EP 174 – THE IMPACT OF FORCED TERMINATION
Greetings Bootcampers! The boys were living large in Texas while teaching a DMin Cohort at Southwestern Seminary. Today’s topic is an important one; The Impact of Forced Terminations on a Church. Check out the references in the show notes to learn more. And leave your comments on the blog, email or the Bootcamp hotline.
Forced termination of a Pastor is defined as an involuntary dismissal from service, due to no fault or moral failure, or dereliction of duties on the part of a Pastor, brought about by a few within the local church.
- Of all pastors, 23-41% will experience a forced termination at least once in their career
- In 2012, a Lifeway survey, in partnership with Baptist State Convention leaders, a panel identified 452 pastors and staff members who succumbed to a non-voluntary or non-self-initiated separation from the church they served.
- It is estimated that over the years of their vocational service, four out of ten pastors will be forced out of their church by firing or some sort of pressure that leads to their eventual resignation.
When a Pastor is terminated without cause, it is often a prediction point in the history of a church, it is the place where steep, prolonged, and sustained decline begins. It is the marker under which many dysfunctions are buried.
- Where Pastors were forced out, 34-45% of those congregations had simmering divisions and internal conflict that predated the Pastor’s arrival.
- 23% of the congregations who forced terminated a pastor had done the same with previous pastors.
- 2/3 of the congregations who forced termed a Pastor did so within the first five years of his tenure.
- The top reasons cited for conflict leading to a forced separation: Conflict for control among groups in the church 68%, congregational stress 43%, values/directional conflict between Pastor and some people in the church 27%
We often think of how a forced termination impacts the Pastor and his family. We may not think deeply enough about the impact of these actions on the local church.
David Meyers, a retired Director of Missions from Chattanooga TN states: What forced termination does to the soul of the congregation is significant in and of itself, but the practical, logistical impact is also significant. The church may lose members who are unhappy with what has occurred or how it was done. The loss of financial support may result from membership decline or withholding money. The name and reputation of the church is marred in the community and beyond. Hesitant, reserved, or negative recommendations of the church are given to prospective new ministers for that church. Many ministers are reluctant to consider relocation to a church that terminated its previous minister(s).
What can be done for the church caught in this act or pattern?
- Address the wrongs committed to Pastors and their families who were undeserving of a forced termination. Repent and publicly apologize and make restitution where appropriate.
- Remove those who were involved in or instigated unfounded and unreasonable forced terminations from leadership positions within the church.
- Address informal campaigns to force a pastor out through biblically based and bylaw-supported church discipline.
- Make careful note of the actions taken above in the minutes of a Church business meeting so that the record may show these actions will not meet with approval.
Check out these resources on forced termination:
[1] https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/pastoral-termination-common-but-oftern-avoidable-experts-say/
[2] Musical Pulpits, Baker Publishing Group, 1992. Rodney J. Crowell pg.25, 66
[3] https://ministeringtoministers.org/2017/12/forced-termination-affects-churches-too/
[4] https://www.sbc.net/resource-library/resolutions/resolution-on-the-forced-termination-of-ministers/
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