One benefit to resigning as pastor is that you can no longer get fired. I know this doesn’t seem like much of a benefit, but it is.
No More Fear of Getting Fired
If you are considering resigning from the pastorate, one reason might be due to conflict with the leadership team of the church. Maybe you and the other elders don’t see eye-to-eye on the direction of the church, or how to allocate the church budget. And because you are the one one who depends on the church for income, some elders will use that to their advantage, threatening you with loss of pay, or even loss of job, unless you come around to their way of thinking.
As long as you are getting paid by the church, those in the church who hold the purse strings have power over you. In many churches, those who hold the purse strings control the pastor to do what they want by threatening him with salary cuts or worse yet, losing his job.
Often, such threats keep a pastor from doing what he thinks should be done in and for the church. While many Elder Boards are filled with godly leaders, there are some that are filled with power brokers who like to control the church by constantly holding the threat of termination over the head of any pastor who tries to — against the will of the board.
None of this means, of course, that if you resign as pastor, you no longer need to seek the advice and counsel of others. You do. In fact, the decision to resign as pastor should probably be something you discuss with your board. Resigning as pastor does not free you from the necessity of seeking the wise input of others in the church; it simply puts you all on a level playing field.
When the pastor resigns, he is no longer an employee. Instead, he becomes a co-laborer with the board. When pastors do not get paid for their services, the threat of not getting paid is no threat at all.
No More Fear of Losing the Big Tither
Even if you get along fine with all the Elders, threats could also come from a big tither in the church. Many churches around the country are not controlled by the Board or by the Pastor, but by the person in the church who gives the most money. Nobody wants to offend this person, because doing so might cause them to stop tithing or leave the church. As a result, everybody does whatever Mr. Moneybags wants.
Does this mean that Mr. Moneybags will not leave the church? No. He might. But if he does, you do not have to worry about it, because he was not paying your salary.
When you Can’t Get Fired
Remember, resigning as pastor doesn’t mean you no longer pastor. If done right, you can still remain the pastor of the church, just not a paid pastor. I will write some posts later this week about how this can happen, but for now, think about the freedom and flexibility you would enjoy in pastoral ministry if you did not have to worry about a paycheck from the church.
You will not longer be controlled by someone with a fat wallet. You will not longer be controlled by the budget-master who writes your checks.
You will not longer have to worry about your own job when attendance is low, or when half the church loses their jobs. You do not have to worry about attendance numbers or budget bottom lines. You can preach and teach what God is showing you in Scripture, without worrying if it will offend Mr. Moneybags, or send the board out on a heretic hunt. Ultimately, you are freed to preach, teach, and disciple others as the Spirit leads and Scripture compels, without the fear of losing his job or salary.
And guess what? With the extra money the church now has (since it is not paying you), imagine the outreach and missional work you can accomplish in the community! They say the average pastor gets paid $84,000. What could that do for hurting people in your town?
Resigning as pastor is one sure-fire way of making sure you don’t get fired (or asked to resign) as a pastor, and if done right, it may just enable you to be a better pastor to your community.
I’m looking forward how you’ll explain “OK folks, I’m now doing ALL hospital visitations, marriage counseling, Biblical studies and top notch sermons for free! Plus, my kids will always be happy and my wife will be cheerful that I’m home even less!”
That explanation is up today. I hope.
I wrote these posts sporadically, and so am not sure they ended up making sense.
Jeremy, these have been good posts. I really think after reading most (all?) of them so far, that in the vast majority of situations, implementation isn’t going to work in an existing church (in terms of resigning etc.). It’s probably going to require a new plant. Churches develop a culture so soon after they begin, that a deep, foundational change is just very rare.
Josh,
You could be right. I certainly haven’t seen a church yet in the country that has been able to successfully implement these changes. changes. But some churches are trying, and change is slow.
If there is a church out there that would let me come in and lead them in the direction I am describing, I would seriously consider going.
Jeremy Myers commented on Till He Comes:
This is a test comment. Please ignore.
I’m aware of a couple of churches where this worked. They did it out of necessity. The giving no longer covered the mortgage and the pastor’s salary.
In one church, the pastor found other work. He continued to preach on Sunday, and did the marrying and burying. Guess who did the hospital visits, taught the Bible studies and other stuff? – The people who should have been doing it all along (instead of hiring someone else to do it, in my opinion). That would be the other people who were part of the church. It worked! Even though attendance didn’t increase (not a measure of church growth in my opinion), there was a lot of growth in the people.
In church two, the pastor moved on to a church that could pay him. A semi-retired pastor took over the church he left. He worked part time and did more or less what the pastor in church one did. In that church, as in church one, the congregation had to step up to the plate and do things. The church survived.
Yes, my post from today shows that if the pastor resigns but stays on as pastor, the rest of the people must step up and do the ministry they were supposed to be doing all along.
I have lived through the second type of church you describe. The church couldn’t pay me any more, and so even though I LOVED the church and the people, I moved on. To this day, I wish I had stayed and gotten a job in the community. At the time, I didn’t think I could pastor unless I was getting paid as pastor.
@Sam… It didn’t “work” in church two, if the ideal is that the pastor stops receiving a paycheck and then leaves… that’s not the basis on which the discussion here has taken place. The pastor willingly giving up his paycheck, and staying on to pastor more freely, according to his scriptural convictions is the point.
Church #1 should have never had to make the decision between mortgage and pastor. Arguably, perhaps, as little business as many churches have paying a pastor, they have less reason to take on a mortgage.
I think it possible (and even advisable) to be the church without owning property or paying any staff, but these situations happened several years ago and that was all those people knew. Neither could sell their property or refinance. In both cases the pastor offered to stop receiving a paycheck. The pastor who moved on to another church didn’t do it immediately, but did it after several months because he was not earning enough in his part time job to support his family.
A pastor who receives no paycheck can probably feel more free to do “what he thinks should be done in and for the church”. But he still serves at the discretion of the church leadership in most groups and can usually still be removed from the position.
Are you having issues with WP? I got about 8 notices for new comments in my email yesterday..but there weren’t any new comments.
No, I was testing some commenting plugins like Disqus, and finally just deleted them. I am testing them in other ways right now, but am not sure yet if I will use one here.
I use Disqus…I like it..your comments are off-site, so they’re safe
Yeah, I had a problem making it look right on my site. I might try it again later.