It only takes a few of them

Forced terminations of clergy remains one of the most difficult, and often tragic, issues for congregations. A congregation can take years to recover from the forced termination o a pastor—and so also for the pastor. A single episode can become a nodal event that shapes a congregation’s culture for years. A series of these can put a congregation on the downslide toward dysfunction or extinction. And when a congregation gets the reputation for “eating up clergy” they’ll tend to have difficulty attracting mature pastoral leaders, the very kind who can get them back on the road toward health and relevance.

Here’s the little secret about forced terminations in the congregational setting that we often fail to appreciate: it only takes a few members to tip a crisis toward clergy forced termination. According to a survey on forced termination (“Forced Pastoral Exits: An Exploratory Study,” Barfoot, Winston, Wickman) in the majority of cases (60%) the driving force behind a pastoral exit is a small faction who are willful and persistent.

According to the survey,

…the vast majority forced out by a faction were forced out by small factions of 10 or less. Although the size of the churches were almost equally divided between those less than and those more than 100 attendees, most of the forced out pastors were driven out by a fraction of the regular worshippers.

That’s quite an insight into an interesting phenomenon. How do a small few get to determine the outcome for the majority? It is not uncommon to hear congregational members express surprise and ignorance about a crisis between the pastor and this small group after the fact. “Why did the pastor leave?” “I was not aware there was a problem.” “I thought things were going just fine.”

Here are some thoughts on the issue:

• Too many pastors hunker down in isolation when under attack and therefore fail to tap into the resources of the healthier and less reactive members
• Too many pastors fail to take on the issue early and up front, hoping that it will “just go away”
• Often the faction (between 5 and 10) rally around one energized and reactive member, who becomes the “leader”
• Often the “issues” and “reasons” given for the discontent with the pastor has little to do with the pastor himself or herself
• Pastors and church leaders often fail to appreciate the level of reactivity within the faction, and the level of tenacity and willfulness they can muster
• Too many church leaders fail in having an “unreasonable faith in reasonableness” when dealing with reactive factions
• Too many pastors, especially young and inexperienced clergy, will take this crisis personally, believing that it is about their character, calling, or competence, when in fact, it is rarely about them aside from the fact that they just happen to be the leader
• Clergy and congregations who value “peace at any price” will never be able to provide the corrective necessary to deal with factions
• Ultimately dealing with these factions will be a test of courage for pastors and congregational leaders called to deal with the crisis.

A great resource for clergy and congregations dealing with issues of forced termination is the Ministering to Ministers Foundation. Contact their executive direction, Charles Chandler at Ministering to Ministers Foundation.