Case Study: The Entrenched and Ineffective Worker
Six creative approaches to an awkward pastoral dilemma.
Norman Shawchuck, David Chadwick, Alvin Jackson, LeRoy Lawson
January 1, 1993
It's a Maalox Moment. You finally face the fact that a long-standing church volunteer is doing more harm than good-whether the organist, Christian education superintendent, head usher or … But therein is the rub. This person's years (or decades) of service indicates he or she is no average volunteer; this willing heart has become an institution. And institutions aren't easy to move, much less remove. An attempt at change could be costly, possibly fatal. What's a pastor to do? LEADERSHIP asked five pastors and one church consultant, representing a rainbow of denominational and geographical backgrounds, what they would do with a well-entrenched but ineffective worker. To spark their thoughts, they were given the following real-life case study: In each of the churches I've pastored, I've inherited at least one volunteer who has "stalled out" on the job. Each clearly needed to be replaced. In their long period of service, however, they'd grown firmly entrenched. The most troubling situation concerned a music director who had held the post for 38 years. Though he had no professional training in music, he had volunteered to lead the choir 38 years ago when no one else was willing to take the job. At first the church kept him on out of necessity, then gratitude, and finally because he had become a fixture. When I met with the out-going pastor, he didn't hide the problem. "The choir director will give you trouble," he said. "His mind is made up, and his methods are set in concrete. He is unteachable and will resist every suggestion you make concerning music in the worship service. My advice is to just leave him alone. Plan your worship services as if he or the choir didn't exist." The former pastor was right. When I suggested hymns ...
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