How to Lose a Pastor in 365 Days

I have just celebrated my sixteenth anniversary as the pastor of Malvern Hill Baptist Church. Often, as I reflect on my time at Malvern Hill, I offer advice or suggestions to pastors who desire a long tenure. Today, however, I am writing to churches who might desire to keep a good pastor.

For a man to remain at a church for long tenure, he must have a strong sense of calling, work ethic, an occasional thick skin, and a short memory of offenses.

But, there are things a church can (and must) do if it desires to keep a pastor. I know from experience that a church can make it a joy for a pastor to lead. If you are a church member reading this, you can bless your pastor.

Church, outside of God and his Word, your pastor is your greatest resource–especially if you have a good one.

If you like your pastor, here are several things you can and should be doing to care well for him and to make sure you are not looking for a new pastor in the near future.

1. Pray for your pastor. Seriously. Pray for him, he is in an odd job. It is not the hardest job in the world, but it is challenging and it is unlike any other job in the world. He carries the burdens of many people and tries to balance that out with the burdens of his own family. Pray for him and tell him how you have prayed for him.
2. Care for his family. When you call a pastor (or hire him if you prefer that term), you did not also hire his wife as a counselor or pianist or floor sweeper. Allow the pastor’s family to be church members. Do not place expectations on them you wouldn’t place on other Christians. Care for the pastor’s family so that they desire to be in the church. For example, when I took a sabbatical several years ago, my kids protested, “You can go somewhere else, but we want to go to our church.” And they did. Every Sunday for several weeks I attended another church, but Angela and the kids went to Malvern Hill. Malvern Hill is family and it is home.
3. Protect him. Don’t talk behind his back and don’t allow others to either. Ephesians 4:29 commands us, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”
4. Talk to him, not about him. His job is different than yours. He spends a lot of time alone, praying, writing, staring out his window, visiting. If you have questions about how his time is being spent or whether or not he is doing his job, go ask him. But, rest assured, he works more than “one hour per week.”
5. Pay him. Seriously. Pay him as well as you can. You might be in a small church with a small budget. OK, pay him as well as you can, and if you can’t pay him a great salary, then make sure to make the position bi-vocational so that he feels the freedom to take on extra work to supplement his income. Don’t rob your pastor to fill your coffers. I’ve seen churches sit on huge savings accounts while keeping their pastors in abject poverty. This is wrong, and if you are reading this and that sentence made you angry, repent. Feel free to call me or email me if you think I am wrong, but give me a chance to make my case for the sake of your pastor and your church.
6. Give him vacation time. Vacation time costs a church practically nothing. You budget for 52 weeks of salary, if you give your pastor four or six weeks vacation time, you are still budgeting the same amount of money and the only thing it will cost you is to pay for someone to preach on those Sundays–unless you have another staff person or a lay preacher in the congregation who can fill the pulpit. Then, of course, the pastor’s vacation time costs you nothing. If you want him to be fully present to minster to the needs of your church, give him time away so that he is able to be recharged. How much vacation time? If a man has been in ministry for more than ten years–especially if he has been in your church that long, he should have at least four weeks of vacation time per year. If that seems like a lot, just remember, he has to take vacation time just to take a weekend off with his family. You don’t. He needs the time to get away.
7. Give him a book budget. Buy the man books. Lots of books. And don’t attach this to his salary–put it in the church budget separate from his salary. Books are continuing education for your pastor, they fill him up so that he can pour more out. Be liberal with the book budget and do not attach too many strings ($500-$1000 per year…remember, commentaries can cost $50 or more each). If he wants to buy Logos instead of paper volumes or if he needs to replace his iPad to preach from, don’t make him get approval from the finance committee. Books are the tools of the trade for a pastor, when you buy him books, you are equipping him for ministry. Give him a budget and get out of his way. The return on this investment will be huge.
8. Send him away for more education. Maybe require him to attend a conference once every two years (and pay for it) or offer to pay for continuing his education or, just buy more books :), but make sure you care invest in his continuing education. Your church will benefit, and you will keep him around longer.
9. Give him an expense account. He wants to take visitors out to lunch or meet a grieving couple for coffee or take food to a family in the hospital. This is a business expense and should not be tied to his salary. He should not have to choose between taking his wife out to dinner and taking potential church members out for lunch. SIDE NOTE: The sort of budgeting that gives a pastor a “pay-package” that he then divides up according to particular expenses comes from the ideology that the pastor is an independent contractor rather than an employee of the church. It is a great way to “save the church money,” but a terrible way to care for your pastor and the flock of God. Pay him a salary. Then, add all the other things on which he needs to spend money to the church budget in other places. If the money is spent on “the church” it is not his salary, and you should not pretend that it is.
10. Show appreciation. I keep all the cards and letters of appreciation that I receive. I read them all and I file them away so that I can return to them in hard days. Several years ago, our kids’ ministry had all the kids write me cards and encouraging notes and put them in a binder. Once the kids wrote me little prayers and encouraging notes and put them in a bucket so I could pull out one a day for several weeks. Appreciate your pastor publicly and give others the opportunity to do so.
11. Imitate him. Hebrews 13:7 says, “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith” If he is a man of faith who you want to be your pastor, then honor him by living for the Lord and imitating his faith. Make it a joy for him to shepherd you, not a burden.

Keeping a pastor requires work on the part of a church. But, if you want to lose him in 365 days or less, just ignore the list above and take your pastor for granted.

If God has gifted you with a good pastor, hold on to him. He is your responsibility to care for just as you are his. God has given you to each other.

When my family grew by two kids overnight through adoption, Malvern Hill made it a priority to “pastor” my family. Food showed up. People offered to pick up kids from school and to just give Angela and I some “kid-free” time. Angela even got “fired” from her ministries at the church with these words, “You are fired. We don’t need your ministry right now; you need to be ministered to during this time.” Needless to say, we knew we were loved, and all these years later, we are still thrilled to be at Malvern Hill.

One of the greatest indicators of church health is long-tenured pastors. If you want to hold on to yours, then do all you can to make him want to stay.

Photo by Felix Mittermeier on Unsplash