Young Pastors Blog

Rev. Stephen Lewis

President
The Fund for Theological Education

LEAVE COMMENTS FOR THIS POST AT BOTTOM OF PAGE

August 10, 2010

The Church’s Unholy Addiction

Part 1 of 2

In a New York Times article this past weekend entitled “Congregations Gone Wild,” the author claimed that clergy are “suffering from burnout,” “working too much,” and attending too often to “their congregation’s daily wishes,” behaviors which may lead to greater job security in a profession that is severely underpaid. This news is not surprising especially among those who work with clergy and congregations.

However, what I do find surprising is a prevailing belief among many clergy and congregations that one pastor is equipped and able to attend faithfully to the needs of an entire faith community. What I find most alarming is an underlying assumption that clergypersons are somehow endowed by God with special capacities to address adequately their congregants’ needs and desires. I am distressed by what appears to be a deeply held belief among congregations and clergy that God calls pastors to a way of working that leads to the demise of their health and the neglect of their families as signs of their faithfulness to a “higher calling.”

Doesn’t it take a community to care for a community and all of its members? If so, why are so many congregational leaders and members addicted to this destructive and visceral myth—pastors are called to forsake their health, family and vacation and to work long hours in order to care for their entire church community—especially when most families sitting pews know that this myth is not a reflection of the real world? Perhaps the reasons have to do with two key effects of institutionalizing the Christian movement, namely:

• The professionalization and elevation of the clergy class among the priesthood of all baptized believers.

• The cultivation of messianic leadership embodied in many churches and its ordained leadership, which is reflected in the author’s statement, “the church exist, as it always has, to save souls…” I thought this was God’s work; not church’s.

The author accurately articulates a reality found in many congregations and its effects on clergy. However, congregations are not the only factors in clergy feeling pressure to forsake their callings. The changing landscape; eroding economies and economic opportunities in many urban and small, rural cities and towns where the majority of congregations are located; and the diminishing social status the church has in a religiously plural, post-Christian era are contributing factors. Denominations are also a factor and share some responsibility for creating church systems, metrics of success and rewards that foster and feed a way of being among clergy that oftentimes leads to their burnout and misfortune. Clergy, too, share some responsibility and play an important role in changing the reality in congregations lest the next generation forsake the church as a viable place to serve.

What is the role of clergy in congregations? Who or what experiences have positively or negatively influenced clergy’s understanding of church and their leadership? Typically, the answers to these questions, assumptions and deeply held beliefs about church and pastoral leadership lay far below the surface of most pastors’ awareness even as they are operable in everything they do as a leader.

In Project Rising Sun (PRS), FTE’s new pastoral leadership academy for young leaders, we are helping young clergy become more aware of themselves—who they are and how they are being shaped as leaders. Young clergy in the leadership academy are discovering their own agency, examining their own assumptions and understanding about leadership, and making some different leadership choices as a result. These leaders are being liberated from their own assumptions about what pastoral leadership is or can be for them in their congregations. They are learning to lead in ways that strengthen the vitality of their congregations and promote their own well-being.

Of course, learning new ways of being a leader is not without it challenges. These young leaders find themselves in a church culture that longs for messianic leaders —anointed, charismatic, lone-rangers who will attend to and save God’s people like some kind of superhero. I don’t have to tell you how difficult it is for pastors to wean themselves from this addictive leadership identity, especially when many argue a biblical precedent for this kind of leadership—Jesus was a messianic king and therefore represents the leadership model they aspire to embody. More importantly, this kind of charismatic leadership has been a visible model lifted up as a contributing factor in building large congregations, conducting wonderful ministries and catalyzing major social movements around the world.

While messianic leadership is not without cost, it strokes the ego and pays well compared to other leadership models in many denominational systems. This kind of leadership model requires less interpersonal, dialogical and negotiating skills than other leadership models. Unfortunately, messianic, charismatic individual leadership runs rampant in the church and robs too many congregations of their vitality by failing to form and utilize the gifts of people sitting in the pews. Ultimately, this form of pastoral leadership leads to burnout and other health challenges among pastors, if not to their own social crucifixion and death.

----

CLICK HERE to read Part 2 of this article