"The only thing worse than training someone and losing them is not training them and keeping them." I had the privilege of hearing Zig Ziglar speak at several motivational conferences, and in every one of them he made this statement. It impressed me so much I made a copy of it and posted it in the office of a small business I owned. Any of my employees could attend almost any continuing education event that would benefit the company, and the company would pay for it and pay them their wages while attending.
In addition to allowing them to attend such events they wanted, there were several I sent them to. One person had to have a certain number of hours each year to maintain a license we needed to work in Kentucky. Our primary vendor offered classes each year to inform us of new products and new ways of doing business which I attended along with some of our other employees. Yes, we trained a few people only to see them leave for other companies, but we also benefited from the training those people received who stayed with us.
A couple of days ago in this blog I posted an article encouraging ministers to attend continuing education (CE) events. One pastor asked if I could write another article encouraging congregations to see the value in their pastors attending such events. Consider this that post.
Some churches, especially smaller ones, seem to be anti-education. As regular readers of this blog know, when I began as the pastor of the church I served for 20 years I had only a high school education. One of the people on the search committee even commented that some of their best pastors had never attended seminary. Only one person in the congregation, a school teacher, had a college degree. While no one applauded ignorance, there was little interest in the church in me pursuing an education or seeking any kind of training.
After about 18 months I decided some ministerial training might be a good idea! I enrolled in a Bible school about an hour from our community, and for the next four years attended classes there. After graduation I decided to enroll in college and earn a bachelor's degree. Sometime in that time period I asked the church to provide me with money in the budget for continuing education and to give me two weeks to attend such events. Evidently, they had seen some improvement in me because they agreed to both requests with no problem. The budget provided me with $200.00 I could spend on CE events, and the church allowed me two weeks to attend those events.
I hope your church provides something similar for their pastor, and if not you need to seriously ask why not. Most ministerial CE events are very reasonably priced, and $200.00 will allow for 2-3 such events each year unless one needs to stay overnight at one. The two weeks allowed to attend such events are unlikely to be fully used. Most of the ones I attended were one day events held during the week so I didn't even miss a Sunday attending them, but that time was provided if I did need it.
BTW - That time granted for CE is not vacation. Every pastor should be given four weeks vacation annually plus at least two weeks for CE. I know many churches only give two weeks vacation. Shame on them! You will never know the difference two extra weeks of vacation will make on your pastor and his or her family until you begin giving that to them. You will have a new pastor.
I would encourage the church leadership to sit down with the pastor to discuss his or her CE plans for the upcoming year. The pastor may or may not have identified some events that sound promising, but have that conversation anyway. The church should let the pastor know they expect him or her to attend one or two events during the year, and this will be one of the things that will be included in the annual evaluation. If the pastor does have specific plans to attend an upcoming CE event, and it costs a little more than is in the budget, add the money to make it possible. What your pastor learns is going to benefit your church.
About now someone is asking "But what if we spend all that money and the pastor leaves for another church?" So what? You are investing in the Kingdom of God, not just in your church. Perhaps your new pastor will have attended even more CE events and brought some new skills to your church that it needs. Besides, it's not ALL that money. We're talking about a few hundred dollars a year, and if that is a problem then your church has even bigger problems than finances.
I encourage pastors who do not have CE funds available to talk to their churches about this. Give them a copy of this post. If you're not comfortable talking to them about this ask your district or regional leader to have this conversation with them. If that's not possible, ask them to have me come talk to them or contact me. I feel very strongly that every pastor needs regular times of training to stay fresh in the ministry, and I feel just as strongly that churches should provide the finances and time away to make this possible. I have no problem talking to any church about this.
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