Forced Out: Pastors' Fight and Flight
Research shows more than a quarter of pastors have been edged out of a church, regardless of denomination.
[ posted 5/9/2012 9:14AM ]
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REV JAMES SHELDON
The article was not meant to show cause-and-effect, rather observed phenomena. It compares to a doctor's lab tests and observation of symptoms and reactions. The facts are there: there are many sickly church bodies and a lot of hurt pastors. My two questions: 1) What would Jesus say about this? 2) What witness is this giving to the world around us?
Mark E
Adam, I agree. These Spotlight articles are confusing at best and profoundly misleading almost all the time. If you are not going to go deeper in your explanation of the studies presented, don't present them at all.
Adam Shields
The statistics on this infograph are odd. Some of them describe the pastors or churches that have had conflict. Some describe churches that are likely to have conflict, but they are both presented on the same list. So a young pastor is not likely to cause conflict according to the stat, but is likely to go to a church that has had conflict (my guess is that for one of three reasons, 1) the only pastor that would go there, older pastors are wise enough to avoid the church, 2) the church is smaller and has a smaller budget now and can only attract a younger pastor or 3) The younger pastor was an associate or church member and stepped up after the conflict or was involved in the conflict. Reporting like this often confuses correlation and causation. All of this is reported as coorelation and may have nothing to do with the actual cause of conflict. But my guess is that at least some people reading this well go back to their church pulpit committee and say no women or young pastors.