Imagine a job offering so enticing as this . . . .
“Sign up today for a wonderful career. Ours is the most attractive industry statistics you will ever see:
- 1500 people are leaving our industry every month
- 61% of our businesses have forced a high level employee to leave the industry
- 83% of the spouses of high level employees in our industry want their spouse to leave the industry
- 90% of the high level employees in our industry will not stay in the industry long enough to reach retirement age
- 50% of the high level employees in our industry say they would leave the industry if they had another way of making a living.
- Virtually every one of the casualties in this profession were brought about by one or two supposedly intelligent and respected clients
Whatever is this industry?
Must be a dangerous profession, worthy of danger pay.
High wire trapeze artist? Steel worker on a 50 story skyscraper? Product tester in a dynamite factory?
Nope, none of those.
What could it be then?
Fact is, the high risk profession we are talking about is . . .
A pastor.
You mean one out of two pastors say they would leave the ministry immediately if they had another job to pay the bills?
Yup.
You mean more than 8 out of 10 pastor’s wives wish their spouse would get into a better occupation?
Yup.
Having been in business, (including in very large diverse organizations), all my life, and having operated a ministry for 25+ years, I have to admit I can’t think of a career offering less stability or long-term security as ministry in the church. And that is sad. Seems amazing to me how good Christian people seem to take it as their God-given right to evaluate and correct every perceived error in the pastor’s message, evaluation of the pastor’s wife’s wardrobe, or a misplaced sneeze by the preacher’s kid. And here I thought we were all working together in the church . . .
I know a guy who, every Monday morning, turns in a critique of his pastor’s message, pointing out every perceived error or misquote.
Contrast this with working in a secular organization . . . Can you imagine sending your CEO corrective messages on minute, trivial and often irrelevant matters on a regular basis? Or making suggestions about how the CEO’s wife should act or dress, and suggesting she needs to be more active in the business? And can you imagine the length of time it would take for you (and not the CEO) to be seeking alternate employment?
All this seems so strange when in the church you would think we should all be on the same page, working together with one purpose in mind.
Real sad, isn’t it?
When is the last time you have expressed support of your pastor, publicly and to his or her face? When is the last time you have made negative comments about your pastor, publicly, to his or her face, or worse, behind his or her back?
If you feel some shame or sense this is going on in your church do something about it now! We need to put a stop to this epidemic, the beneficiary of this is no one other than Satan.
