Why Pastors are quitting
Melissa Florer-Bixler published an article in Sojourners that I cannot get off my mind. There is so much in the piece I want to react to. I want to speak into her clear anger towards faithful, conservative (read: older) church members. I want to help her see the alternative to her argument that conservative, “Trumpian” (as she terms them) Christians are just as threatened by her more progressively educated pastoral friends and colleagues as she proclaims they are of them. But, because I simply don’t have the time to go into all that in this short form post, I will react to one central point she makes which I believe I can effectively assuage for her and her many colleagues who are leaving the ministry.
Ms. Florer-Bixler cites a recent Barna study in stating that among pastors under 40, roughly 46% of them have or are actively considering leaving "the ministry." 46%! If you’re the type of person who loves the church and actively participates in the church, you understand there's a problem if nearly half of those under 40 who’ve been formally trained for and ordained into professional ministry might not be around to serve and support the church soon.
I will admit, there's not a pastor in the world that hasn't considered “transitioning out of ministry.” However, what I have experienced in my decade and a half or so of “professional ministry” isn’t so much a desire to leave ministry, but a desperate need to redefine it. Despite what I was led to believe, ministry isn't about attracting the masses, gathering a multi-million dollar budget, and building a large facility that we fill once a week. Ministry isn't about denominational and congregational politics. Ministry isn't about budgets and committees and meetings. Ministry isn’t about the business of church leadership, at all.
Ministry is about serving and loving people while serving and loving God. Period. Hard Stop.
I used to get lost in the way pastors, professors, and colleagues of a bygone era defined ministry and expected ministry to be done today. Doing ministry the way others expected me to was nothing but discouraging and isolating. Finding the way God created me to serve Him and others has been the key to my ever-present commitment to "the ministry." I don’t serve a big church, and I love it. I don’t attend committee meetings or stress over budgets, and I love it. I haven’t considered the idea of a capital campaign or a buildings program in years, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
In her piece, Melissa, decried the way key individuals in the church sometimes “withhold their giving in order to oust us.” I actually chuckled at that line because I remember that fear. I remember the sleepless nights and trepidation I’d feel before speaking on a topic I knew God was calling me to address but wondering how I was going to feed my family if a handful of donors stopped giving or left the church.
Today, I’m a pastor who preaches freely every Sunday without fear or reservation because, well, my financial stability isn’t controlled by church budgets and offerings anymore. Like the Apostle Paul, I work for a living. I’m a passionate practitioner of and advocate for bivocational church planting and pastoral leadership. Where the Spirit of God leads, I speak (or at least, I try to), and, yes, there have been times when people have left my church as a result. Sometimes people withhold their donations to our ministry. It happens and it’s fine. It’s fine for a couple reasons, actually. First and foremost, people walked away from Jesus when he spoke the truth too, so who am I to expect any different? Secondly, more practically speaking, I don’t worry about such things because as soon as the worship service is over, I’m right back at the grind stone.
Perhaps the reason so many pastors are quitting the ministry these days isn’t because of the hyper-polarization we’re told exists in the pews. Perhaps the reason so many pastors are quitting the ministry these days is because they simply don’t understand what the ministry is truly all about. It’s not about the politics. It’s not about pleasing as many people as possible and greasing the skids between their wallets and the offering plate. And it’s certainly not about protecting salaries and buildings!