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.
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
5.
Report on Clergy Recruitment and Retention (2004)
6.
Supporting Mid-Career Pastors of the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) (2006)
http://www.pensions.org/AvailableResources/BookletsandPublications/Documents/pub-501.pdf
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