The High Cost of Leadership

By Mike Glenn

A few months ago, I announced my retirement as Senior Pastor of Brentwood Baptist Church. I have held this position for 32 years and it’s been quite a ride. People have asked me why I have chosen to retire when everything is going so well. First of all, you always want to leave when the church still loves you. The line between “I wish he’d never leave,” and “Is he ever going to leave?” is famously thin. Second, the church is in a good place. I'm in a good place. This is a good time to make a change.

One reason I wanted to make this change is because I want to spend more time with pastors. In some ways, it's never been harder to be a pastor than it is now. There are a lot of reasons for this. First, people no longer trust institutions or those who serve in those institutions. Academia isn't trusted anymore and neither are professors. The government isn't trusted anymore and neither are our elected officials. Likewise, churches aren't trusted anymore and neither are pastors.

Second, we're still trying to pick up the pieces of our lives after COVID-19. The forced isolation broke individuals and families. Without community, addicts relapsed and suicides skyrocketed. The politics that surrounded COVID-19 and the COVID-19 response divided churches, communities, and families along political lines. Friendships were lost. Communities were split and we haven't fully recovered from it yet.

Throw this on top of the usual stresses of leading a local congregation and you've got Class 5 rapids that few pastors can navigate. In case you haven't noticed, we're facing a shortage of pastors. A growing number of churches can't find qualified candidates to lead their churches. Seminary enrollments are dropping. Add to this the number of ministers who are either retiring early or leaving the ministry altogether and the population of qualified candidates for leadership is growing smaller and smaller.

It's tough out there.

With this reality confronting me on a daily basis, I have chosen to spend more time training and coaching pastors. I believe that there are few more challenging, frustrating, and exciting ways to live your life than working in a local church. On any given day, a pastor of any local church will experience the full range of every emotion. You will experience a lot of things, but boredom will not be one of them.

Think about it. In one day, you will go from studying Scripture in preparation for a sermon to visiting the hospital where the doctors have just delivered some tough news to playing volleyball with high school students in the afternoon. If you love God's Word and people, there's no better place to be. I know there are those who would disagree with me, but I believe in the local church. I believe God uses local churches in His grand plan of redemption. Even with all these challenges, I'm still very optimistic about the church in our culture. Why? Because our culture is asking questions that are best answered by Jesus. Questions of meaning, identity, hope, and truth find their ultimate answers in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That leads to an obvious question. If the culture is indeed asking questions that can only be answered by Jesus, why are churches in America doing so poorly? There are a lot of streams making up that river, but I will tell you about the one I've discovered the most in my conversations with pastors. There is a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to be a pastor. Pastors are called. Pastors first experience a divine encounter that leads to a decision to follow Christ and then, as their discipleship deepens, the pastor understands that they have a particular calling to serve God's people. Too many of our pastors see their ministries in terms of a professional career rather than a pastoral calling. When I talk to pastors, they'll talk about goals and strategies, budgets, and building programs. They read books on leadership and organizational management. These are fine and needed books, but they can't replace the essential calling of the pastor: to love God's people.

In my initial conversation with a pastor, there is one question that stops the conversation. I will simply ask, "Do you love your people?" Most pastors, most churches, don't think that that's part of the job description. Too many pastors think their calling is to be a CEO overseeing the Christian programming of a local congregation. They are to supervise the staff, manage the budget, maintain the facilities, and deliver appropriate Christian content for the edification of the congregation.

That's not the job description of a pastor. It's not close. In the second calling of Peter, Jesus tells him to take care of His sheep. Jesus tells Peter this three times. Jesus wanted to be sure Peter heard this.

I believe Jesus wants pastors to hear this now, especially in these unprecedented times. Take care of the sheep.

What does that mean? Jesus himself told us. The good shepherd lays down his life. Whenever we talk about leadership, we rarely mention this. This past week we remembered those who had given their lives for our freedom. We may have even remembered those who gave their lives to protect the freedom of our faith. As we all know, freedom isn't free. Few of us will be asked to give our lives, but we'll all pay a price. Love always demands a price. This is the price Jesus paid. It's the price that all who follow Jesus will pay, especially those called to serve His people.

The first question to ask any pastor is, "Do you love your people?" A pastor can't lead people whom they don't love. They won't follow a leader who doesn't love them. A pastor doesn't have to be the best preacher. A pastor can be a clumsy administrator, but a pastor who doesn't love the sheep? Well, a pastor who doesn't love the sheep isn't a pastor at all.