When to Take a Risk

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Time makes more converts than reason.
Thomas Paine1

An automobile operates by a series of explosions. Gasoline is mixed with air and ignited. Were these explosions to take place in an open area, they would destroy the engine. They take place, however, inside a piston chamber surrounded by steel walls. The walls protect the engine from negative effects of the explosions and, in fact, turn them into a force that drives the piston and makes automobiles remarkably efficient vehicles of travel.

Risks in ministry, like these explosions, can be very destructive if allowed to take place in an uncontrolled way. With proper safeguards, however, these explosions can propel the church forward. The question, of course, is how do we build safety chambers strong enough to withstand the explosions?

The first factor to consider is your stage in ministry. The axiom proves true: Don't make major changes in the first two years of ministry; establish trust first.

Our survey asked pastors to describe situations where they had to leave a church under pressure. A follow-up question asked what they might have done differently to forestall the firing. The most frequent response by far was typified by one pastor: "It was my first church. I did a lot of stupid things and made so many mistakes it's hard to see what I could have done differently."

Studies of graduating seminarians show the first year of ministry is one of the most dangerous times for a pastor. Many leave the ministry for good because of a crisis situation during that time. It is difficult to recover from mistakes of inexperience.

Our research indicated an equally dangerous time later in ministry, in the forty- to fifty-year age bracket. It appears that pastors are at ...

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