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In for the Long Haul

By Hedgehog.

In days gone by, it was not unusual for the captain of a ship to lash himself to the wheel as the ship rode out a storm. That action had a symbolism which went beyond a mere fear of being washed overboard. It marked a determination not to abandon ship and an equal commitment to, if necessary, go down with the ship.

Now you may well be wondering where this article is going. Well, Hedgehog was chatting to a minister friend from another denomination. He told me that, having served five years in his present church, he had done his bit and it was time to move on. He’d made all the changes he needed to (or could) make and there was nothing left there for him to do. Hedgehog’s prickles all stood on end in horror! It sounded as though he was afraid of outstaying his welcome!

My friend’s comments immediately connected with something said by Grace Davie, Professor of the Sociology of Religion at Exeter University (best known for coining the phrase ‘Believing without belonging’), say at a recent conference. According to her research, the most productive period of a ministry begins around years five to seven and extend to about year fifteen (after that, there is a danger of running out of steam).

This confirms the research of the Church Growth movement in the 1980s that short ministries are usually ineffective ministries (unless the minister has been put into a problem church by his/her denomination with the specific intention to sort out the mess, then move on, leaving someone else to do the rebuilding), because the change and development created by a ‘minister in a hurry’ do not take root properly.

And, being now in my fourth year in my current parish, I think I may have realised why this is so. For a start, it takes several years to get a congregation to trust you as a leader. At first, they’ll go along with what you suggest because they have high (sometimes ludicrously high) expectations, but expectations are not to be confused with  trust As you make little changes in the early years of ministry, trust and confidence are developed between leader and led, which in turn leads to the leader being given ‘permission’ to make greater changes later. Eventually they move beyond expectations to trust.

Second, it takes a similarly long time to work out who has the right gifts for managing and embedding change and development. In my own parish, for example, I’ve had to wait patiently while four of the six Church Wardens came to the place, of their own accord, where they realised that the time had come for them to step aside. I was thankful that their loyalty meant they didn’t go any sooner - it had taken me the same amount of time to identify their natural successors. We’re now in the process of training and equipping those new leaders for leadership in the longer term.

Third, radical or dramatic or unpopular changes made early in ministry will be reversed as soon as you leave. Changes made without the full support of a congregation will not outlast the person who makes the changes. Without the right people with the right gifts and experience to take things forward, a church/parish will probably revert to its previous default position as soon as you move on.

And fourth, early change tends to depend too much on the minister to make them happen and to keep them in place. For example, we’ve just created a team of Welcomers in our parish. Had we done it in year one, the whole weight of sustaining the team would have fallen on our shoulders. By waiting until now (year four), enough people understand the reason for appointing Welcomers for the change to become embedded and lay-led in a relatively short space of time. We’ve done the initial work, but it’ll be handed on very quickly, so it’s got a much better chance of becoming an embedded part of parish life in the longer term.

So, Hedgehog wants to say that he agrees in principle with Grace Davie that long ministries are what’s needed if we’re to effect real change - the kind that lasts and transforms - in our churches. Such change will only become firmly embedded in the ethos of a church when the church is led by a consistent vision over many years.

All of which makes a bit of a nonsense of the attitude of some clergy that they expect to move every five years. It makes even more nonsense of the article by a Baptist minister I recently read in which he stated (I can hardly believe this!) that his 7-year-old son has celebrated each birthday in a different house - and it wasn’t said in complaint, but in pride! It even makes nonsense of the increasing practice among Anglican Bishops of giving out five year licences (OK, they’re renewable, but it still means that the local parish priest may change far too frequently to build a thriving Christian community).

More than ever before, as some parts of the church seem to be in terminal decline and others are stumbling after years of growth, the need is for ministers/clergy/leaders who are in for the long haul, to be willing to lash themselves to the wheel for as long as the job takes. Or to put it another way, a job half done is a job badly done.

Having said that, the challenge for denominational leaders is to put in place support and development structures which will enable ministers to sustain ministry without a fresh start every five years or so. Ministry Today, with its purpose of ‘enabling Christian leaders to survive and thrive’, has an important part to play in that process.