Ministry fall-out rates

Quite a lot of men begin in the ministry, but don’t continue. Why is that?

There is a recognised problem of men dropping out of the ministry.

Recently I talked over coffee with the principal of a well-known Bible college in the UK. He lamented the fact that, of his students who enter the ministry, ten years down the road many have left. I think his point was that if they stick at it for ten years they are likely to stay the course and go on for life. But a big percentage drop out before that watershed.

The reason for leaving is not usually catastrophic sin; rather, said the principal, it comes down to fatigue. It is most frequently simply being worn out from battling with difficult congregations.

Something wrong?

Should we simply accept that this is how it is? After all, there is a fall-out rate from any profession, from doctors and teachers to nurses.

But, with such a need for a new generation of pastors and church planters and with the average age of church ministers being over 50, we have to ask questions. Are we going about the identification, training and inception of leaders into churches in the right way? Is there something we have missed?

I want to offer a thought which is likely to ruffle a few feathers. This is not offered as a cure-all. The ministry dropout rate is a complex matter involving many factors of which I am only addressing one. Also, we have to recognise that we are in a spiritual battle and there will always be casualties. But perhaps there is something to be considered by churches and those who have influence across conservative evangelicalism.

God’s gifts

Let’s start with a couple of basic truths.

First, though God in his sovereignty is not tied to any strict procedure, normally speaking the Lord gives gifts and raises up people for service from within the church, the local expression of the body of Christ. Gifts are given to the church, are recognised by the church and deployed in the church. So the Jerusalem church was told to ‘pick out seven men from among you of good repute’ (Acts 6.3), to become what is generally understood as the first deacons. Or again, when the churches planted during Paul’s first missionary journey were revisited and strengthened, the missionary band ‘had elders appointed for them in every church’ (Acts 14.23), and it seems clear that they came from among the people of the existing congregation. God raises up people with gifts in the church for the church.

Second, there are only two offices in a New Testament local church – deacons and elders (Philippians 1.1). The person we call ‘the pastor’ or ‘the minister’ is simply one of the elders of the church who carries most of the preaching and teaching. He is not a different species. All elders are meant to be teachers (1 Timothy 3.2). The pastor is not in a separate category. He is simply the elder with particular responsibility for teaching.

‘Our man’

Putting these two truths together leads naturally to a general conclusion about men being identified and trained for the ministry. When we see that God is gifting a young man in our church for eldership and preaching ministry then we ought to see this in terms of God giving a gift to us – to our church. He is our man for whom God has given us special responsibility. ‘We need to look after this man.

This way of thinking should also include giving serious consideration to the idea that God might, though not necessarily, intend him for ministry among us. Sadly, this seems to be almost the exact opposite of the way churches approach their handling of fledgling preachers and looking for new pastors. We nearly always look outside.

Consequences

Now if we thought in the way I have suggested, what would be the consequences? Let me unwrap a few possibilities.

First, if we took seriously the possibility that the fledgling preacher may be intended by the Lord to come back to our own church to minister, we might be a bit more careful in assessing him before we send him off to Bible college with our commendation. I suspect many churches send off youngsters who are not really up to scratch to be trained, in order to get them out of their hair. And this reflects back to our original question. Some ministerial dropouts occur simply because the poor guy was never right for the ministry anyway, but no one had the guts to tell him.

Second, when churches think first of all in terms of calling someone from outside the congregation to be their minister, then they have little real opportunity to apply properly the criteria set out for eldership/leadership in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. What Paul specifies in these passages are character traits, including things like self-control, hospitality and not being a lover of money, which can hardly be truly assessed through a couple of preaching visits and a ‘meet the church and answer questions’ fellowship tea. By contrast, when a church calls one of its own they know him much more thoroughly and he knows them, hopefully loves them and knows what he is taking on. Much ministerial fall-out comes back to the fact that a church took on someone they hardly knew and similarly the minister hardly knew them.

Thirdly, of course a man does not have to be called to his own church. But if his own church were viewing that as a possibility then, if there is contact between the churches, the sending church is in a much better position to spell out the man’s strengths and weaknesses to the receiving church. This makes for a much more informed choice on both sides and hopefully therefore a more enduring ministry.

Fourth, if the sending church has a real care for the man they are sending to another church as ‘our boy’, they will not abandon him to sink or swim amid a strange congregation, and will not only pray for him, but be there for him by way of encouragement and support at the end of a phone or through personal visits. Many cases of ministerial failure come about simply because the pastor and his family feel so very alone when facing difficulties in the church to which they have come. Support is particularly necessary when a man is called to pastor a small church which might take many years to turn around before there are any concrete encouragements.

Fifthly, when men come out of Bible college and then start looking for a church they often have to go through a time of great anxiety. This is not to be abused, but if they knew that their home church were there in the background saying ‘you can always come back to us’, it would make a great deal of difference. As it is, these raw recruits have to join what often amounts to a ‘beauty contest circuit’ as they and their compatriots go from church to church preaching with a view and hoping to show enough sparkle to attract a congregation. If a man has a wife and family to support then the time comes when, under pressure, he is ready to accept the first offer, even if he knows in his heart there are going to be gigantic problems. Again, some of the ministerial fall-out rate is due to men who have made a rushed decision simply to get themselves into a church.

Home church care

What I am arguing for is that home churches should take much more care and responsibility for gifted men that the Lord raises up among them, and even seriously consider that the Lord might intend these men to minister among them.

The fashion is to think in exactly the opposite way and I believe it is the cause of many of our difficulties. There may be a real difference between God growing a church and us trying to engineer one. It was meant as a rebuke when the Lord Jesus said: ‘Only in his own home town and in his own house is a prophet without honour’ (Matthew 13.57).