Captains of the Church
A suggestion to re-title pastors.
Nov 2nd, 2009 | By Skye Jethani | Category: Church, Features, LeadershipMike Foster thinks we should stop calling ourselves “Pastor.” In a tweet last summer he wrote: “If I don’t make employees/clients call me ‘Creative Principal Mike’ then why do some expect ‘Pastor’ in front of their name?”
He’s not the only one dropping the “Pastor” prefix. Erwin McManus is known as the “Cultural Architect of Mosaic.” I’ve also met a few executive pastors who are the”Chief of Staff.”
Maybe they’re all on to something. After all, “pastor” doesn’t carry the cache it once did. According to one survey the profession of “pastor” is near the bottom of the list of most-respected professions…just above “car salesman.” To make matters worse, pastors don’t seem to think very highly of their profession either. The following stats come from The Fuller Institute, George Barna, and Pastoral Care Inc.:
* 90% of the pastors report working between 55 to 75 hours per week.
* 80% believe pastoral ministry has negatively affected their families. Many pastor’s children do not attend church now because of what the church has done to their parents.
* 33% state that being in the ministry is an outright hazard to their family.
* 75% report significant stress-related crisis at least once in their ministry.
* 90% feel they are inadequately trained to cope with the ministry demands.
* 50% feel unable to meet the demands of the job.
* 70% say they have a lower self-image now than when they first started.
* 70% do not have someone they consider a close friend.
* 40% report serious conflict with a parishioner at least once a month.
* 33% confess having involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with someone in the church .
* 50% have considered leaving the ministry in the last months.
* 50% of the ministers starting out will not last 5 years.
* 1 out of every 10 ministers will actually retire as a minister in some form.
* 94% of clergy families feel the pressures of the pastor’s ministry.
* 66% of church members expect a minister and family to live at a higher moral standard than themselves.
So, what should we do about this dilemma? Based on a recent commentary I saw by John Hodgman, I’d like to propose a change. Rather than calling our church leaders “pastors,” let’s start calling them “captains.” Think about it…captains are all very respected and liked characters in our culture:
Captain America
Captain “Sully” Sullenberger
Captain James T. Kirk
Captain Kangaroo
Captain Caveman
Captain Stubing
Captain Jack Sparrow
Captain CrunchIn addition, they are very strong leaders often depended upon in life and death situations. They must set vision, direction, and hold the course in a storm. From time to time they must face the threat of mutiny. And to top it off, captians are qualified to marry people.
So, forget about “cultural architect,” “spiritual leader,” or even “cheif ecclesiastical officer.” The next time you see your pastor, greet him or her as “O Captain my captain!”
Popularity: 24% [?]
I cringe at the idea of calling someone “Chief of Staff”, lol. Although I do like the idea of captain… In today’s culture, for better or worse, the term “pastor” just doesn’t seem to be adequate anymore.
Those statistics you post are pretty amazing. I think most churches do a very poor job of building into their leaders. But I wonder how different those are from other jobs in a similar position such as “chief of staff” or “chief ecclesiastical officer”?
Hold on a minute! I asked the students in my Discipleship school to stop calling me Pastor and start using Captain several years ago. If other pastors start doing this it is going to be very confusing!
HA! awesome! I love it!
Aye, Aye, Cap’n.
If substituting the prefix “Captain” for “Pastor” is all it would take to make a dent in those woeful statistics, I’d say we should give it a try.
We could also try re-naming our congregants as “champions” a la Joel Osteen.
I feel better already.
A lot of the problem is self-inflicted. Decades of pastors pretending that they and their families are perfect tends to lead to disappointment and disillusionment for parishioners!
But the solution isn’t terminology. After all, the Bible clearly tells us that we (pastors) ARE held to a higher standard of judgement! Let’s take this a wake-up call to redeem the title of “pastor” in modern culture by being honest and transparent about our struggles, seeking help when we need it, putting our families before our church, living to a higher standard, and letting God elevate us (or not) as He sees fit, rather than trying to elevate ourselves.
Obviously this is a parody of sorts, as if changing a title will, alacadabra, reverse those statistics.
It is a tough job because you put your heart in it and yet it is full of disappointments, sorrow, let-downs, and the like. I am praying right now that I can maintain the balance between family and ministry so that I don’t become a statistic. What helps us find perspective is by looking at those who have gone before: Hebrews 11 and most of all, the Captain of our Salvation, Christ Jesus – “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”
You can get a sense of Paul’s loss in 2 Timothy as well… but he encourages himself in the Lord. May the God of heaven strengthen every God-called minister of the gospel.
Nomenclature fiddling is a dead end. Or better, an endless loop. As soon as you replace “disabled” with “special” you need to start looking around for another title like “otherly-abled” to avoid a new set of negative associations. If we are concerned about what culture thinks (and maybe we ought to think that through…) we might want to recall the way that titles like “sanitation engineer” are made fun or. At least that’s how it is where I live!
Hate to say it, but my denomination (the Salvation Army) already does that. I’d guess those stats are accurate for us too.
Oh, and our second in command internationally is known as the Chief of the Staff. Dunno what the stats are like for that position, but I’d say they’re more encouraging.
(Captain) Cameron