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Allowing the pastor to be an entrepreneur may renew both minister and ministry A NEW SPIRIT

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mwkruse
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Winston-Salem Journal: Allowing the pastor to be an entrepreneur may renew both minister and ministry A NEW SPIRIT

A Lutheran pastor was fuming.

"I can't believe the number of clergy who think they are entitled to jobs," she said. Whether they are newly ordained or veterans, they think the church owes them employment, she said. They ask denominational executives, "Where is my next job?"

The term "entitlement" has become pejorative, of course, and using it in this context is negative. She was seeing some of her fellow clergy as passive, risk-averse and lazy. A fair assessment for some, no doubt, but not fair or helpful for others.

What if we used a different term, from the academic world: Tenure. I think this word more accurately reflects some current systems.

In effect, many clergy have made a deal. In exchange for being underpaid (earning less than half the pay of a regular job with comparable skills and expectations), overworked (six-day weeks, 12-hour days, on call 24/7, minimal staff), and subject to occupational stress that lands many in divorce court and in treatment for depression and addiction, clergy have been granted tenure.

They couldn't be fired on the whim of a few strong-willed laity. They couldn't be held accountable for the work of others over whom they have no control. Their reliance on employment couldn't be used as a weapon to make them soften the gospel, favor certain viewpoints or reward certain constituents.

In the way that tenure undergirds academic freedom at colleges, tenure would undergird the freedom of clergy to proclaim the gospel and to lead congregations in a process of change and growth.

In theory it works. But in practice the positive intentions seem to have been lost. The demands of the job still pertain. But protection from bullies is gone, protection from one-sided accountability is gone, and clergy who dare to proclaim the full gospel and its transformative implications and who manage institutions to meet changing conditions feel under constant threat.

I doubt that we can make the tenure system work any longer. It has been too widely abused and compromised.

The way forward seems to lie in a term from the marketplace, not the academy: Entrepreneur. When clergy see themselves as entrepreneurs, they seem to function more effectively and with increased job satisfaction. …

Comments

7 responses to “Allowing the pastor to be an entrepreneur may renew both minister and ministry A NEW SPIRIT”

  1. RPS Avatar
    RPS

    Sounds really good – and exciting – on first read. But here’s the sticking point for me: Haven’t we been using this kind of terminology for at least 5 years? I sure remember getting sucked into NCD work with this very idea. The reality? That was something totally different. (Like how a NCD pastor has about 40 or so bosses!) How to take ideas like this and really make them real? (With all that reality implies.) Isn’t that the hardest part? (Or am I missing the forest for the trees?)
    What’s next, in your mind?

    Reply
  2. Michael W. Kruse Avatar
    Michael W. Kruse

    I know Marcia Clark Myers in the Office of Vocation has been studying these ideas in depth. I think what we may need are some models or case studies that show how this has been successful in some instances.
    Furthermore, we need radical retraining of our elders who are going to function in this environment. Expectations will need to change about pastors, about the role of elder, and what the congregation should expect from leadership.
    What are your thoughts about what should come next?

    Reply
  3. RPS Avatar
    RPS

    Good question (and response!) I think I need to think about it. First thought is maybe some of the tent-making stuff like I’m into (and there because of others who went before) might be a part of it. But I’m sure what you’re saying (e.g. elders (and others, including staff!!!), being “retrained” is really important. Hearing your pass-along that someone in Louisville is thinking about this (and taking it seriously) is encouraging.
    I’ll think and post some more. (Friday night and high school football feeds are beginning to stream online! :))

    Reply
  4. Travis Greene Avatar
    Travis Greene

    Under many (if not most) denominational systems, the church does owe them employment. Seminary costs are quite expensive, and the job itself is comparatively low paying, and frequently without healthy boundaries. Pastor-as-tenured professor is an apt comparison
    The pastor-as-entrepreneur is pretty familiar to me here in the free-church world. There are plenty of corresponding dangers, like authoritarianism, emphasis on charismatic figures, and shallow theology.
    It seems to me that both models tend to dis-empower what is usually called the laity. I’d rather the people of God see themselves as entrepreneurs, both in the church and the world (“You think we should start a ministry in area X? Great. You’re in charge”).
    I doubt much of the church will be able to offer secure, full-paying jobs to clergy for much longer, anyway.

    Reply
  5. Michael W. Kruse Avatar
    Michael W. Kruse

    As of the past couple of years less than half of PCUSA congregations have a full-time installed pastors. Some have part-time pastors. Some churches share a pastor. Others are using commissioned lay pastors. We also see some large churches providing support for small congregations, essentially making them satellite congregations. The number of small congregations is growing (both from decline to a small size and through new church emergence) and large congregations are emerging. The middle size congregations are disappearing. We now have about twice as many M.Div. grads looking for churches as churches looking for (and able to afford minimum salaries) full-time pastors. The crisis is here and accelerating.
    But raising the bigger question which I think is the more critical one: How do we function as congregations in the future? Should seminaries de-emphaisize academic preparation of M.Divs. and work toward models of education and equipping for the broader community of faith. The questions of power and abuse are a never ending challenge.

    Reply
  6. Travis Greene Avatar
    Travis Greene

    “Should seminaries de-emphaisize academic preparation of M.Divs. and work toward models of education and equipping for the broader community of faith?”
    Yes. If you will excuse the profanity, hell yes.
    I’ll be starting seminary in the fall (assuming I get in) because I think it’s the right thing for me, but I don’t expect an M.Div to make me a living. Though of course that would be nice.

    Reply
  7. RPS Avatar
    RPS

    In thinking more since my last comment, I’m thinking that both you and Travis are hitting on an important point – from slightly different directions.
    True, the pastor-as-entrepreneur has huge risks, two churches currently here in North and South Carolina are dealing with this, including legal and criminal investigations on abuse that went beyond the line into something we’d call terrorism if it were anything but a Christian church. Perhaps the seminary training could delve into areas like this – and retool things like Greek and Hebrew to match the reality that we have these things called computers that really can help us exegete a passage?
    But likewise, the other side of the “responsibility” equation is just as important – and I have to tell you, there are days I almost despair of elders actually living into the call of leadership in an Biblical model. They (many, I must be fair) “get” the “board of directors” concept or the idea that they are “employing” pastors – especially in part-time, tent-making roles – but they don’t seem to have a clue as to our shared responsibility (session as pastors AND elders) to offer spiritual leadership.
    I’m glad to heard that people are studying it, thinking about it, etc. I just think we still (years after you and I chatted about this very thing at lunch in Nashville!) have a massive task ahead of us – one with all the “deconstruction / reconstruction” Robert Webber was talking about – but we keep shying away from actually putting the shovel to dirt. Can we find “space” for such transformation while also allowing space (a la being “pastoral”) to those unwilling to go there?
    Yep, it is “a fine mess we’ve gotten ourselves into Stanley! (And I LOL’ed last week when about 15 teenagers stared at me without a clue about that quote! Didn’t even know who L & H were! How about my own assumptions not matching reality!)

    Reply

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