{"id":695269,"date":"2019-10-23T02:00:46","date_gmt":"2019-10-23T07:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomrainer.com\/?p=695269"},"modified":"2020-02-07T15:32:54","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T21:32:54","slug":"eight-ways-pastors-can-cultivate-long-term-tenures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/eight-ways-pastors-can-cultivate-long-term-tenures\/","title":{"rendered":"Eight Ways Pastors Can Cultivate Long-Term Tenures"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sam Rainer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Generally, long-term pastor tenures are better than short-term pastor tenures. The context where the pastor ministers can impact the tenure. The church body can impact tenure. And the pastor can impact tenure length. Here are eight ways pastors can cultivate their long-term tenures.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Elevate your family above your career.<\/strong> You simply cannot overestimate the importance of family stability. Your family is not a quantifiable metric in the decision to transition or not. One wise mentor once told me, \u201cIf your wife ain\u2019t called, then you ain\u2019t called.\u201d He\u2019s right. Your family is the front line of your ministry. They come first. If they want to stay, then in the vast majority of cases, you should not lead them to another place of ministry.<\/li>\n
  2. Stop basing fulfillment on the size of your church.<\/strong> A 2,000-attendance church is not more fulfilling than a 200-attendance church. Your worth to Christ is not dependent on the size of your church. Success is no longer about \u201carriving\u201d at the large county seat churches like it was in the 1960s. Quite frankly, such ideas should not have existed back then. They certainly shouldn\u2019t exist now.<\/li>\n
  3. Live in the community where you pastor<\/strong>. I once consulted a church where the pastor left after several years because he simply did not connect with the community. He lived thirty minutes outside of the city from where his church was to get more house for his money. It\u2019s hard to love a community if you don\u2019t live there. Additionally, some communities are easier to love than others. A New Englander might have to work to love the Deep South. A Southerner might get culture shock in Miami. Californians know that the northern part of the state is quite different than the southern part of the state. To love a place over time, you must live there.<\/li>\n
  4. Don\u2019t cast your preferences as vision.<\/strong> One of the biggest unseen and internal faults of a pastor is creating a vision around personal preferences. Just because you like something doesn\u2019t necessarily mean it is best for the whole of your congregation. You don\u2019t always have to get your way in your church. If you always get your way, then you\u2019re creating a toxic culture.<\/li>\n
  5. Pick your battles.<\/strong> Too many pastors die on molehills. I knew a rural church where the new pastor got fired in his second year. He decided to discard all of the tchotchkes families had donated throughout the years. He thought they were ugly. He was right. However, the church chose ugly d\u00e9cor over a foolish pastor.<\/li>\n
  6. Continually ask long-term questions.<\/strong> You minister to people in the moment, but you must also lead them towards the future. The person struggling with a dying parent does not care about your ten-year vision right then, but they will be glad you asked the right questions about leadership ten years from that point.<\/li>\n
  7. Have a plan to develop and equip staff.<\/strong> Without a formal plan to develop staff, you will be alone in your long-term vision. If you don\u2019t bring along your staff, then it is highly unlikely you will bring along the church as well. You must do the hard work of developing staff to survive long-term at your church.<\/li>\n
  8. Discern the difference between snippiness and disunity.<\/strong> That comment about the lack of choir robes is most likely just snippiness. Don\u2019t treat the offender as if he\u2019s killing the church. You should expect criticism as a leader, especially if you are the lead pastor. You are the person everyone sees. High visibility means you will have both influence on people and critiques from people. Most criticism aimed at you is not disunity. If you can\u2019t handle criticism, then you should not be the leader.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    One of the greatest influences on pastoral tenure is the pastor. While some things are out of your control, a lot is not. You have the ability to cultivate a longer tenure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Sam Rainer Generally, long-term pastor tenures are better than short-term pastor tenures. The context where the pastor ministers can impact the tenure. The church body can impact tenure. And the pastor can impact tenure length. Here are eight ways pastors can cultivate their long-term tenures. Elevate your family above your career. You simply cannot…","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":695272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,177,194],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-695269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-lead","category-preaching"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEight Ways Pastors Can Cultivate Long-Term Tenures | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Generally, Long-term pastor tenures are better than short-term pastor tenures. 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