In the life of most evangelical churches these days, about once in every 5 years, the church hangs out a sign that essentially says "Single church seeks pastor." In the case of pastoral staff other than the lead or senior pastor, that period of time sinks to as low as 18 months. Some denominations have longer spans, some, much shorter. In any case, there seems to be a revolving door, or pulpit, in many Bible-believing churches these days.
Why is this? What can we do to make these intervals longer, at least? Let's take the first question first, something of a novel concept. I attribute most of these rapid transitions to one of two main reasons; either the consumer mentality of most Christians chase good men away from a pulpit OR some of those pulpiteers allow themselves to be lured away by a bigger church, better location, or some other personal reason. Even more alarming is the number of pastors leaving the pastorate every year, but we will talk about that at another time.
What is the consumer mentality demonstrated by many Christians? Christians look for the "best experience" in church these days, just like they look for the best shopping experience in various stores, or the best TV show, or the best product...and this is the kicker...FOR THEM. In other words, there is no real objective assessment of what a church is doing in comparison to what the Bible prescribes or proscribes. Modern Christians have allowed their affinity for this church or that to become thoroughly post-modern in that they look for "what is best for them." You have young children? Church A must be for you because their children's ministry programs are wonderful and keep your kids occupied and happy consistently. You have youth-group aged children? Then Church B is best for you because they have the best youth pastor in town, hot and cold running pizza, and a gym in which to hide most of the youth mess, er, uh experience, yeah, that's it, youth experience. Parents do NOT have to worry about talking about sticky spiritual matters with their children, the youth guy will do that.
There no longer seem to be people who are willing to assess how a church carries out the ministries of Word, Prayer and Sacrament, the ministries given it explicitly in Scripture. The really bad news is that most churches have trained their people to do just what they are doing, which is looking at everything BUT the ministry of Word, Prayer and Sacrament. This must change, because church is becoming merely one entry on a menu of activities a family can undertake during the week, and church is losing ground rapidly.
We will address pastors leaving churches, and how to help the churches in another post soon. In the meantime, pray for your church and other churches. Pray that they would take up the ministry of Word, Prayer and Sacrament with a new vigor. Pray that consumerism would be purged from the church. Pray that the church would again be a culture maker, rather than a culture imitator.
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