How to Fire Your Pastor

Recently I was going through Baptist periodicals in the archives. My focus was not on the plight of pastors in ministry, but as I perused the Canadian Baptist I stumbled across a witty but poignant article on some steps to help “fire your pastor.” 
 
That 1990s version of clickbait kept me reading.
 
And the content compelled me to post it here.

The attrition rate of pastors is quite high, with significant numbers of pastors pondering a change of vocation.[1]
 
My father was pastor. I was a pastor. I do not know if my dad ever thought of throwing in the towel (and he had many reasons to do so), but I know I toyed with the idea. I did eventually leave the pastorate to pursue being a professor involved in the training of Christian leaders – so I am not sure if I would have lasted through the decades as pastor. I hope I would have.
 
That penchant for leaving one’s calling as a pastor is not new, and the church has sought to provide ways and means to encourage and support its leaders in pressing times and situations. With that in mind, here are some suggestions from Laurie Barber on how to “fire up” your pastors so that they did not give up, but rather, they continue in their calling. 
 
You can read the article below (click to enlarge it).
 
Here is a summary of Barber’s points:
 

• Invite your pastor to dinner (but not to criticize the sermon!). There is nothing like friendship and kindness to bolster a wavering commitment.
• Do not be overly critical of a person whose entire life (spouse and kids included) is spent in the spotlight. 
• Pay the person a decent salary. There is nothing virtuous in a church intentionally keeping pastors and their family poor.
• Teach your pastor to pray. (This is a very interesting, gutsy, and challenging point. Barber declares that pastors do not learn prayer in seminary. Yikes – I teach in a seminary! But Barber makes a very good point, one that I will seek to keep in mind in the coming years.)
• Bring back the language of “study” instead of “office” for in doing so you remind everyone (including the pastor) that the pastor’s vocation requires a unique approach to time and space that does not immediately or easily fit within a business model.
• Provide the means for pastors to purchase books and get more education. Pastors who cannot find the money to purchase (or subscribe to) excellent reading material will suffer, and pastors who are unable to pursue further education will wilt on the vine.
• Pray for your pastor. Here I quote Barber: “Fire your pastor by praying for him. Ultimately the Lord does the firing. In the furnace of a living ministry the refining of a pastor and people through the Word and the Spirit is a delightful, warming witness.”

 
I made the transition from pulpit to the pew decades ago. But Barber’s exhortation still rings true to me, for pastoring is hard and one needs to be fired sometimes to keep going.
 

[1] https://www.barna.com/research/pastors-quitting-ministry/