On how churches can fail their struggling pastors

Please forgive me, but I can’t undo my past. I spent nearly 20 years in the field of labor relations, brokering peace between employees and managers through my role as a health and safety professional. My job was to advocate for the person who was harassed, investigate incidents for the truth, and understand and improve the systems and processes that support a safe workplace.

My experience in the secular workplace, within industrial relations systems, was with large organizations that were committed to best practice. While the cultures in these workplaces were not perfect, they were certainly workplaces, for the most part, that respected and supported their employees. I would have had a lot of trouble staying with an organization that couldn’t respect and support its employees. It’s just my way of being. The caveat here is that I’ve heard a lot of horror stories and seen a few, but it wasn’t my experience for the most part. The companies I worked for always seemed to strive for excellence in the right way.

When I compare the church workplace to the secular workplace, through everything I read and know from experience, it still amazes me how pitifully struggling pastors can be treated.

When people are below their best performance, they are performing below their best.

We all perform poorly at some point.

Where is the support so that we can rise again to our best level?

Pastors are people too.

The church could learn a lot from the way high-reliability organizations operate. For starters, they strive to have a Just Culture. That its heartbeat is the mantra ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’. Culture is everything because everything is consumed culture. And yes, churches also have their own culture, a kind of DNA that embodies the way they operate.

It is common industry for employees to have the security of an Employee Assistance Program. This entitles the employee and her relatives to receive completely confidential psychological support and counselling. I know the policies suggest that there are, as a rule, 3-6 visits made. But I know the reality of organizations with an employee-friendly culture. They don’t put that line where there is a need for more support.

In fact, my experience with organizations I’ve worked for is that they will do whatever is reasonably possible to support a sick employee. And any employee who had a truly honest relationship with his employer could negotiate anything, because the employer truly wanted the best for the employee.

The employer was investing not only in the worker, but also in the worker’s mental, social, and emotional environment. It was his moral obligation to understand the ‘system’ behind Human Factors.

Churches must invest in their pastors, just as pastors invest in their churches.

The more churches invest in the health and well-being of their pastors, the more pastors will perform acceptably for their churches.

The same was true for employees who had problems with alcohol and other drugs; I helped facilitate programs to increase rehabilitation, and as long as the employee could remain honest, there was nothing we wouldn’t do to support him. Everything was negotiable. This philosophy underpinned the application of the policies that were written.

I now know that some churches, and probably many, would help their paid pastors and ministry workers to this extent; to the actual degree of having faith within the relationship that neither of you is going to get screwed over.

I suppose, however, that there is a possibility that some churches will not, or will not, or cannot help their pastors and paid ministry workers to this degree. Some of the reasons may be very practical. Sometimes it is what it is, and we can’t do anything about it. But I really wonder if more can’t be done to monitor paid pastors and ministry workers, regarding their health and well-being, to understand their problems, and to direct them toward counseling and other forms of support.

If we can allow an employee in the secular workplace to take time off or make other reasonable adjustments to their job, or give them counseling support and be up front to check on them, to see how they’re doing, why can’t we do that in church for our pastors?

If we can understand when an employee in the secular workplace is stressed to the max, or is in conflict, or is unhappy or upset for some logical reason, why can’t we extend this to the church workplace?

If bullying, harassment, and mistreatment can happen in the secular workplace, it can happen in the church workplace. I have seen mediation in both workplaces and the church, from my experience, has a lot to learn. If there is an issue that requires mediation, in order for all parties to receive support, it surely falls to the secular administration or church leadership (whatever the context) to organize a genuinely independent and trained person or team to do so. So that the root causes of conflicts can be established and reconciliation negotiated.

Can churches not see that the work environment for pastors is dangerous?

It is wonderful leadership when churches recognize the health risks to which pastors and other ministry workers are exposed.

It is exemplary leadership when churches commit to protecting their people in such a dangerous environment.

I think there is an opportunity for the church to understand that it is an industrial relations environment and have policies, systems and procedures in place to deal with a variety of issues so that pastors feel properly supported and churches can feel protected.

I’m going to finish this. I find it reprehensible that an ordinary employee can and should (and I know many still don’t) get full and fair support from their employer, yet churches are not willing, in many situations, to support their pastors to that same degree.