“Change can be hard for the church. If the new Lead Pastor was hired to be a change agent, was the church ready for the change? If a church has been without its Senior Leader, it may not initially respond well to someone being back in the role, especially someone different then what they were used to.”

Senior Pastors currently average between five and seven years for their tenure on one church staff, based on the polls and studies that come up from a quick Google search. Sometimes Senior Pastors leave after just one or two years on the job. The fact is, it’s becoming increasingly rare for a Lead Pastor to stay at one church for more than 5 years. So what’s causing them to leave, besides the prompting of the Holy Spirit?

Each Pastor’s story is unique, but these four broad stressors can cause significant tension and often lead to a separation from a church. Most of these issues can be avoided by improvements to the interview process and communication practices.

1. Expectations were not clear.

Everyone loves checking items off their to do list and achieving goals, so it is easy to get anxious when the goals are ambiguous. It is likely that Senior Pastors will wind up with more on their plate than any one person can handle if the job description is not clearly outlined from the beginning and reinforced through the day-to-day experiences. Flexibility is always going to be one of the most important expectations in any church staff role, but it cannot be the only expectation. Unclear expectations will almost always lead to burnout.

2. Expectations were clear but unrealistic.

It’s common for Senior Pastors to bite off more than they can chew. It is the responsibility of the Pastor search committee, who has a great perspective on the church and the role, to communicate realistic expectations throughout the interview process. If you are on the other end of that interview process, it is your responsibility to dig into those expectations and determine how realistic they are. Are there clear long-term goals and checkpoint goals along the way to track progress?

Once on the job, staff onboarding is essential to set someone up for success. Your staff and/or search committee must create systems to orient the new Senior Pastor with processes, culture, job responsibilities, and further expectations. It is unrealistic to expect someone to pick up on all of those intricacies without some sort of an on-ramp. Sometimes you are hiring for change, but it is still essential that the change agent is deeply familiar with the way things have been done previously in order to know how to best implement that change.

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