While serving 14 years as a Resource Minister with our judicatory I had the opportunity to work with dozens of churches seeking new pastors. Many of these churches were smaller. A common problem I found in many of them was that they were still structured, and wanted to do ministry, as larger churches. Often, they were still using the same structure they had when they were larger and didn't realize that this structure would not serve them well now that they were smaller.
It is difficult to find pastors for smaller churches, and this does not look to improve any time in the near future. There are many reasons for this which I've addressed in some of my books on bivocational ministry. The one reason I want to address in this post is that these churches often have unrealistic expectations for their pastor.
Having been out of active ministry for a couple of years now I decided to look at ads churches were putting on the Internet for pastors. I found the same issue I had experienced when I tried to help smaller churches find a new pastor. Many of these churches were averaging 20-50 people in attendance, and they expected their pastor to preach on Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday evening in addition to doing all the pastoral care and administrative duties many churches expect of their pastor. Even when the ad said they were looking for a part-time pastor (their words, not mine) the job description sure didn't sound part-time.
I realize many churches still think they must have Sunday evening services and mid-week services, but if they insist on having them I would suggest having lay people lead them. It is usually not a good use of the pastor's time to have to prepare and present three messages a week in smaller churches. It also seldom adds anything to the church's ministry.
Bivocational pastors must be very conscious of how they use their time, and the time they give the church must be productive. To expect them to meet the job descriptions I referred to above is not an productive use of their time and will add very little to the overall health of the congregation. Potential pastors will avoid churches with these type of expectations.
One other thing I noticed in some of the ads concerned the salary. The ad would include something like this: "Although the church cannot afford to pay much in the way of salary, the pastor can expect his salary to increase as the church grows." I heard this more than once from search committees I worked with. My response was usually this: "So you are not really looking for a pastor. What you want is a commissioned salesperson." This response was always met with resistance, but I would point out that this is exactly how commissioned salespeople are hired. They would be paid very little, but if they brought in the business they could earn more. Search teams did not especially like me pointing this out to them, but this was the mindset they had.
Smaller churches should offer the absolute best salary package they can afford without apology. If the cash salary must be minimal, then offer additional benefits such as more time away or something else that would appeal to the candidates. Try to tailor your salary package to the candidate to make it fit well with his or her needs. Certainly, as the church grows the salary can be improved, but don't put it in those terms when you are interviewing candidates.
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