In my previous articles I wrote about Jim Collins' lasting bestseller in both the business world and the general world of book literature. "Good to Great" looked at characteristics of businesses that had transitioned from mediocrity to greatness. Using strict screening criteria, Collins and his research team discovered eleven Fortune 500 companies that made this very difficult but rewarding move to greatness.
Several months ago, I assembled my own research team to discover churches that had moved from good to great. Since I do not at this point want to reveal all of the key issues in my upcoming book, I will not discuss the process or the churches that made our own statistical cut. I will, however, preview some of the characteristics of the pastors that led their churches from good to great. In this article, I focus on the issue of pastoral tenure.
My research team has been monitoring the length of time pastors stay at churches over the past decade. We have come to some very clear conclusions. First, by almost any standard, pastoral tenure is brief. Though the average tenure is almost five years now — its highest in several years — our team realizes that many pastors and ministers need that long just to establish trust.
Second, we also see the clear pattern that the most common point of departure for a pastor is in years three to five of his ministry. And the most common reason given for leaving a church is some type of conflict.
Third, by most of the measures we know to use, and by our own subjective observations, the most productive years of a pastor's ministry typically begin after years seven or eight. Yet only 14 percent of pastors stay at a church for 10 or more years.
Greatness Takes Time
By now you can see where this analysis is headed. If a pastor is to have truly productive years of ministry, he most likely needs to plan on staying at a church for 10 years to a lifetime. But, primarily because of conflict, very few pastors will ever make it to these fruitful years. Most will continue to search for the elusive better, and perhaps bigger, church.
All of the good to great pastors we studied have been at their churches for over 10 years. All of them went through some type of conflict, but they decided to stay with the church. The other side of the conflict would then usher in the truly productive years.
We are not suggesting that a long-term stay at church will always result in a great church. To the contrary, we studied quite a few churches with long-term pastors where the church was obviously unhealthy.
But we are willing to suggest that a church cannot attain health with a series of "revolving door" pastors. Such is the plight of the great majority of churches in America. The constantly changing leadership engenders inconsistency of vision, undeveloped leaders, regular programmatic changes, and a power vacuum that is often filled by some of the biggest troublemakers in the church.
Common Denominators
So how did the good-to-great pastors survive so many years in ministry at the same church? After interviewing these leaders, we found several common responses.
First, in their relationship with God, they settled that the only "greener pasture" would be a church that was a definite call of God. They would not assume that the natural progression of a pastor is to move to a larger church every few years. They would be content regardless of the size of the church.
Second, they prayed for an unconditional love for the people of the church. Many church members are well-intentioned dragons that thrive on creating church turmoil. These pastors, through prayer, learned to love even the most unloving of the church members. They saw people through the eyes of Christ, and realized what He did for people like us, sinners who did not deserve forgiveness and salvation.
Finally, they made plans and provided leadership with a vision that was several years in advance. They constantly saw themselves at the church 10 or 15 years from now, or even for an entire lifetime.
While long pastoral tenure is no guarantee of success in ministry, we have yet to find a good-to-great church with short pastoral tenure. In this consumer mentality culture of "what have you done for me lately?" it is refreshing to get to know a few leaders who put others before self, and who can see people through the eyes of Christ.
