A church just learned that their pastor was retiring. A church just learned their pastor was moving. A church’s pastor has died from a heart attack. The Board just fired their pastor with no plan to secure his replacement.

All of these scenarios happen every week in America. A church just placed an ad that its seeking another full-time pastor. I read the ad and it had the characteristics of one run in a 1975 Christian Standard. My response should have been sadness. It was yet one of many churches that are unrealistically seeking a full-time pastor.

Our church is looking for a full-time pastor. We have been without a pastor for over two years. Our town is growing, so we believe it will be a great opportunity for a pastor to lead us to growth.

Our average worship attendance before COVID was 88. Our current average is 22.

The salary for the pastor is $34,000 annually. Please contact us directly if you are interested.

The median household income in this community is $64,000, but for families with a head of household between the ages of 25-44, the median income is $86,000.

Yes, this church will struggle to find a pastor, but there is more to it than just the pastor’s salary. If this church is typical, there will be six primary reasons the congregation will not find a pastor.

Yes, the pay is not reasonable. Most pastors are underpaid. Most full-time pastors are underpaid. Most pastors get a secular job with much better compensation. But churches should not try to find the cheapest person available.

To be fair, the church noted above, they are likely offering the best salary they can because of their size and decline. But they should not expect a full-time pastor with that pay. According to our research, full-time pastors work 58 hours a week. The church above, therefore, is offering $11.27 per hour.

Churches think that the past can be repeated. This church had full-time pastors in its relatively recent history. Indeed, a church of 88 average worship attendance likely has the funds to modestly compensate a pastor to work full-time. I get it. They long for the good old days.

No church should live in the past. While the Word of God is unchanging, the world around the churches has changed dramatically. It is time for the church above to think outside the box.

A parsonage is rarely a solution.

Some churches have a parsonage. They rightly view the parsonage as “in-kind pay.” Realistically though, most pastors do want to live in a parsonage. The family who moves into a parsonage is commonly restricted in what they can do to the house. The pastor does build any equity since the church owns it. The parsonage rarely comes close to what the pastor’s family would choose if they bought their own home.

As a personal note, when I was a pastor, my family and I lived in a parsonage. The church graciously paid our electric costs as well. One day, an influential church leader showed up at our (their) home to tell us that our electric bill was too high. He asked to look around to find the problem. He concluded that we were using our dryer too much with three young children. He told us to stop using the dryer! They would put up clotheslines in the backyard.

Fortunately, another church member intervened. He had a professional look at out home. He found that the old HVAC was not functioning well. It was replaced, and the electric bill went down significantly.

A new pastor is perceived to be a silver bullet.

Though I don’t know for certain, I would not be surprised if the church above thinks that a new pastor would solve all of their challenges. We refer to that attitude as “the silver bullet syndrome.” Ironically, the term originated from folklore, where silver bullets in a gun were the only weapons capable of killing a werewolf.

There is so much more I could say about churches, pastors, and werewolves. I will not yield to the temptation.

There are fewer pastors available.

The demographics are obvious. The Baby Boomer generation, the largest generation in U.S. history, provided more pastors than any previous or succeeding generations. But Baby Boomer pastors are dying and retiring. Younger pastors are not replacing them. The number of pastors in Gen X, the Millennials, and, especially, in Gen Z are dramatically lower. Simply stated, there are fewer pastors available, especially full-time pastors.

We are following the trends of median age of pastors in the United States. The data indicates that the median age just hit 60 years old. That information speaks volumes about the paucity of available pastors.

Too many churches do not think outside the box. Churches seeking full-time pastors often do not know another paradigm, nor do they see a new solution. But the possible solutions mean that the members of the church must do the ministry of the church. That’s not a bad thing.

The most common solution is the bi-vocational pastor, a solution that has existed for 2,000 years. Sadly, churches with bi-vocational pastors have often been perceived as second-class churches since they can’t afford a full-time pastor. When the laity are equipped and unleashed to do the work of ministry, churches get healthier.

The second solution is a change in terminology. It is a term that for others is preferred to bi-vocational for several reasons. A bi-vocational pastor is a person who holds a church job and one marketplace job. But many pastors have multiple side gigs, not just one. “Co-vocational” thus includes pastors with one or more jobs in the marketplace.

I believe that “co-vocational” will communicate a new paradigm, whereas “bi-vocational” may have some baggage. it is not unusual for pastors and staff who keep their marketplace jobs while accepting a part-time position in the church. They embrace the term “co-vocational.”

A third solution is the circuit-rider pastor, meaning that the pastor serves two or more churches. The circuit rider pastor originated largely in the Methodist tradition, where pastors would ide horseback along a designated circuits to preach and lead churches largely in rural areas. These pastors played a vital role in the spread of Christianity in the United States.

Here is my bottom line that the Kingdom Partnership ministry endorses. While we are entering a new era for churches in the United States, I see it as a new era of opportunity rather than problems. And it is this new model – “Bridge Ministry Training” that can be a new model for pastors and those who desire to serve the church. Bridge Ministry Training will play a significant role in this exciting future.

You can learn more about Bridge Ministry at: www.thekingdompartnership.us. Go there and click on how you can register for this 8-week training that equips people with basic ministry skills. You can also call me, Richard Creek; Founder & Director of The Kingdom Partnership at: 402.297.6876