What are the downsides of pastors who stay in one place for 10, 15, 20 years?
These are the problems I’ve heard about, some I’ve seen, but most of them I disagree with:
- the pastor may run out of spiritual insight or spiritual energy over the long haul
- the church may stagnate and won’t change under the pastor who won’t change (‘we tried that n years ago, didn’t work’)
- it makes it hard for the next pastor to follow in the footsteps of such a long ministry
- it is unfair for people to be ‘stuck’ with one pastor for so long
- people need a diversity of pastors to learn new or different things
- the people are transient and will move around anyway
- long ministry may tend to be more inward looking rather than evangelistic
Any others?
I think nearly all those are disproved by a quick look around Melbourne.
St Judes, St Hillarys, HTD are all where they are today because of long (10+ year) stays as vicars.
Same goes with most large sized youth ministry (they’ve had a long serving Youth Minister)
Even in Hobart, the biggest (and still one of the biggest) Anglican Churches there for a while was St Clements that had a 30+ year vicar.
Long is the way to go. Although some people probably can stay too long. All depends on context.
Good series Wayne.
(I like your reasons for a long pastorate by the way.)
I think most of these are bad reasons but some are good and we need to think how to overcome them:
* the pastor may run out of spiritual insight or spiritual energy over the long haul
* the church may stagnate and won’t change under the pastor who won’t change (’we tried that n years ago, didn’t work’)
There is some truth here, as you get used to a place you develop blind spots someone new will be able to see.
* it makes it hard for the next pastor to follow in the footsteps of such a long ministry
* it is unfair for people to be ’stuck’ with one pastor for so long
* people need a diversity of pastors to learn new or different things
* the people are transient and will move around anyway
* long ministry may tend to be more inward looking rather than evangelistic
This can be true in that someone builds up a reputation based on their long standing association with the church and reputations, good or bad can be spirtually harmful.
Thanks for the comments gentlemen. Good examples Chris.