STAY: Memo to Pastors. And Other Church People.

Too good not to simply share with you, straight up: 

In the era in which we find ourselves, where church affiliation and attendance have become de-automated, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the revitalization of the church will require an even more capable clergy, more of whom should stay in one place longer.

Surely there must be somewhere a thriving parish that has flourished under the leadership of a succession of short-term pastors, but I don’t know of it.

Not only priests, but bishops, missionaries, professors, and deans require any number of years — more than we think — just to become useful, to gain some proficiency in the work, often through trial and error emerging from a manic flurry of well-intended activity.

But gaining the trust of a constituency, the benefit of doubt, the authority that comes not with the position but from demonstrated character and competence is also a multi-year project.

What a shame, then, that the tenure of so many ministries on the cusp of fruitfulness, dues already paid in full, is cut short only to be rebooted somewhere else.

The vagaries of church and institutional life will often require that this happen, even that it happen more often than those responsible for it would wish.

But is it not also possible that, preferring to go to better places rather than make places better, fields nearly white unto harvest have been abandoned for greener grass?

When it makes sense to leave, maybe we should stay. Maybe.

Want more? This was but an excerpt; for more — http://livingchurch.org/covenant/2016/01/18/maybe-you-should-stay-maybe/