why pastors quit” reveals a multitude of articles listing reasons for and statistics on the startling attrition of ministers across the theological spectrum.

A frightening number of ministers face dissolution of their call within the first five years. An alarming number of ministers become disillusioned and leave ministry in the first five years. Duke University, Alban Institute and Fuller Seminary have produced studies which indicate a dropout rate of ministers in the first five years ranging from fifty percent to eighty-five percent². In today’s church environment very few will remain in ministry from ordination to retirement.

Secular employers know it is less expensive to retain an employee than constantly training new employees. On the Presbyterian Mission Agency website, it states, It costs your Presbyterian seminaries an average $109,000 to educate a Master of Divinity student for three years.³

That is a significant investment by the individual and by seminary benefactors. Short term pastorates are harmful to congregations⁴, and disheartening to ministers.

In 2004, the Board of Pensions produced a report on clergy recruitment and retention⁵. In 2006, the Board produced another study on mid-career ministers. Both studies raised the concern of attrition in the first years of pastoral service. The 2006 report stated,

In the first cohort, less than five years of service, there has been an increase in each of the years 2002-2005 of those leaving. This increase is reflected in both female and male clergy and closer analysis of the data indicates it applies to both first and second career clergy. The Comparative Statistics report produced by Research Services of the PCUSA indicates that in the years 2002-2005 there have been a total of 1,360 ordinations with an average of 340 per year. The Board of Pensions data indicates that in the same time frame 402 ministers have left and this represents an average of 100 per year. Thus, in raw percentages we are losing around 30% of those being ordained within the first five years of their ministry. It has been rightly pointed out that other professions have a higher rate of “dropout” in the early years. Nonetheless the number leaving each year continues to increase. Can we as a denomination be complacent when 30% of the newly ordained are leaving within five years⁶?

The 2004 report identified three primary contributors to the attrition: stress, conflict, and burnout. Ministers, whether new to ministry or with several years of experience, are hesitant to go to colleagues or mid-council staff with their frustrations or unfulfilled dreams. Nobody likes to admit they are having difficulties or are deeply discouraged in their present call.  Due to the referencing function of presbytery executive staff and the stigma of contacting those who fill the role of the Committee on Ministry, ministers are reluctant to seek help from them. It is unwise for ministers to bare the burdens one’s soul to congregants. The minister is left with few options other than to internalize. Internalized difficulties and unfulfilled dreams are the seedbeds for weed like growth of the contributors to attrition. A coach can help the minister and increase the potential for lengthening pastoral tenure and lessening pastoral attrition.

Coaching and having a coach is an investment worth making in the minister and the congregation(s) they serve.

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1.      Zayda Rivera, April 9, 2013 http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/channel-surfer/2013/04/the-voice-season-4-episode-5-recap-usher-shakira-starting-to-hold-own-as-new-

2.      Keeping Your Pastor: An Emerging Challenge, Kristin Stewart, Oakland City University 2009. http://www.oak.edu/~oakedu/assets/ck/files/Stewart+(SU+09).pdf

3.      Short-term Pastorates, Arnold Kurtz, January, 1980. https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/1980/01/short-term-pastorates

4.      http://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/seminaries/students/

5.      Report on Clergy Recruitment and Retention (2004)

http://www.pensions.org/AvailableResources/BookletsandPublications/Documents/pub-500.pd

6.      Supporting Mid-Career Pastors of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (2006)

http://www.pensions.org/AvailableResources/BookletsandPublications/Documents/pub-501.pdf‎

Go, Get the Hell Out, Settle Down, Come, Be Sent

I was recently talking with a colleague about their sense of call. Was God calling them to a new place; telling them to settle down in their present location; or to come to a new sense of call.

As we talked several different biblical stories came to mind. The first was Genesis 12:1. The command is “go.” The second was Exodus 12:31-32. Pharaoh told Moses and the Israelites to “get the hell out of here.” The third was Jeremiah’s counsel to the Israelites in captivity (Jeremiah 29:4-7). They are told to settle down, “to bloom where they were planted.” The fourth was Jesus’ call to disciples, “Come, follow me” (Matthew 4:19). One which just came to my mind is “I am sending you out…” (Mathew 10:16). Of course, the big on is “Go, make disciples….” (Matthew 28:19).

It is interesting, as I juxtapose those directions, to ask the question am I being called to go, to settle down where I am, to get the hell out of here, to come, or to be sent. At one time or another, every minister has struggle to discern God’s call. In a time when there are fewer fulltime pastoral positions those who are seeking a first call sometimes wait months, if not years, for that first call to become a reality. It sure is not like it was when I graduate from seminary in 1973. Then there were more congregations looking for a pastor than those seeking calls.

In midlife there are a few things which tend to encourage ministers to settle down. A mortgage, an employed spouse and children in school tend to make either going, coming or being sent difficult to do. Even with a slightly improved housing market there is no guarantee of being able to sell the house for enough to pay off the mortgage and have some money left for a down payment on a home in a new location. There is no guarantee that a spouse will be able to secure a comparable position in a new location. As the children get older and more ensconced in schools activities, it is hold to pluck them up by the roots and hope they will thrive in a new school.

It seems every congregation which is looking for a pastor does not want somebody without experience or who is looking at retirement in the next ten years or so. It can be really difficult for ministers to relocate after they are 55 years old. That is strange because they have had years of experience and gained in wisdom. There is no reason for congregations to assume a younger pastor will attract younger members. Young families do not need a pastor who is their peer. In my younger years, I served a congregation which was growing with younger families. I did not have enough maturity to really provide wise counsel for them. We fought like siblings. It reached a point where we were so embroiled in conflict that I had to leave.

Discerning our calls today is a significant endeavor. Are we to go, to settle down, to get the hell out, or are we being sent? There not a singular biblical options. There is not a singular option which applies to everybody all the time. How can we be faithful disciples in answering God’s call upon our life? Where does our personal context influence how we hear and respond to God’s call? At one time, Presbyterians spoke of permanent and temporary calls. A permanent call carried the implication that the pastor and congregation would be bound to one another, and not seeking after another. Now, all calls seem to be temporary.

What are we to do? Go? Get the hell out? Settle down? Come? Be sent? Probably somewhere in the course of our pastoral service we will experience them all.

What Do Goldilocks, Temperature, and Revelation 3:15-16 have in common?

Many of us remember the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The chairs were too big or too small. The soup was too hot or too cold. The beds were too hard or too soft. Eventually, she discovered one of each which was “just right.”

This morning on the Today Show the hosts were commenting about the unusually cool summer this has been in many locations. The complaint was we have not had enough weather with ninety degree temperatures, particularly in the Midwest and Eastern regions. Last winter the complaint was about unusually cold winter in the same regions. One woman complained that this year’s public swimming pool pass was really expensive compared to the number of times the weather was warm enough to go swimming.

A common complaint in many congregations is the temperature in the worship area is either too hot or too cool. Both complaints can be heard from different people on the same Sunday. One creative pastor installed a new thermostat conspicuously located in the worship area. Members would be free to set the temperature at whatever level they wanted. Those who were too hot could turn it down. Those who were to cool could turn it up. After adjusting the temperature setting neither those too cool nor too hot complained. Most felt the temperature was “just right.” What the membership was not told the thermostat was non-functional.

Revelation 3:15-16 is addressed to a particular congregation, Laodicea, but it can be attributed to many congregations, today. ¹⁵ “I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Out of fear of offending; in an effort to avoid conflict; in an attempt to keep everybody happy, many congregations can be considered lukewarm. Generally, as pastors, we say we wish they were either hot or cold. The truth be told, we are just as happy if they are lukewarm.

A lukewarm congregation is pretty easy to serve. Sermons do not have to be challenging nor addressing any controversial topics. As long as just enough money comes in to fund this year’s budget there is no need for an assertive stewardship emphasis throughout the year. Contributing to the local food and clothing pantry lets us off the hook from addressing the real causes and issues of poverty in our community. The members may be spiritually bankrupt and biblically illiterate, but as long as worship attendance it at a decent level we can assume they are being fed.

Lukewarm congregations are an indictment of us as pastors. We encourage lukewarm congregations by being lukewarm ourselves. Do we have any passion for evangelism, for social justice, for the spiritual development of the people we are called to serve? I admit, as a pastor and as a presbytery executive, I was just as happy when the congregations and presbytery I served were lukewarm. They were easier to serve; there was less conflict; there were fewer "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" being hurled in my direction. It was easier to “keep the peace” than to deal with conflict.

Is being a lukewarm pastor serving a lukewarm congregation faithful?