I've been meaning to post on this for a week or so but haven't had time. I was interested in a recent study released by LifeWay that shows that 1300-plus people were dismissed from church staffs in the SBC in 2005. As usual, relational issues top the list of problems that churches have with ministers. I'm wondering when ministers will learn to understand that they are in the people business. At the same time, I wonder when churches will learn the same thing--ministers are people too.
Some other interesting notes from the study. A pastor's lack of administrative skills and sexual misconduct were found among the top ten reasons for dismissal for the first time. I'm not surprised by the latter, and the former seems to be more of a problem than ever in our churches. By the way, administration is not a biblical function of the pastorate. If a pastor lacks that skill, and many do, lay people or other staff gifted in administration should deal with those issues. Allow the pastor to do what he is called and gifted to do: preach, pray, minister, and spiritually lead.
Finally for the first time, disagreement over doctrine is mentioned in the list at number 12. Bob Sheffield, a LifeWay specialist quoted in The Baptist Courier, said that it is difficult to know what that means, but let me hazard a guess--the problem between Calvinists and non-Calvinists. The Calvinists are usually the pastors and the non-Calvinists are usually the churches. I've known of more than one church over the last ten years that has dismissed a pastor after they found out that he had Calvinist leanings. By the way, a prospective pastor owes it to the pastor search committee to fully disclose his theology.
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