MOST MINISTERS take a job with a different church for reasons such as wanting to move to a different community, wanting to lead a larger church and getting promoted to a higher position – not simply because they feel God calling them to a different church, according to a new study conducted for LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The study, which utilized a representative national sample of 872 Protestant church ministers, explored the job situations of ministers in the United States and showed that it’s more common for a pastor to take a job at a different church because he got a promotion than it is for a pastor to move to a new church because he feels God’s call or leading.
Conducted by Ellison Research of Phoenix and published in the September/October issue of LifeWay’s Facts & Trends magazine, the survey revealed that the average minister has held a paid job in ministry for 19 years and has spent an average of 15.6 of those years as a senior pastor of one or more churches. The average minister has been the senior pastor of his or her current church for 7.7 years.
Ministers at larger churches tended to have a longer tenure – an average of 8.7 years in their current position, compared to 7.2 years among small churches.
The typical minister has been the senior pastor at three different churches. Thirty-one percent are in their first position as a senior pastor, 24 percent have pastored two churches, 16 percent have been with three churches, and 29 percent have been with four or more.
Among pastors who are part of a denomination, 19 percent are assigned to positions by their denomination, while 81 percent are free to choose their own job. Denominational assignments are most prevalent within the Methodist tradition.
Being assigned to jobs has a strong influence on how long pastors stay in one position. The average length of time with their current church is 8.2 years among those who are free to select their own job, but only 4.9 years among those who are assigned to a church.
Similarly, pastors who are free to choose their own jobs have led an average of 2.7 churches over their career, compared to an average of 4.1 churches among those who are assigned jobs.
Many clergy are concerned that pastors do not spend enough years at one church. Only 31 percent believe the average pastor in their denomination stays as senior pastor of a church about the right amount of time. Thirty-three percent believe the average tenure is a little too short, and 26 percent said it is much too short. Only one out of 10 ministers believes pastors tend to stay at the same church for too many years.
Attitudes differ between ministers who are assigned jobs and those who are free to choose their own job. Almost three out of four pastors who are assigned jobs by their denomination (73 percent) believe ministers do not get to spend enough years at any one church, compared to 57 percent among those who get to select their own position.
Concerns about whether pastors keep any job long enough are especially common among Southern Baptists, 87 percent of whom believe pastors in their denomination don’t tend to stay at one church for enough years. Southern Baptist ministers are also more likely than average to have held multiple positions over their years in the ministry.
The study also evaluated the various reasons ministers have had for changing jobs throughout their careers. The most common reason for moving from one church to another is a desire to serve in a different type of community or a different region of the country. Twenty-seven percent of all ministers have switched jobs for this reason.
Other common reasons are getting promoted to a higher position, such as from an associate pastor at one church to the senior pastor of another church (20 percent), wanting to pastor a larger church (16 percent), being transferred by their denomination (15 percent), and leaving to start a new church (15 percent).
Other reasons for moving have included believing the move is God’s will or being called by God to another church (12 percent), better pay and/or benefits (11 percent), being fired or asked to leave a church (10 percent) and switching to a different denomination (9 percent).
Relatively few pastors have left a job because they wanted to pastor a smaller church (4 percent) or because their church closed down or ceased to exist (2 percent). Eighteen percent have had some other reason for leaving a job, such family needs, job frustration, seeking a new challenge, conflict within the church, and just wanting a change.
Southern Baptists are about twice as likely as the average minister to have left a church because they felt God was calling them to a different church.