Why
Young Pastors
Leave the Ministry
This post comes from the NakedReligion blog...
There is an epidemic occurring right under the nose of church middle
judicatories and no one seems to notice. Young pastors (less than five years in
the ministry) are leaving in droves. The Lilly Foundation has poured millions of
dollars into “Sustaining Pastoral Ministry” initiatives and it’s too soon
to tell whether or not their approach is working. Aside from the obvious reasons
pastors leave the ministry (sexual impropriety, financial mismanagement, and
marital dissolution) here are the top ten reasons why young pastors call it
quits:
1. The discontinuity between what they imagined ministry to be and what it
actually is is too great.
2. A life without weekends sucks.
3. The pay is too low (most pastors in my denomination make less money than a school teacher with five years experience).
4. They are tired of driving ten year old cars while their congregations trade in their cars every two years.
5. Many young pastors are called into difficult congregations that chew pastors up and spit them out because experienced pastors know better.
6. Even though the search committee told them they wanted to reach young people, they didn’t really mean it.
7. When the pastor asked the search committee if they were an “emergent church”, the members of the search committee thought he said “divergent church” and agreed.
8. Nobody told the young pastor that cleaning the toilets was part of the job description.
9. The young pastor’s student loans came due and the amount of money he/she owes on a monthly basis exceeds his/her income.
10. Working at McDonalds has a lot less stress.
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