Lambs to Wolves: The First five years
(circa 1983, My first church in Port Cartier, Que.)
Graduating from EPBC in 1978 my wife and I spent a year studying French in Quebec City as part of what was known as the FLITE (French language Intensive Training for Evangelism) program. In 1979 we left the city to pioneer a church in Port Cartier located on the North Eastern coast of Quebec (8 hour drive north east from Quebec city). Hopelessly naïve and with more vigor than brains for five years I became pastor of a small community English Presbyterian church which met on Sunday morning and pioneered a French Pentecostal church which met on Sunday evening. Both assemblies met in the same building which I rented from the Presbyterian church for a dollar a year. Other than the French Catholic church in town the next nearest church was in a neighboring city an hour’s drive away.
Little did I appreciate then how those first five years would be so personally formative and influence any ministry moving forward. However, if numbers are the barometer of success, I was a failure. On a good Sunday 30 people attended church. On a bad Sunday, no one attended (my wife worked shifts in the local health center) and on a really bad Sunday one person showed up. And she invariably insisted I go through a regular service (song service, prayers, and a sermon). Ah, the memories. Little in Bible College can prepare you for this. And nothing in Bible College prepared me for what happened three years into this ministerial appointment. It was an annual District conference in Oshawa (a 16-hour drive). It was my yearly opportunity to get away for a reprieve and meet other pastors. It was also the early 80s and the height of the Church Growth movement. And so, it was not surprising that the District Superintendent found time to parade the success stories of several Quebec pastors across the platform where success corresponded to numbers. “We started our church 5 months ago and today we are 200 strong.” (Exaggeration mine) was the general refrain punctuated with the proverbial ‘praise the Lord”.
No, I was not going to be featured which was fine, I prefer the shadows. And by anyone’s barometer of success, preaching to one person the previous Sunday was not going to make the grade. I was even good with that until the final District pronunciation, “let’s celebrate these successes and forget the failures.” Where did that leave my identity? Did the District Superintendent mean anything malicious in his comment? Likely not. I suspect he was oblivious to those who did not measure up to his number’s benchmark. Fortunately, again I was stubborn and rebellious enough that a knife to the soul was not going to deter me from pursuing what I believed was a call to ministry even if I had no idea what that really meant. I resigned at the end of the fifth year, and no, the numbers never changed. Postscript I plan on visiting the town this summer for the first time since 1984. I see online, it is now the town museum.
All this by way of introduction to say that the first five years, post-graduation in the field of vocational church ministry are among the most difficult and most formative. In the survey portion of my study, those who reported that they are no longer working in a field related to their study, 50% changed their path between 0-5 years and another 20% within 10 years. The reasons offered were many, for some it was a personal crisis of faith or related to some issues of doctrine, for others it was a marriage breakdown[1], for others it was conflict with leadership, or the lead pastor resigned and the rest of the staff was required to resign as well, for others they discovered they simply were not suited for vocational ministry, but the number one response given was debt.
The cost of education is prohibitive and if a student gets married to another student, the cost invariably doubles, but the income is often singular if both parties graduate from the college and both parties envision working in ministry. This is further compounded by low starting salaries, or the need to work a second job or raise their own support (requiring a different skill set entirely which is not suited for everyone and for which there is little training). The problem of debt is a multi-layered problem in a market-driven pay structure with no simple solutions in sight.[2]
Closely related to debt, the second deciding factor to opt out of vocational ministry was leadership related either working with a toxic lead pastor(s), or the Church board. Again, the reasons were varied: poor or non-existent job descriptions. Promises not kept. Hidden expectations on the spouse or children. In one interview, the junior pastor was told his tenure would be short if he could not get his wife in line. In many cases the lead pastor was never trained to work with another pastor, and they were probably only reflecting the lack of mentorship that they received. And sometimes the young graduate stepped into an existing crossfire between the Board and the lead pastor.
In Matthew 10:16, Jesus sends out 70 servants. He tells them they are being sent as sheep into the midst of wolves so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” In the case of young graduates, unfortunately the real wolves to watch for are too often in the church and unfortunately even in leadership. Now that is a course worth teaching, “Wise as Serpents and Innocent as Doves.”
I finish with the observations of Timothy (again not his actual name). Timothy was a student of mine. While most of my interviews were rather random, Timothy was someone I was told I needed to interview. By his own admission at graduation, he probably would not have been on the class list of graduates most likely to “succeed.”[3] But, by all accounts he has found his place and is leading a healthy church in the Maritimes.
…I've told all our interns this, you need to pay attention to the lead pastor that you are going to work with. You can have a great senior pastor and a difficult church and it's going to be okay, that was my first church. And you can have a great church, and not a great lead pastor and it's going to be hard. Everything pivots off that one relationship.
…You almost must interview the board and lead pastor as they interview you. I was just fortunate with my first experience. The second time, I was ready. The initial interview went both ways. The relationship was great because we both asked all the right questions. Sometimes in the first church you're reluctant to ask the right question, because you don't have any capital yet. You don't really know what you are doing. I have so many friends that never made it past the first church.
…If I take 10 friends from my core group at Eastern, I don't think any of them are in ministry, besides me. I know one had no intention of going into ministry. He planned to go back to school for further education. And he would say today, I don't think I would be serving the Lord if I hadn’t done that. But most of them didn't make it past the first time.
…I'm still in contact with them. We're still good friends. I see many of them and they are still serving the Lord, going to church, and involved to certain degrees.
My Final Observation
I confess, this blog leaves me with more questions than responses.
…to survivors who made it past the 10 years threshold, remember your journey when working with newbies.
…to young graduates resist the Market God and His Domaine of competition, scarcity and self-interest that obsesses over everything quantitively.
…on occasion try walking on water to remind yourself that the real God believes in you no matter how many times you sink.
…in those first five years pause long enough from surviving and remember those days when you first went to Bible college with “eyes made for wonder.”
[1] Our evangelical sub-culture has tended to tacitly encourage its adherents to marry young for better or for worse. For those beginning in ministry this has also contributed to an added stress. A failed marriage that leads to divorce historically has ended opportunities for Christian ministry in this sub-culture. As a result, some ill-advised marriages have been held on in harmful ways for the sake of job security. I am including a link to a chapter of my thesis on the history of divorce and Remarriage within the PAOC up to the year 1995. https://www.academia.edu/99345690/Divorce_and_Remarriage [2] Beginning in the 80s the college began offering specialized training for youth ministries, Christian education and so forth. But the typical pay structure has made it a rare case that someone can stay in that field. They become stepping-stones up the ladder until they can land a lead pastor position or the pastor leaves ministry all together. [3] The word ‘success” is problematic in ministry. Outcomes too easily gravitate to simple numerical calculations and worship of the Market God. Based on numbers the most successful church in Winnipeg is the Canada Life Center where the Winnipeg Jets play. In an interview with a local pastor, I once asked him is your church healthy. He responded, “I am not sure what that means, in our church we have street people, addicts, basically broken people sitting alongside businesspeople.” Sounded like a healthy church to me.
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