Punishing Success October 23, 2009
Posted by Dan R. Dick in Church growth, Church Leadership, Core Values, Evaluation and Assessment.Tags: Church Leadership, Values
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A series of recent events have conspired to make me get back in touch with some of the churches I interviewed and studied during my Vital Signs research. Out of fifteen vital congregations, the good news is that eleven of them are still going as strong as ever. The bad news is that four are not — and all four are struggling at this point, not because things have gone wrong, but because the success of the congregation resulted in a pastoral change that altered the vital dynamics of the community of faith. This is further evidence of the need to “pastor-proof” our congregations (make sure the strength and success of the ministry is not dependent on any one person) and supports my deeply held conviction that, while a pastor may have virtually no power to make something positive happen, he or she has almost unlimited power to prevent good things from happening.
In one of the churches, an empowering and nurturing pastor was “rewarded” with a pastoral move to a larger, more prestigious appointment. The church left behind received a pastor with a strong vision for his own ministry, and a heavy-handed approach to casting the vision to the new congregation. As congregational leaders presented the vision and passion of their faith community, the new pastor patiently explained that he was not the former pastor and he had no interest in continuing his predecessor’s ministry. Over two dozen church leaders were replaced, and most of them left not only the congregation, but also The United Methodist Church. Worship attendance is down, participation of a large percentage of the membership is down, giving is down, and enthusiasm and spirit is at a ten-year low.
