Shepherd or Team Leader?

Shepherd or Team Leader?
By: Lyle E. Schaller

"Twelve years ago, I began my ministry in another city by serving as the successor to a pastor who was forced to resign because of his low level of skill in interpersonal relationships. A neighboring pastor, who was his close friend, explained to me that while he was an excellent preacher and was comfortable in crowds, he couldn't get along with individuals on a one-to-one basis. During his three years, the worship attendance dropped from an average of about 145 to less than 100. At least a dozen families left to join other churches, while several simply moved to the sidelines. When I came, I found fewer than 20 people who really were sorry to see him leave," reflected the Reverend David Thomas, a 37-year-old minister. "By the end of my first full year, attendance was back up to 120, and it plateaued at close to 150 by the end of my sixth year. My father-in-law, who also is a pastor, explained to me that, given a choice, most small and midsize congregations prefer a loving shepherd to the good preacher who doesn't like people. As the middle-born child in a family where I had an older brother and an older sister plus two younger sisters, I have spent my whole life getting along with people who are different from me."

“What happened next?" inquired this new pastor in town who was visiting other ministers as part of a systematic effort to get better acquainted with both the community and the competition.

"After seven enjoyable and comfortable years, plus two children, we felt the need for a higher income since my wife and I are both happy with her role as a stay-at-home mom, so we accepted the invitation to come here. At the time, I thought I was simply moving to a larger congregation with a bigger staff, a much better physical plant, more people and more resources," recalled Pastor Thomas. "Five years later, I now realize it was really the equivalent of a career change. After 15 years as a classroom teacher, my Dad accepted an offer to become an elementary school principal. Years later, when asked about it, he often explained that while he continued in the same vocation, he had switched careers. Several years ago, he explained to us that while he was continuing in the same vocation, he again was switching careers as he became the superintendent of schools in a district in another state. That's my frame of reference for describing my life over the past 15 years. I've experienced four big changes. The first was getting married the Tuesday after graduating from college. The second was accepting the role of a loving, reconciling and contented shepherd of a flock of wonderful parishioners. The third was becoming a father nine years ago. The fourth is this new career I began five years ago that I'm still trying to master. That is to be the team leader of a staff of paid professionals, plus gifted volunteers, who serve what most people describe as a big church. The year before we arrived, church attendance averaged 455. For the past 12 months we've been averaging about 460, so I guess you could describe this as a church on a plateau in size."

"In my discussions with the search committee before I was called, I was told by a local realtor on the committee that the number of new families moving into this community has increased from 800 a year five years ago to about 1,500 last year," commented the visitor. "How has this affected your ministry?"

"I'm not sure," replied the host. "As I explained, we've been on a plateau in size since before I came. About all I can say for sure is five years ago, if you use average worship attendance to measure size, we were the fourth largest Protestant congregation in town. Today we're either sixth or seventh. The competition to reach newcomers certainly has increased."

"That's the impression I've gained since I arrived," agreed the visitor. "Three of the ministers I've talked with who have been here since before 1988 made the same point you've just made. The competition among the churches for future members has been increasing in recent years."

Four Patterns
This conversation illustrates four patterns that can be seen in hundreds of communities all across America. Perhaps the most widespread is that the competition among the churches for future constituents is greater than ever before in American history. One explanation is the generations of American churchgoers born before 1930 often inherited an allegiance to a specific religious body that frequently was reinforced by a language or nationality identity. Polish Catholic, Norwegian Lutheran, Scotch Presbyterian, Swedish Baptist, German Methodist and Dutch Reformed are examples of that double identity. That is a less common characteristic of churchgoers born in America since 1960.

A second pattern is illustrated by Pastor David Thomas. When he moved to a congregation triple the size of the one where he had spent the first seven years of his ministry, he continued in the vocation of parish pastor, but he changed careers from loving shepherd to team leader. For seven years, his call had been to "do ministry." His roles included pastor, preacher, administrator, teacher, evangelist, youth leader, worship leader, counselor, organizer, fundraiser and advocate for missions. In his new role as the team leader, he is responsible to make sure ministry is being done.

Concurrently, a third trend was well underway all across the American culture. The old top-down authority pyramid gradually was being replaced by horizontal partnerships, egalitarianism and the concept of teams. The congregation he is now serving called a traditional and highly competent senior minister in 1966. During his 30-year tenure, the average worship attendance more than doubled from 285 to 620. When he retired in 1996, a substantial number of members, who in retrospect had a far stronger loyalty to this magnetic personality than to that congregation, drifted away. The three-year tenure of the intentional interim minister gradually halted that exodus, and worship attendance plateaued at about 450. That intentional interim minister also persuaded the search committee that instead of seeking a successor from among that shrinking number of ministers who are comfortable in the role of senior pastor, they should look for a younger person who is comfortable with the role of team leader.

The other program staff members enthusiastically endorsed that change. The search committee agreed, and David Thomas arrived as the successor. As David explained, he subsequently realized that meant a major career change. One downside of that story is he had never served as a member of a staff team in a large church. He was confronted with the need to earn the respect of both the volunteer lay leaders and the paid staff while learning how to function in this new career.

A second downside was none of the leaders, either paid staff or volunteers, had ever worked as members of a team leading one congregation. The interim minister had served in the role of senior minister while he advocated replacing that position with the new one of team leader.

In the ideal world that interim minister would have been followed by a minister who had served for at least five years as an associate pastor on a staff team led by a highly skilled team leader in a congregation averaging at least 500 to 600 at worship. Whenever a new organizational design is being introduced into any large institution, it helps if someone is involved who has lived with that design for at least a few years.

A fourth contemporary pattern rests on the word quality. Why do so many congregations in American Protestantism plateau with an average worship attendance in the 300-to-450 bracket and so few reach 600 and continue to grow?

One part of the answer is the lack of the adequate physical facilities required for continued growth. A second is the interruptions created by short pastorates of seven to 15 years. A third is the absence of visionary leadership. A fourth, and perhaps the most significant, is the definition of acceptable quality. The bar for what is acceptable quality keeps being raised as size goes up. It is much higher in the congregation averaging 600 at worship than in those averaging 400 where it is higher than those averaging 135 at worship.

How Many Changes?
When the Reverend David Thomas moved into the new career, he really made at least seven changes.

The obvious one is he moved into a different community context for doing ministry. He moved after spending seven years moving up the learning curve on how to be a loving shepherd into the bottom end of a new learning curve on how to be an effective team leader. He moved from a congregation with a relatively low degree of complexity and anonymity into one with a high degree of complexity and anonymity. He moved from the role of doing ministry to the responsibility of making sure ministry happened. He moved from being the loving shepherd to a staff team where that role was being filled for the sixth consecutive year by a semi-retired, part-time, 70-year-old minister who excelled in pastoral care. He moved from a career where most of the members evaluated his performance primary to his competence as a loving shepherd into a new career where many evaluated him on his performance as a leader, but most evaluated him on his competence as a preacher. He also moved into an ecclesiastical environment where the competition among the churches for future constituents was far greater than it had been in his previous pastorate.

How many changes are needed to overload the system?

For more than four decades, Lyle E. Schaller has served as a parish consultant to hundreds of congregations and scores of denominational agencies. His recent books include From Geography to Affinity, The Ice Cube Is Melting, and A Mainline Turnaround.