One of my favorite collegues, David Livingston, has a new blog post titled: “Church Multiple Personality Disorder” that succinctly summarizes my views on one of the benefits of longer appointments. With his permission, I’m quoting it here in full:
I’ve heard it said that over time a church takes on the personality of the pastor. It makes sense. It’s also one of the problems with short term pastorates.
If a pastor stays for 3-4 years and [the church] takes on the personality of the pastor, then a different pastor with a different personality comes and stays 3-4 years, then another and so on, the church doesn’t know what its personality is supposed to be. It gets the institutional version of multiple personality disorder. Who are we? Where are we going? How do we function? Just as a church is getting used to the pastor’s personality, that pastor gets yanked for another one.
One partial solution is for pastors to be more patient. When the relationship between pastor and church gets rocky, it may not really be because of the pastor or the church. It may just be the multiple personality disorder kicking in. If instead of looking for a “promotion” or an “escape” the pastor is willing to stick with the church through the crisis then perhaps the church will move into a more consistent understanding of itself. If instead a pastor moves at the first hint of problems the cycle just continues for the next pastor and the next pastor and on down the line.
This is one of the many reasons why Jenny and I hope to continue to serve as your pastors for years to come.