Emotional Survival for Pastors: A Pastor's Journey - Part 2

Ministry Training

Six months before graduation, I began to send out resumes for a spectrum of pastoral positions. I had just turned 30 years old and was eager to engage in full time ministry.  Interested churches would send long, theological questionnaires in an attempt to vet candidates. Interviews materialized, yet no job was secured. I was a small fish in a large ocean.  According to the Association of Theological Schools there were approximately 55,000 students enrolled in theological master’s degrees the year I began school.

It was 2009, the housing bubble had just burst, and the economy was struggling.  One small church of 50 in Colorado (eastern Colorado) replied to my inquiry that they suspended their search process as they had been overwhelmed by 120 resumes in a week.

Another church after considering my resume commented that they were getting applicants with 15-20 years experience. After three rounds of interviews, one church identified me to be their final candidate only to be told that two of their fourteen member search committee didn’t have peace about my appointment.  Unanimity was required, the head of the search team sounded genuinely dejected as he explained that they would be starting their search process all over. 

A year after graduating with a four year master’s degree from a prestigious evangelical seminary, I found a job in the non-profit sector.  Again, I began the process of relocating my family, which now included two kids in diapers, to another metropolitan city for a third move in six years. I had known this outcome was a possibility before seminary, but I didn’t believe the statistics would apply to me.

Coming out of academia, ministry is a new world.  While ministry experience may have been gained in past seasons or in a limited capacity before seminary training, most seminarians have limited ministry experience.  Some may have been part of an internship, but few will have had substantial preaching or shepherding experience. As in most fields, expertise comes with time and practice.  Gaining ministry experience while navigating the transition from the idealism of the academic world to the realities of ministry world are challenges that must be overcome. Having completed the first leg of their journey, the freshly minted pastor now faces several hurdles: the first of which is finding a ministry position where they can begin to gain experience.

There are five options seminarians face. One option is to take a niche roll on a large church staff. These positions are few and hard to come by as an inexperienced pastor.  The niche will often be decided by a pastors gift mix, prior ministry experience, and academic training.  Once begun, a ministry niche will drive the pastor toward a specialty such as education, youth, children, music, or community development. Whether this ministry niche is to be their life-time vocational calling is predicted by fate and circumstance. 

A second option is to serve at a medium-size church.  Again, these positions are limited and often reserved for those with experience.  While specific roles are often delineated, a medium-sized church provides the opportunity to be more of a generalist taking part in various roles and responsibilities within the life of the church.

A third option is to serve in a small church.  Here the pastor will find himself, all things to all men.  According to the Hartford Institute the median church size in the United States (excluding Catholic and Orthodox churches) is 75 regular participants in worship and 59% of churches have a weekly attendance less than 99 individuals.

Approximate Distribution of U.S. Protestant and Other Christian Churches by size *based on NCS study
(excluding Catholic/Orthodox)

ATTENDANCE	# OF CHURCHES	WEEKLY WORSHIPERS	PERCENT
7-99	177,000	9 million	59%
100-499	105,000	25 million	35%
500-999	12,000	9 million	4%
1,000-1,999	6,000	8 million	2%
2,000-9,999	1,170	4 million	0.4%
10,000-plus	40	.7 million	0.01%
TOTALS	approx. 300,000	approx. 56 million	100%

A forth option is a ministry role outside of a church setting such as a non-profit ministry or para-church organization. This option is often a stretch for the seminary graduate as their seminary training has been focused toward the church world to which they initially felt called.  This option can also come with the unique challenge of fundraising.

A final option for those that struggle to find placement is to find employment in a different vocation for a season.  This option can lead to great discouragement as well as a serious crisis of identity for an individual who has invested heavily in seminary training and felt the call to enter into ministry.

It is within the context of one of these environments that the minister must begin to engage in ministry in order to gain experience.  Success may be difficult to quantify.  Success can be measured from a personal vantage point: ministry satisfaction, fit within the church and staff culture, opportunities for continuing growth and development, and financial stability could all be considered success. Yet, success in ministry from a professional view point can be an elusive target.

The pressures of securing a ministry position along with financial provision, continued transitions, and the difficulty of clearly defining ministry success can all lead to insecurities, anxiety, and emotional duress in the pastor’s life.  These stressors, in many ways, are to be expected and can be calculated for, but what is impossible to calculate is the higher hurdle of moving away from the ideal of ministry into the very present reality of ministering to people.  This is reality which academia cannot train for, it knows no boundaries, and if not carefully navigated, will in due time have a tremendous negative emotional, physical, and spiritual impact on the pastor.