In this solo episode, Dennis shares thoughts on a topic that has been resonating with many of us in the ministry: the Great Pastor Resignation. Dennis reads his response to an article written by Alexander Lang, a former Presbyterian pastor who made the difficult decision to leave the ministry. Lang's article is not the first of its kind, but it has struck a chord with many of us.
Being a pastor is both a blessing and a burden. It's a calling that comes with its own set of challenges, but it's also a journey filled with profound moments of grace and community. As we navigate these complexities, let's remember to support each other, to engage in open and honest discussions, and to keep our faith alive and active in the world.
Show Notes:
The Blessings and Burdens of Being a Pastor -Dennis Sanders
Departure: Why I Left the Church- Alexander Lang
Leaving, Staying, & the Church: Another perspective….and a potential way forward- Aaron Fuller
Jubilee- Molly Baskette
Why I Am NOT Leaving the Church- Frederick Schmidt
Departures and Arrivals- Jeff Gill
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Hello, everyone, and welcome to Church and Main.
This is Episode 154.
Church and Main is the podcast where we talk about church at the intersection of faith and modern life.
I'm Dennis Sanders, your host.
And so on this special, this is a special kind of solo episode.
I don't even know how popular these ones are, but
I do them every so often, but I wanted to, um, this is basically reading a, an article I just wrote really as a response to, um, an article that has been having a lot of, of play in social media, one by, um, Alexander Lang.
He is, or was a Presbyterian pastor who left the ministry and he wrote, um,
an article about that.
It's kind of interesting because it wasn't, as I was talking to another pastor, what he was writing about wasn't unique, and there have been other articles like this before, but for some reason this one touched a nerve, and it got a lot of reaction.
People that were in favor of it and understood it or kind of sympathized with him, others that were critical of him,
And so it kind of was an interesting take of how people were thinking about it.
So I wanted to, I wrote my own thoughts about it and I wanted to actually put that to voice and maybe put it up as a podcast for other people who may have not read the article yet.
I also want to include some links to other people who have written about this.
Some have, and they all have kind of differing views on it.
And so, but I'd also be curious to know what other people are thinking.
If so, feel free to leave a comment.
You can leave a comment
at our Substack page, which is churchandmain.substack.com.
You can also, while you're there, subscribe so that you can receive the latest podcast episodes as they become available.
And I have at least two more episodes of interviews that are coming up soon.
But for now, here is the essay that I have that is talking about this.
And again, I would love to hear if there are other pastors out there, what are your thoughts?
What are your feelings?
Have you been feeling the stress of ministry?
And I think what is interesting about this is how this is affecting, as a lot of people have said, the helping professions.
So you're seeing a lot of people who are leaving professions like not just clergy, but teachers and also nursing.
So what's behind all of that?
Is it the pressures of COVID?
And what can be done to deal with all of those?
So, again, please do look at the show notes for links to those other articles, and love to hear from you, but for now, here is the essay I wrote on The Blessings and Burdens of Being a Pastor.
Episode 154 The Blessings and Burdens of Being A Pastor
Church Social Media has been talking over the last few days of this post by former Presbyterian Pastor Alexander Lange, as he discussed not simply leaving his call at a Presbyterian Church USA congregation, but actually leaving the ministry altogether.
This brought up a lot of thoughts and feelings for me that I'd like to talk about here.
Now before I go into this, I'd like to say something.
I think that it's okay to be critical of this article.
There are things that Lange writes that are up for debate.
What is not okay is being dismissive of his thoughts.
Lange's thoughts and feelings are real, and many pastors and congregations, both large and small, are going through a rough patch right now.
None of us really know what he or any pastor goes through emotionally, so you can be critical of the essay, but for God's sake, don't dismiss the person.
Again, there is much debate in this article, but speaking from personal experience, you need to take his feelings with utmost care.
So in short, don't be an asshole.
Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I want to talk about the article itself.
As I read Lang's concerns and complaints about his time as a pastor, there was one thought that immediately came to mind.
None of this is new.
Pastors have dealt with low salaries and backstabbing church members since the church began.
And yet, something is different here.
Lang's words may convey things that have been problems for years and even centuries and may just come with the job.
But the context here is different.
There have been a spate of articles lately about how America is becoming less church and how that's having an effect in the pews and the pulpits of churches and actually in wider society.
Daniel K. Williams writes about conservatives who stop going to church and how their views intensify and give rise to Christian nationalism.
Washington Post columnist Perry Bacon Jr.
writes about how he stopped going to church but misses the community that church gave him.
Ryan Berge talks about religion being a luxury good and how that drives distrust.
And Jake Meador writes about how American life in the 21st century is being defined by individual accomplishment and workism.
And that doesn't jive with the communalism of church life.
So it might seem that Lange's article has nothing to do with any of these articles, but I think they do.
Church is on the decline in our culture, and that is hitting everyone.
Evangelical, Catholic, Mainline, Protestant, and the like.
Church is becoming less and less central to people's lives, and that includes in communities where this seemed impossible, such as the Black Church.
Now I think that this de-churching has all sorts of problems for society as a whole, but it can have problems for pastors especially.
People don't see the church as vital to their lives as they once did, and church has become one more thing that you can do on a Sunday morning.
But I think the thing that is different in our modern context is that pastors are facing these challenges alone.
I can't speak what things were like for pastors 30 or 40 years ago.
I'm going to guess that there were opportunities for pastors to talk to other pastors or a confidant in order to process their emotions.
In the past, bishops and other regional leaders were there to pastor the pastors, but
They're busy now trying to keep their ship of their local region or synod or diocese afloat, and they don't have time to chat with the local pastor, even if that pastor happens to lead a large congregation.
Lange shared the story of an evangelical pastor, Dan White, and his decision to leave the ministry, and how that decision influenced his own choice to leave.
He writes, In the podcast, Dan describes going on a long overdue vacation.
After sleeping 14 hours the first night, he came downstairs and poured himself a bowl of cereal.
His hands were shaking so badly that he could barely hold the spoon.
When the shaking didn't subside, he had a doctor perform a battery of tests.
As the doctor interpreted the results, he explained that they found no diseases, but
Dan's brain looked very similar to someone who had come back from a war zone and is experiencing PTSD.
A psychologist then asked Dan a series of questions about the losses he had experienced in the church.
He ended up counting 180 different lost relationships due to death or people leaving the church.
These are all losses where he was never given a chance to mourn.
but had to continue to be the leader in this community regardless of how emotionally painful these relationships might have been.
The result is that Dan internalized all this unprocessed trauma, which was contributing to his neurological condition.
When I heard this podcast, I was on a sabbatical over in England in 2022.
I was in the middle of trying to discern if I wanted to stay at my post or leave the pastorate altogether.
When I listened to Dan speak, I felt
It's sad to hear a pastor say that leaving the ministry was the best decision that they ever made, but frankly it makes sense to me.
I pastor a small church, and in the wake of COVID, I've seen a number of people who left the church.
And I can tell you as much as I can tell, I can tell you as much, and I try to tell myself that this happened to other churches and to other pastors, but I still took it personally.
To this day, I wonder what might I have done wrong.
On top of that, I've also shouldered at times accusations.
Accusations that I initially brushed off.
But again, they sting.
And in spite of the harsh words, you're still there to offer a word of grace to these people.
You take all of this in, and combine it with not being able to talk to anyone about it, and it can hit a point where you just can't take it in anymore, and the result is that you leave the ministry.
Lange is, or was, a pastor at a time when pastors are kind of unsure of what they are to do in a time when people don't have the Church and God as the center of their lives.
Lutheran theologian Andrew Root shares that the main goal now for pastors in what he believes is a secular age is very different from how pastors operated in earlier times.
The main goal for a pastor is about helping people find God in a time when we aren't interested in finding God.
He writes, Though we might behave otherwise, what confronts the pastor inside a secular age, in this new era, is not primarily the question of how to sustain an institution, grow a budget, authentically reach the nuns, or double membership.
These pursuits lead only to increasing fatigue and despondency.
Instead, the pastor's most pressing calling and deepest question has become, how do we help those who no longer lead a God encounter the living God in their lives?
This question has its own dynamic energy, and pursuing it opens us to the Holy Spirit's work to shape us in life-giving ways.
When I read Lange's essay, I can sense he was involved in all of the
business parts of being a pastor, those parts that have to get done.
But I also didn't sense the holy in his writings.
I didn't sense God anywhere.
Now, having worked in a presbytery office, I'm totally aware of all the perfunctory work that goes into being a presbyterian pastor.
And I'm not saying that he or any presbyterian minister shouldn't be engaged in that work.
That's part of the job.
But to use Andrew Root's view of the Church in our modern age, in one way he was trapped in what is called the imminent frame.
Root draws on Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor's view that we live in an age where everything is imminent and material.
But the fact is God and the things of faith are transcendent.
They're beyond space and time.
And the Christian life is much more than being the moderator of a session or a church board.
But the fact is we live in this time when it's so much easier to not believe in God acting in our lives than it is to believe that God is real.
I can only speculate from afar, but I think that Lange and many others are trying to be pastors in a frame, the imminent frame, where God has been shut out.
And I think that it's that disconnect that was distressing and that presented itself to Lange as a burden.
And again, I sense this at times in my own ministry where I become so engaged in the minutiae of the job and act as if God doesn't exist.
And the fact is I can see this in the lives of those that I serve because of course they can act in their lives as if God isn't there.
That's the sign of the imminent frame that in some ways affects all of us.
I think that the challenge is really to get back to basics and start acting and believing that God is alive and afoot in the world.
To borrow a line of a phrase that I heard growing up in the black church, it's about witnessing to a God that woke me up this morning and started me on my way.
I think that it's also about relationships.
In response to Lange's article, another article
by United Church of Christ pastor Molly Baskett has been making rounds.
And what struck me about her article is that the community that surrounded her over the years really has sustained her in ministry.
She writes this, Maybe I'm a minister because I'm called by the Lord.
Maybe I'm a minister because I want to help people.
Maybe I'm a minister because I want to help my family and couldn't
And couldn't that as much as it turned out?
So I found spaces to work, spaces to work in where my gifts are largely appreciated and taken advantage of.
Maybe I'm a minister because I really wanted to be a witch, but they wouldn't give you a salary and benefits to do that.
All of the above is probably true.
And I'm a minister because of Mrs. John has modeled a gentle, enduring love for me when I needed it most.
I wanted to offer and receive it for the rest of my life.
All in all, it has been a glorious gig.
There are the look-at-them-now transformations people I've walked with, from closed to open, from broken to healing, from addicted to sober, from bound to free.
And all the garden variety miracles that happen every day.
The deep conversations at coffee hour, more profound than any I have pretty much anywhere else in life with 7-year-olds and 87-year-olds.
The hands at work every second Tuesday baking cookies and baking PB and J for sack lunches for our homeless neighbors.
Group awe.
The role I have in helping somewhat organized people parlay a little bit of money and time and will.
into Enormous, Beautiful, Life-Saving Things.
The actions of a second grade Sunday school teacher have allowed Baskett to remain a pastor amid many challenges.
It was God reaching beyond the everyday imminent frame to connect with her in the good and the bad times.
Being a pastor is not easy.
Like Baskett, I've been a pastor for over 20 years.
and that is only by the grace of God.
I think I remain a pastor not because I'm good at raising money or I preach the best sermons, but because of a God that reaches beyond all the church board meetings, all of my shortcomings, to remind me that I am a God's child and in turn tries to tell others that they are loved by God in a time when it is far easier to believe otherwise.
As institutions like churches continue to be distrusted, pastors will face the strain of wondering if there is any point to their calling.
I think if we want to work at keeping people in ministry, then there is a need for pastors to be more grounded, more in vocation than in a job description.
For congregants to reach out and care for their pastors.
for Middle Judicatories to find ways to pastor their pastors and for everyone to be more focused on being present to experience God in a world that believes God isn't there.
I close out the essay by sharing a quote by Catherine Willis Percy, a Disciples of Christ pastor who serves the United Church of Christ congregation as an associate minister.
She shows and sums up to me what it means to be a pastor in this day and age.
Being a pastor is both gift and risk.
I couldn't do it if I didn't believe it is what God is inviting me to do with my life.
I couldn't do it without mentors and companions in ministry.
I couldn't do it without a congregation as encouraging and kind as First Congo.
I really hope Alexander Lang will find healing as he leaves the pulpit.
I also hope he can find a community that can help him stay connected to God.
That is my prayer for him, in fact for all of us pastors who wonder if this was such a good idea.
Being a pastor is an honorable and downright odd calling.
Thanks be to God.
So that's it for this episode of Church and Main.
The podcast is at the intersection of faith and modern life.
I hope that this was a helpful
read and I hope that it gets people thinking.
One of the things that I found that was rather disturbing about some of the reaction to Alexander Lange's article is thinking that this is about trashing the church or it's about or thinking we shouldn't listen because he's a straight white guy or whatever and it's tempting to do that but I think we need to listen.
I, you can be critical about some of what he wrote, but I think I want to get beyond the, to look at really what's being said, because I think that this is something that is affecting the entire church, whether you're liberal or conservative, progressive, whether you're evangelical or mainline or whatever,
This is something that is affecting everyone, and we all need to kind of listen.
And maybe Lange isn't the right person, but there are others out there.
And if you are a layperson in the pews, talk to your pastor.
See how they're doing.
Check in on them.
Just don't ignore them or take them for granted.
And if you are a pastor, don't ignore this article.
Don't just roll your eyes.
Talk to some of your fellow pastors.
See how they're doing.
Because this is a serious problem.
And I think that we all need to really focus on it.
and focus on each other.
So that's it for Episode 154 of this solo episode of Church and Main.
If you want to learn more about this podcast, go to our website at churchandmainalloneword.org or go to our substack at churchandmainalloneword.substack.com.
I'm Dennis Sanders, your host.
Take care, Godspeed, and I'll see you very soon.