Going On Unto Perfection
Preaching Classes Level 9 - Lesson #10
When It’s Time To Leave
By Art Wallis
Introduction: Often we do not like to say “good-bye”. But, I have known of some preachers who were happy to say “good-bye” to a bad church situation; and again I have known congregations who were glad to see a bad preacher leave. The blade cuts both ways.
The great late black preacher, Marshall Keeble, used to tell his preacher boys, “Kizzie, stay put.” But, there is a time to stay and there is a time to leave and you need to know the difference. (See Ecclesiastes 3:1-9)
At a preachers’ meeting in Western Indiana there was a young man from a congregation in Eastern Illinois who was our guest speaker. He came from a church that was troubled quite often. Things had gone from bad to worse and although he had made some really good advances in baptisms and additions, there was still strife. He thought that the problems within the church were being caused by the leadership and a few members. In general he enjoyed the work there. He prayed about it. He read the Bible looking for God’s guidance about it. Finally he preached a sermon in which he stated that: “The Problem Is ME!” When he realized that a large part of the problems he was facing was caused by his wrong reactions, it made him realize that in reality HE was one of the biggest parts of the problem. Because of that penitent sermon, he was able to stay with that congregation for several more years and do a good work there in that community. But the day did finally come when it was time for him to leave; and he did.
It is a known fact that a preacher doesn’t begin to do his best work until he has been in a given community for 3-5 years. Too often a preacher gets discouraged and moves just about the time he should be beginning to do his best work.
How long you stay at a work depends on many factors. Phillip the Evangelist stayed in Caesarea from Acts 8:29-21:8, that would cover many years; thus we have the example of a preacher who stayed put and had a very long ministry. Paul stayed for about 3 years one place. Timothy, Titus, and Dr. Luke often stayed for several months in one place. As long as you are doing a good work and the congregation is satisfied, you should stay if at all possible.
Sometimes church finances will not allow a preacher to continue to stay. At a time like that, perhaps some arrangement could be worked out for the preacher to work part time at a secular job to supplement the income the church pays him, if they want him to stay. I saw this work quite well with a congregation in Indiana back in the early 1990’s. It was a small congregation and several of the better contributing members had moved away with their work and it put the financial stability of the congregation in jeopardy. The congregation wanted the preacher and his family to stay, and they wanted to stay, but the finances would not work out. So they reached an agreement for him to work at a fast foods place (assistant manager, I think it was) and he would be off at his secular job on Sundays and Wednesday nights. He had the supplemental income and health insurance for his family and the church got to keep a really good preacher for a few more years.
I have known of some preachers who have done a very good work in a given community. The Lord’s church is growing numerically. It is also growing spiritually. Things just seem to get better and better, so the preacher stays there for most of his adult life or for most of his preaching career. This is the ideal situation.
Sometimes, though, a preacher doesn’t realize that it is way past time for him to leave that work and let someone with fresh ideas come in and put a spark of life back into it. There was a congregation in another state who had a preacher whose work was being sabotaged from within. No matter how hard he would work to bring in new members, they were being driven off about as fast as he could bring them in. Things weren’t getting any better. Attendance had been declining for many years. What was once a strong and vibrant congregation was no longer the shining light for the Lord that it had once been. This preacher was “holding on” just long enough for all of his children to be able to graduate from high school there. He was determined to stay until they all graduated, no matter what jeopardy it may have caused for the local congregation. If the church leadership had been the godly sort of men they should have been, they would have asked this man to leave two or three years before he did finally leave. Yes, it would have worked a bit of a hardship on the man and his family, but the church has still never fully recovered from that problem. There are good people there, but that preacher had definitely overstayed his welcome and ability to do a good work there and the local church suffered for it.
Sometimes ministries work well and you stay a long time there. Other times things don’t work out well at all for either the congregation or the minister. We always hope that a new work for a preacher will be a good ministry. But, the reality is, there comes that time when you decide to leave, or the congregation has decided that you should leave. So, you leave.
A. How NOT to Leave a Congregation – leaving bills behind, leaving a bad name, leaving a bad reputation, ruining the church’s good name in the community, lying to people about your situation before you leave (honesty in all things), leaving all at once without giving proper notice, leaving no forwarding address or contact persons so your bills and mail can be delivered to you. (this is NOT good stewardship) The sad thing is that I have known this to have happened too many times over the years. It has even happened here in Iowa. The church usually ends up having to pay off the bills left behind by the preacher in order to recover some of its good standing in the local community. Preachers who do such things should have to be registered on a list and put on a blog on-line so all congregations can be warned about what sort of individual this preacher really is. Some men do this over and over again.
B. The proper way to leave. - I have a going away sermon I use when the time is right that is titled: “If I had One Last Sermon To Preach, This Would Be It”. I don’t scold, accuse, or criticize. Instead I encourage and remind the brethren what their work needs to be to keep the church growing. I always try to leave lists of things I did and how and when I did them. I would leave lists of people I have studied the Bible with and a little information about how I thought the studies were going. I tried to leave lists of prospects for Bible studies and contact names, addresses and phone numbers to help the new preacher.
C. Someone might ask, “How do you know when it is time to move on?” If the choice is yours, there are several things I use to gauge when it is time to go. When I have been to almost every house in town (small towns of under 6,000) and I know what excuse the person that lives in the house is going to give me as to why they don’t want a Bible study or why they don’t want to come to church, I know it is time to leave. Another gauge I have used is that I try to find a job for everyone in the congregation to do and then get them to do it. The first ½ of that is easy; getting them to do it is the hard part. When everyone in the congregation who will work is busy working in the Lord’s work, I figure it is time to leave and let someone follow me who can take them to higher levels. I also would sometimes look at the attendance when I went to a congregation and decide that I would work there until we had about a 50% increase in regular Sunday morning attendance. After that I would move and let someone else try to add to that. I guess that what usually happened was that if the choice was left up to me, I would stay somewhere until I thought I had done them all the good that I could possibly do and then it was time to leave and let someone else help them to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This system has always seemed to work for me where the choice was mine. Then there were those situations where I really didn’t have a choice, although I was never officially “fired” I was pressured into looking elsewhere on a few occasions. You know that the leaders of the congregation do not want you when you are asked to sign a contract for the new year that has, as part of your job description, “will walk on water”; “will leap over tall buildings in a single bound”; “will move mountains”; “will solve all problems of all the congregation”. When you leave those tough places, it feels like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders when the U-Haul or Ryder truck pulls out of that town for the last time. J If you have given it your best effort, you leave that community knowing that there was literally nothing more you could have done to help expand the Lord’s kingdom in that place. Even in the Book of Acts, it seems that God allowed certain situation to happen (many times they were not pleasant) in order to move God’s spokesmen around to different areas where He wanted them to teach and preach. That often happens in the life of the located preachers yet today!
HELPFUL HINTS: A few rules of thumb about moving.
1. Always leave the preacher’s house in better condition than you found it.
2. Always try to leave the congregation in better numerical and spiritual condition than when you moved there.
3. I figure it is going to take me 6 months to find a church to work with once I begin looking.
4. Even if a new congregation totally pays for your moving expenses, you can plan on spending at least $1000 out of your own pocket to get moved into your new location for such things as curtains, blinds, throw rugs that match the décor, and miscellaneous other small expenses like the cost of turning on the utilities, the cost of new license plates and driver’s licenses, etc.
5. Try to leave on relatively good terms with the congregation you are leaving because you will probably need a good reference from them in order to secure a new preaching position elsewhere.
6. Always work out ahead of time with the congregation that hires you the details of who is going to pay for the move. Some congregations pay the whole bill. Other congregations may pay for your truck rental, but you have to pay your own meals, fuel, and motel costs. Work it out ahead of time. If you can, get it in writing.
Conclusion: Even if you leave a congregation on relatively bad terms, there will always be good friends that you leave behind. Hopefully the plan to move was of your own choosing. You will have many people who really hate to see you go. Emotions will be running high. It may be especially difficult on your wife and children. (that is another reason I recommend staying put at a congregation if you can for as long as you can) As mentioned earlier, you may need a good reference or a good word from some of these people. You may want to stop by to visit with some of them when you are in the area again. Some of them may want to stop by and visit with you from time to time. Remember that as a Christian you are always supposed to work for the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. You are an ambassador for Christ. You need to always ask yourself what Jesus would do if He were in that exact same situation.
One last thing, once you leave a congregation, don’t continue to dabble in its internal goings on by phone, letter, or e-mail. That sometimes just keeps the situation so stirred up that the next man has a very difficult time with his new work. You can visit with the members, but don’t get into the church politics or you are likely to hurt yourself, your effectiveness, and your overall ministry.
May God bless you as you consider being either a full-time, full-time/part-time, or a part-time preacher.
At the time of this writing (January 2009) on one of the web sites I check, there are 165 congregations listed that are looking for preachers/youth ministers and only 53, men who are looking for churches. The need is great! Thank-you for being part of the solution to the preacher shortage.