Of course it does! Every Sunday it does. Last Sunday, for instance in a few undisciplined moments before the service began my eye ran over the familiar scene, observing the shape of the pulpit and its panelling, the figuring the wall behind it, the nicely draped curtains at our open baptistry. My eye even observed that our minister had a new suit and a tie that was neither dreary nor too gay. Then the service began and in a short while the minister was standing "to deliver the word of exhortation" as the good brother presiding had informed us. Now in truth the pulpit and the pew were looking each other in the eye. It seems that a mutual critical scrutiny could be very helpful, if humbly and sincerely undertaken. Not with the purpose of gaining ammunition to fire at each other from the pulpit and the pew, but to concentrate our attack more effectively on our common enemy.

      This is the pew looking critically at the pulpit. Only the latter is invited to read here. Others should turn the pages to the heading, "The Pulpit Looks at the Pew."

      Having thus dismissed the congregation, the writer can say that for some years he was in the work of the ministry and has of latter years been in business and a regular and willing occupant of the pew. The following comments are no doubt familiar to the pulpit. They do not relate to any one minister but are suggestions and comments heard from members in various places over a number of years. If I'm out of touch with the pulpit I deeply regret it but can claim to be in touch with the pew.

      1. Our first observation must be one of respect and esteem. We do admire the man who has discarded ideas of worldly success in favour of full time service for God. Perhaps it doesn't mean as much to us as it does to you. Perhaps we take you for granted far too often. But in all of us who think about it is appreciation of the fact that you who could be better off in many ways have devoted your whole life to the rewarding work of God. Maybe it would seem impertinent for us to be critical but there are faults in all of us of which we are sometimes unaware.

      2. A common complaint of the pew is that a lot of preaching doesn't go far. It's not always an expressed criticism but is apparent in other ways. Agreed it is often our fault--not yours. But not always! Look at it this way--

      (a) Often we feel the preaching is "over our heads", "irrelevant", "not down to earth"--or as a homiletics examiner wrote on one of my own papers, "too many platitudes!" Some of the things you say are over our heads because you take us too much for granted. We don't know as much as you think we do about the simple things of the faith. It's not your fault I suppose. Come to think of it I know who is to blame. You won't have to search far along the pews to get the answer--I guess you could stop at mine. But there's a lot to be said for the old plea, "Tell me the story simply." Somehow if a thing is over our heads we don't seem able to reach up and grasp it. Then it's a waste of time and a disappointment to us both. Certainly we've heard many a man in the pulpit who started off where we were and carried us with him to new exhilarating heights. Sunday morning's sermon--was the outline clear enough for us to carry away with us? How readily understandable was the subject matter to the bulk of the congregation? In answering the question please don't take us for granted. You have access to a lot of reading that we don't see. In most cases your thinking is far in advance of ours. What is perfectly clear to you may not have occurred to us. At times, too, we go away feeling that the theological has outweighed the practical value of the sermon. A couple of illustrations from life and an explanation of how the Christian faith is relevant to these life situations helps us more than anything else. I remember the advice of College days always to preach to the need of the people--that in every congregation is someone afraid, or distressed or spiritually unsettled. I've had reason to recall that advice during the past few years when, on a couple of occasions, I've been plunged by circumstances into deep depression and spiritual upheaval. Sunday after Sunday I went to Church dutifully and hopefully, seeking a word in the sermon to meet my need. Failure to find that word on a number of occasions accentuated the plunge. I accept my part of the blame but not all of the blame. I wonder how many others have passed through that unhappy experience.

      (b) Again some preaching doesn't get far because we feel we are "being preached at." No conscientious preacher would do that, but some seem to be unaware they are doing it. Yes I know we need it but nobody likes to be "roused at." As you know, some of us get our backs up too easily. But there's no sense in rousing antagonism if you can get your message across by suggestion or other methods with which you are familiar. In my early years in the ministry my mother taught me a valuable lesson. "My son, you say too often in your sermons, 'You ought to do this and that.' People are inclined to resent that, especially from a young minister. You would be better to say, 'This is what we could be doing'--identifying yourself with your people in the need for thought and action." My mother has a lot of wisdom accumulated from a long Christian experience. By all means let us have it straight from the shoulder. We can take it (and we admit we need it) if it's not said with a whine of complaint. Perhaps a good deal of the lack of co-operation you talk about is the result of this very thing.

      (c) And I'm afraid we sometimes miss what you are saying because we find it hard to listen, to concentrate. It is the old complaint of the "parson's drawl." Why is it that so many men have a pleasant, interesting voice in conversation but lose it immediately they stand up to preach? Believe me it does affect the amount we are able to absorb. You need a most interesting sermon to overcome this handicap. Referring back that same examiner in homiletics, I remember a momentary feeling of elation after preaching one sermon in class. He commented, "As I listened I found it was interesting and well worth listening to." My elation ended as he continued, "But I found it hard to listen. You must do something about your voice." To be truthful I noticed him doze off half way through! If a College teacher goes to, sleep (even allowing for the quality of some college sermons) who can blame the pew under similar conditions. We go to listen--it's, a pity if you don't talk to us man to man so that we have to listen. We know you are not preaching only because it's laid down that we must have two sermons in the day. We'd like to feel as we listen, "Here is a man who has the spirit of Jeremiah who said, "Thy word was as a fire shut up in my bones and I was weary with forbearing." If that is so, we'll listen alright.

      3. I heard an unfortunate complaint the other day about one minister. It was said that he was a dictator in the church. Of course we could laugh our heads off at the idea--except that someone has made the claim and meant it. I suppose there's a germ or two of the disease in most of us but fortunately it isn't an epidemic. The pulpit will readily recognise two bases from which such a suggestion may rise.

      (a) The man in the pulpit has the advantage of specialised training, of fellowship and discussion with kindred minds. You read much more assiduously than the ordinary occupant of the pew and also have the time to point up all these things into ideas and plans that you would like implemented. This is your life's work and naturally you are the one we expect to come up with the most worthwhile suggestions. But the man in the pew also has his personality and often has his wits about him on practical things more than he is given credit for. In most cases he is given a considerate hearing, worthwhile suggestions are discussed and acted on. But occasionally we strike the man in the pulpit who is so carried away with his ideas that, in his enthusiasm, he rides roughshod over the carefully thought out plans of others. You doubt it? Here is an example. It came to my notice recently that one of our suburban officers' boards is likely to lose a valuable and consecrated man for this reason. He is anxious to serve but feels the uselessness of continuing when most of his ideas--keenly felt--are instantly dismissed by the minister or so amended by him as to be barely recognisable. It appears that, immediately he makes his suggestion, the minister makes his views known and the members of the board (who are either unable or unwilling to think for themselves) meekly fall in behind his authority. You will agree this is an unhealthy position. Wouldn't it be better for him to withhold his opinion, prod the others into expressing themselves and so train them to think for themselves? To guide the discussion with a wise word here and there and give a careful summing up of the matter as he sees it before a vote is taken? I know that again the preacher is not entirely to blame--the spineless attitude of the other officers is more to be condemned. But I do know that a good and sincere man looks to be on the way out, his term of office killed by frustration. The church will certainly be the poorer by his absence. At this point I pay tribute to those wise leaders under whom I have served who have displayed such admirable tolerance, patience and understanding; who have been quick to see the sincerity of board members in making suggestions that may have seemed ludicrous to them. A programme initiated on plans forwarded by the men themselves in which they feel they have a part, even if it isn't just what you would like, has greater prospects of success than a programme initiated or imposed by the minister and grudgingly or half-heartedly accepted out of a sense of loyalty and duty. Most of you are anxious to preserve the democratic approach to our work and to avoid anything dictatorial and we appreciate you for it.

      (b) The other basis I suggest is the result of misunderstanding on both sides. Acting on the assumption that "if you want a job done well you must do it yourself" many preachers seem to assume much more responsibility than is good for themselves or the church. One result is that the pew inclines more and more to the view that the preacher can do it best and seems anxious to, so we can leave him to it. Then all of the work suffers. Everything must be done in the best way possible but perfection at the expense of member participation is not perfection at all. It seems better to have the team out on the field and the coach giving occasional advice from the sidelines than to have the coach on the field and the team sitting disinterestedly or inactively as spectators. You often tell us that we each have some talent. Show us how we can use it, recognise our germ of talent even when we are reticent about it ourselves. Don't be too discouraged by our apparent un willingness (we aren't too sure of ourselves you know) or our mistakes--under your expert guidance maybe we'll attain to some sort of efficiency and usefulness. But if you do take over the whole of the work for the sake of efficiency you can always find us somewhere reclining gracefully, complacent and inactive.

      4. Space forbids discussion of other matters which are possibly of minor importance but brief reference should be made to the vexed question of visitation. Some men take to this like the proverbial duck to water but you know the problems others have. My own experience was that this proved the most difficult part of my work and

      I was inclined to shirk it. It was a relief to find something of an urgent nature which meant visiting was off for the day. Ever felt like that? Yet we have come to expect your visit and feel that your ministry is deficient if this aspect is avoided. Not that we expect you to run up a great list of visits for statistical purposes that are merely touch and go social calls. Admittedly many boards are too statistically minded. I've always felt that our preacher's report should exclude statistics almost entirely and be concerned only with spiritual progress, problems and prospects. It's unfortunate that so many of us judge your work by your report of the number of visits made. I've listened without enthusiasm to one board member who recalls that a past minister was able to keep up to about 120 visits a month and makes the present man feel uncomfortable at his meagre total of 30 or 40. I guess that two thirds of the past preacher's effort could be written off as ineffective. I know the figure was inflated anyhow by including chance meetings in the street! No man's work can be judged by the numerical value of his visits if he's conscientiously attending to it. Occasionally someone complains that the minister has "foot and mouth disease"--won't visit and can't preach--but it's very seldom true. Apart from the lack of it in some cases, there are defects in visiting that appear to us but may not have occurred to you. At this point again you often take us for granted. You think we are as spiritual as we look dressed up for Sunday worship. Even the most faithful and ardent worker needs a visit on a high spiritual level. Some of us are pretty poverty stricken behind our facade of Sunday devotion. Could you dig up some tactful but pointed questions about our prayer life, our resistance to temptation, our real experience of Christ, and by injecting these into your conversation lead us to a fuller commitment to Him? If you visit with that in mind and are careful in approaching the matter you may have some surprising results. Sometimes too we feel that your visit breaks down because you aren't able to understand the problem we explain to you. You may consider the problem a minor one but with us it goes pretty deep. It's not always adequate to have a kindly pat on the head, an assurance that others are worse off and that everything will turn out fine. We have noticed some emphasis on "personal counselling" of late and wonder what you are doing about it. A study of the subject should be very rewarding.

      Space has caught me out. In conclusion I trust you will understand the spirit in which this is written. My fellow feeling with you is strong and I have nothing but admiration for those engaged what is the most important task the world offers. These lines have tried to express the attitude of the pew to the pulpit. Perhaps the attempt has not been a complete failure.

      I am not a minister these days. For ten years I occupied the pulpit and surveyed the pew each Sunday with the mixed feelings experienced by the ministers of today. For ten years now I have occupied a pew and tried to keep a balance between my view of the pulpit and the pew. Frankly I have been amazed and disappointed at the frequent misunderstanding on the part of members--misunderstanding of the real nature of the minister's work and frequent disregard of his personal feelings. It's obvious that he, is often regarded as someone in a different class from ourselves.

      Because he is the minister we are sure he must maintain much higher standards than ourselves, live a more vital Christian life. We often excuse in ourselves things that would be unpardonable in him.

      We'd be doing him a good turn to remember he is a man in all respects as ourselves--the same problems, temptations, domestic anxieties, subject to disappointments and hurts as we are, able to appreciate home comforts and susceptible to criticism or praise.. Because he considers the greatest task of all is the propagation of the Gospel and places worldly comfort and personal considerations in a secondary position, we are inclined to trade on his simple attitude and excuse our contribution to his poverty by our lack of funds. Lack of funds indeed when in a church of only forty families there is a minimum weekly income of £600! If the tithe of one tenth were taken as a basis for consecrated giving we can readily see that the lack is not in available funds but in our own giving, our sense of stewardship.

      All of that is an aside. How does the pulpit feel about the pew? I'm not certain that I know. After ten years some impressions fade or take on a new color. No advice has been sought from any minister as to how this should be stated and probably no occupant of the pulpit would write this article for fear of being accused of complaining. And if he did, you in the pew would be the first to raise a voice of protest and excuse. Some things, however, seem to be in need of saying. I may be out of touch with current pulpit opinion but, if I were a minister today, I think I'd express myself something like \ this--

1. A sincere word of appreciation to all those devout Christians whose faith is an inspiration and whose Christian service is so freely given. One of the joys of the ministry is to share with you the riches of your religious experiences and to be humbled by your obvious appreciation of our ministry. How favoured is the pulpit that can turn to a level headed, consecrated man with the problems that vex us and be sure of an understanding attitude and a good word of advice. In a sense we are lonely men (particularly those of us in country areas) because we are expected to know and understand and cope with the many problems of a congregation and there are few to whom we can turn for similar understanding and assistance with our own needs. We therefore have a deep affection for you in whom the years have planted a deep love for our Master and who make your experience available to us. How happy too is the minister who, seeing a job to be done, can approach you in confident expectation that you will undertake the task for the sake of Christ.

      2. On the other hand we are disappointed by the unwillingness to serve on the part of some of you. We are a bit inclined to wonder how far your spirituality goes when opportunities of Christian service are continually turned aside. We are sorry to see you miss out on the happiness that follows such service. In the army we were all familiar with "George"--he was the character to whom we delegated the unpleasant jobs, or jobs that we felt required too much energy from us. Unfortunately the old expression "Let George do it" seems to have carried over into much of our lives, including the church. We are grateful to "George" who never turns down a task on the grounds that it is burdensome or distasteful but we regret that a lack of responsibility on someone's part has loaded him up with an unfair share of the burden. There is the talented person, often with few family ties, capable and apparently consecrated, whom we confront with an opportunity to serve commensurate with his ability only to be asked, "Have you asked George? I don't think I could handle it." And so he hedges and evades and turns down the job. This unwillingness to serve is a symptom rather than the disease itself. It is a symptom of the lethargy that cripples the soul--a kind of sleeping sickness of the spirit which immobilises the patient, making him part of the problem rather than an active participant in the church's vital task. The church was nurtured by men with expansive vision and heroic sacrificial and untiring spirits. There can be no doubt one of the severest handicaps of its subsequent history has been the short-sightedness of those who profess to hold to the faith but do little to help its progress.

      3. Allied to the previous criticism, if I were in the pulpit I would be upset with the absence of cooperation in so many worthwhile efforts. We don't have to search far in any direction for an example. The last mission in our church largely failed in its purpose for this reason. We had a first rate missioner, our minister used all the time available to him in preparatory work. The mission was approved by the officers and members. Yet appeals for a little visitation to prospects were fruitless. The mission attendances averaged 25% of our membership (the attendances included some non-members) and there was very little concern or expectancy. Whose fault was it? Not the missioner's--he maintained the high level of evangelistic preaching we had expected from him. Of course, the minister was the scapegoat for some. The poor fellow hadn't made adequate preparation, or hadn't visited this one or that. Given a few more hours in the day or another body for his use, he might have done what we expected. Nonsense, of course. The fault was in the pew--the empty pew signifying lack of co-operation and spiritual apathy. We sang the hymn but somehow as a church didn't seem to mean it--

      Is it true that the church exists for the twin purposes of worship and evangelism? That they are interdependent and you can't have one without the other? That being so, some of us had to examine our hearts to see how hollow was much of our worship when it was so careless in its evangelism.

      This non-co-operation shows up in many ways. I heard of a church recently where the minister went to great trouble to prepare a series of training classes for those on the church plan and others who could soon fit themselves for this honor. He hired a tape recorder and did all possible to make them helpful. Here surely was the fulfilment of a real need. Did the members jump at it? No sir! About one in five of those for whom it was designed turned up. And as far as I know the minister had to pay the hire of the recorder out of his own pocket! Such co-operation isn't designed to inspire any minister.

      If I were in the pulpit I'd be inclined to say to the pew--you called me to be a leader. You have asked me to devote all my time to assisting you as a church to do the will of God in this place, to maintain effectively the Christian witness in this community.

      The task is beyond me as an individual. If you will come with me we can do it together. Is it not reasonable that God can use the co-operative effort of 100 consecrated people 100 times more than He can use one man?

      4. I mount the pulpit again to view the pew through the eyes of its occupant and am deeply concerned at the attitude to Stewardship. One church officer felt that sermons by the minister on this subject were often received with reservations by the pew. Pressed for a reason he gave the startling answer, "In the opinion of the average member Stewardship sermons are directly related to giving of money; the bulk of the money is required for the minister's salary; a sermon on Stewardship is therefore an indirect appeal to give for that purpose." How foolish can we get! How fantastic that an elementary principle of our life and worship should be so distorted. After all Stewardship is simply the realisation that we are custodians of all that God has given us and we are accountable to Him for its use. There is no division of responsibility but the whole of life comes within its ambit. We are not accountable for the leftovers of time and abilities and property--our very selves are not our own but have been bought at incredible cost. It is a grave matter that we first extract the juice from life for our own satisfaction and offer God what we can well do without. The day of the final great audit of our accounting will find some of us most uncomfortable. We can't rob God with impunity. The old question of Malachi arises, "Wherein have we robbed Thee? In tithes and offerings." Misappropriation of time entrusted to us by God means the work He intended for us will be forever undone. Misappropriation of the talents or abilities He gave us will result in someone with lesser ability or less time trying to fill the gap with less efficiency. Misappropriation of His funds will force us to struggle on with inferior church plant, shortage of funds for the ever expanding needs of Home and Overseas Missions. We view with hope the various canvasses and budgets being considered through some of our churches and pray that this may spread into an ever widening circle of conscientious stewardship through the total personality.

      5. We feel that, in the main, there is too little preparation for worship. Of course you've heard us say that from the pulpit. But isn't it so? Many times your minds are filled up with other things even after you have taken your pews, aren't they? Like the man in our church last Sunday who parked his car at the chapel at 10.55 a.m. and then went to fill in the time by inspecting a possible new office for himself. He arrived in church at 11.05 a.m., his mind diverted and disturbing other worshippers by his late arrival. It would have been better all round had he entered the building on arrival and had a few minutes of quiet preparation by meditation for the worship to follow.

      So worship loses its edge by being pushed around by irrelevant matters, by our glib singing of grand hymns whose meanings we don't stop to contemplate, by lack of concentration on vital matters. A while ago a young woman made her confession. The next Sunday morning she sat next to her friend--a church member--who kept up a disjointed conversation with her during the service and even destroyed the value of the prayers by her undisciplined tongue. Would this flippant approach to worship explain her drift from the church? Could this also be why our sermons are sometimes regarded as dull or over your heads? If other things jostle the spirit of worship from our minds, it is little wonder the sermon is hard to follow. We try to give you solid meat in the hope of building you up. Meat takes some chewing--spiritual preparation and mental concentration are necessary in the approach to worship.

      But this is not written by a minister. If it were, probably some of the above would have been omitted and other important matters mentioned. We should need no reminder of these things in view of the great task entrusted to us by our Lord.

      We are fortunate to have serving us in the brotherhood such devoted and selfless men. We are also fortunate to have a great body of consecrated members intent on the Master's work. In this year of "Operation Increase" we have vast resources available for the task. Who can tell how the Lord of all life can use our united efforts if we pledge our greatest efficiency and absolute surrender to His divine will!

      The writer is a graduate of the College of the Bible. As indicated in the Pamphlet, he served a number of years in the ministry and is now in business. For personal reasons, he desires to remain anonymous.

Pastors' Job Description

I found this while doing some research on what Pastor's job descriptions should really be, as I feel that many churches have gotten far away from a true Biblical perspective on it, and I came across this, which I loved!   (I didn't intend for #11 to be high lighted, but for some reason I can't fix it!)

Memo

To:     The Leadership Team

From: Bob Osborne

Re:     Pastor’s Job Description

I have been asked to provide a job description for what I do here at Church in the Hills.  After having been a pastor for 18 years, I am not sure that I can say what any particular pastor should do.  All I can say is what I personally have done in filling out the role of pastor.  Others will probably do it differently, but here is my list:

1.  Provide leadership.  Dream, think, and communicate!  Resist the pressure to bend to isolated demands (which always come).  The silent majority simply wants to know God, know his life and his will, and live in his blessing.  Lead them, while recognizing that you will not be able to lead everyone.

2.  Stay within your limits as a person.  The job is too big to finish.  In fact, the job is never done.  Nevertheless, by daily listening to the Spirit’s direction you can effectively add grace to people’s lives.

3.  Listen to God’s voice and declare His Word to his people.  Pastors are there to remind the people of their relationship and responsibility to God.  People tend to look at churches as their relationship and responsibility to each other.  While that is true, effective pastoral leadership puts first things first.

4.  Love the church and love God in front of the church.  This is practically the whole job.  It is in those gracious words and acts of generosity that a pastor finds his greatest joy.  Everything a pastor does has to be out of his own freedom to love (and not reduced to duty).

5.  Provide means for the management of details.  As they say, “the devil is in the details” – meaning, of course, that various congregational stresses can arise at the point of unfulfilled expectations.  Always be aware that detailists are the church’s friends and help the big messy picture look better.

6.  Notice everyone; be aware of everything.  The church is an ecology – healthy or unhealthy members do affect/infect the rest.  One of the most important tasks of the pastor is to wander around, taking notice of how things are.  The effective shepherd smells like his sheep.

7.  Love the mess.  Celebrate the grace and goodness that is being formed before you.  The significance of pastoral ministry often seems so slow and intangible.  But children grow up out of messy play-clothes and messy rooms; so do God’s treasured saints.

8.  Carry the spiritual burden.  Like the OT priests, a pastor's basic work is to intercede before God on behalf of the people he knows and sees and can name.

9.  Put the right people in the right places.  Do not allow pressure politics to rule the church but keep the ministry organization in a spiritual frame of mind.

10.  Act quickly in those areas that require attention, and take your hands off what you should leave alone.  You will, of course, need wisdom to know the difference (and wisdom is something you have to ask God for).

11.  Study and pray in big amounts.  Take time to read and contemplate.  Hang around with superior minds, compassionate hearts, integrated personalities.  Do not let the activity of ministry dictate the calling to be a pastor.  Make room for the important things.

12.  Consider what is good for the church and do it.  Timing is everything.

13.  Protect your family so that you do not sour your wife and kids on church.  There is nothing more destructive to church life than an overly burdened pastor’s family.

14.  Be everyone’s friend without letting on that you have only a few real friends.

15.  Golf every Monday.

16.  Project faith even when you are tired (and sometimes empty).  Determine to minister in a freshness of spirit and seek to be at your best when you are with people.  Stay sweet.  Understand that people will reject you, disappoint you, and criticize you without revenge – let them.  God justifies, God promotes, God vindicates.

17.  Be consistent in your character and relationships.  Model repentance and forgiveness, model humility, model conviction and sacrifice.

18.  Read everything that Eugene Peterson has written.  Make him your secret literary friend.

19.  Show up for work.  Fix problems.  Wash dirty feet.  Take out the garbage.  Find your joy in the Lord.

20.  Sing the loudest.

That is all that I know right now.  I am sure that I could have talked about more specifics, like what the hours are, and how many visits one should make per month or year.  But then, in the words of Jesus, that would make the pastor a “hireling” (John 10).  The direction for what a pastor does on a daily and weekly basis should come from his relationship to Christ and not from a list of obligations.  Hirelings fulfill tasks and collect their pay; pastors live and breathe the ministry before them.  The pastor is certainly more than a hireling, for he fulfills a spiritual ministry under the “great [pastor] shepherd”, Jesus.  He is not hired – he is called.  His job description is to do what Jesus would do in his place and he discovers what that is on a continual and daily basis.  There are moments of discovery for the pastor when he enters work previously unknown, un-experienced and unexpected.  It is at these points when the pastor realizes that he is being taught on the job; he is discovers what the job of pastor actually looks like.  No job description could ever entail what needs to be done, what could be done, or what ought to be done.  The Spirit reveals the work as the pastor follows his Lord.

So the pastor is to do what Jesus would do in his place.  Having said that, the clear teaching of the NT is that no one person can do what Jesus did.  Church leadership in the NT is always plural.  What the Holy Spirit does is distribute the abilities and passions of Jesus to those of his choosing so that the whole body of Jesus on earth might be able to do his work.  The pastoral function entails more than one person.  Our need to give titles to persons has often gotten us into distorted thinking.  Churches need more than pastors and not every leader in the church is a pastor.  The role of pastor has become confused and the various needs of the congregation require a plurality of leaders.  Certainly, there are “gifts of pastors” for the church, a gift most vital and comforting.  However, not all church leaders are pastors.  Ephesians 4:7-13 should be read seriously!  Happy will be the church that discovers its beautiful secret.  Happy will be the church that does not assign the burden of ministry to one leader and call him pastor, but finds a team with complementary gifts and rejoices in the truth that we need each other.

Statistics About Pastors

Pastors today are faced with more work, more problems, and more stress than any other time in the history of the church. This is taking a frightening toll on the ministry, shown by the statistics below:

Pastors:

• Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout or contention in their churches.

• Four thousand new churches begin each year, but over seven thousand churches close.

• Fifty percent of pastors' marriages will end in divorce.

• Eighty percent of pastors and eighty-four percent of their spouses feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastors.

• Fifty percent of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living.

• Eighty percent of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years. Ninety percent of pastors said their seminary or Bible school training did only a fair to poor job preparing them for ministry.

• Eighty-five percent of pastors said their greatest problem is they are sick and tired of dealing with problem people, such as disgruntled elders, deacons, worship leaders, worship teams, board members, and associate pastors. Ninety percent said the hardest thing about ministry is dealing with uncooperative people.

• Seventy percent of pastors feel grossly underpaid.

• Ninety percent said the ministry was completely different than what they thought it would be before they entered the ministry.

• Seventy percent felt God called them to pastoral ministry before their ministry began, but after three years of ministry, only fifty percent still felt called.

Pastors' Wives:

• Eighty percent of pastors' spouses feel their spouse is overworked.

• Eighty percent of pastor' wives feel left out and unappreciated by the church members.

• Eighty percent of pastors' spouses wish their spouse would choose another profession.

• Eighty percent of pastors' wives feel pressured to do things and be something in the church that they are really not.

• The majority of pastor's wives surveyed said that the most destructive event that has occurred in their marriage and family was the day they entered the ministry.

Pastors' Marriages:

• Seventy percent of pastors constantly fight depression.

• Almost forty percent polled said they have had an extra-marital affair since beginning their ministry.

• Roger Charman of Focus on the Family's Pastoral Ministries reports that approximately 20 percent of the calls received on their Pastoral Care Line are for help with issues such as pornography and compulsive sexual behavior.

• In 2000 Christianity Today survey, 33% of clergy admitted to having visited a sexually explicit Web site. Of those who had visited a porn site, 53% had visited such sites “a few times” in the past year, and 18% visit sexually explicit sites between a couple of times a month and more than once a week.

• Out of 81 pastors surveyed (74 males 7 female), 98% had been exposed to porn; 43% intentionally accessed a sexually explicit website.
  

Pastors' Children:

• Eighty percent of adult children of pastors surveyed have had to seek professional help for depression.

Pastors' Relationship With the Lord:

• Seventy percent of pastors do not have a close friend, confidant, or mentor.

• Ninety-five percent of pastors do not regularly pray with their spouses.

• Eighty percent of pastors surveyed spend less than fifteen minutes a day in prayer.

• Seventy percent said the only time they spend studying the Word is when they are preparing their sermons.

Tip #1 - How to introduce your Pastor's Wife

 You're about to introduce someone to your pastor's wife.  Perhaps you're with a friend out shopping and your run into her, or you brought someone to church for the first time .... how do you introduce your PW to other people?

My personal preference is that you introduce me as your friend, *Rose* (or just *Rose*, if the friend part isn't true) .... and completely leave out the PW thing.  PLEASE don't ever introduce me as "Pastor *George's* wife", or "the pastor's wife".   I am my own person, with my own name.   I also would rather people just meet me as me, and don't even like the qualifier added after my first name, ie. "This is *Rose*, the pastor's wife."  Some PW's might not mind this .... I personally put off telling people that I'm a PW for as long as I can.  I've learned that people make a pile of assumptions about me, or they completely shut down (I can see "the look" come over their face.) when they find out on first meeting that my husband happens to be a pastor.   I'm more comfortable with people getting to know me first, and then later I tell them.   Usually they are surprised, and can hardly believe it .... because apparently I'm too normal and down to earth!   I want the chance to just be me and worry about the odd title I've accumulated by being married to "a man of God"!    A few times, when I've been introduced this way I've said "yah, and I have my own name, it's *Rose*!".  

So, how do the rest of you ladies feel?  Does this bother others like it bothers me?

Mary Winkler