Fact-Checking the Critics: The Truth About Church Governance and Pastoral Conduct
The second in the series of facts and fallacies about large churches
~890 words - three minutes
This short series addresses a few recent issues that reporters have mentioned. Honest reporters are pretty good at getting their facts straight.
Bloggers, self-appointed watchdogs, and plain ignorant social media post producers are another story.
Over the last 30 years of briefing news reporters – including appearing on CNN, NBC Nightly News, quotes in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post, and many more – one thing you learn is that reporters all have a narrative they are trying to tell.
Sometimes, I try to provide background and my views to shape their narrative to fit mine. However, some reporters stick to their critique narrative regardless.
You also quickly discover that you can spend an hour briefing and talking about a topic with a reporter, and they will quote one sentence they feel helps tell the story they want to tell.
I would probably do the same thing. I am not down on most reporters. They serve a function.
Remember – the charge was that these churches are hotbeds of marital infidelity.
Fallacy: The structure and size of “megachurches” are the problems.
Fact: Or at least my view after my 40 years.
As I said in the last issue, most churches address issues like those mentioned in the last issue. When brought to their attention, they meet them head-on.
I had conversations last week with one.
Most of the churches actually have strong governing boards that give good oversight.
Could it be better? Sure.
But I see weak oversight in all sorts of organizations.
Some high-profile cases in recent years have been in Christian nonprofits, not churches.
Some have been in university contexts. A bunch have been in business contexts.
Governance boards and teams are only as robust and reliable as they are developed.
In general, I will say that oversight and supervision of staff pastors is consistent and reliable, but that is usually done within the staff structures.
Church teams are now getting regular harassment and other training to help spot issues before they happen.
They are not perfect yet, but they may have a leg up on secular organizations, universities, other education fields, and businesses.
There is a strong expectation and moral center to encourage good behavior in churches.
As to Senior Pastor/Board oversight and governance, that is a mixed bag in large churches.
Many pastors remember when small church boards micromanaged everything in a church. That leads to natural resistance.
That needs to improve.
As I tell clients, every time your church grows by 20-25%, you need to re-examine your governance and how it works.
You should also look at it every 3-5 years, even if the church is not growing, to ensure that the board is supercharging the next season of the church’s life and not hindering it.
A part of that oversight and governance must be monitoring the Senior Pastor’s personal life and character.
Wise Senior Pastors welcome this to strengthen their ministry, not create obstacles.
I will say that Senior/Lead Pastors who try to place their personality at the center of the church can cause issues with governance. There is a difference between strong leadership and a personality that dominates every decision.
FALLACY: Many have been married multiple times.
Fact: Not even close.
Not even close. 92% are married to their first spouse. The exceptions are the very few single persons, a few who had an early marriage and divorce, and maybe 3% who are in their second marriage due to the death of their first spouse. There is a tiny percentage who were divorced while serving their current church and remarried.
However, the overwhelming majority are married to their first and current spouse.
[By the way – Almost all the Senior Pastors are male. I have worked with a handful over the years who were female, and they were effective pastors. I know that disagrees with some of your theological frameworks, but I let congregations decide that for themselves.]
Two more after the ad….
A special THURSDAY – 30-minute Teaching on Succession
The DIY Assumptions that will lead to Succession Failure
Some of you are great experimenters and want to do it yourself.
After listening to scores of successors after taking leadership of a larger church after a founder or long-term pastor and their comments about “what was messed up in the process,” and a few dozen pastors that called me in the middle of trying to plan their own succession process where they were saying: “HELP!”
I have learned a few of the common pitfalls and potholes.
Let me explain some assumptions that some make during the process, which tend to cause most of the issues with do-it-yourselfers in this context.
THURSDAY August, 15 – NOON ET, 11 CT, and so on.
You have to sign up to attend. Hopefully, I'll see you there.
Story continues……..
FALLACY: Most don’t write their sermons; they have someone write them for them.
FACT: Most do write their own messages.
Admittedly, a few have some research help to help prepare background materials.
Some use teaching teams to co-create messages for their congregation where there are many hands in the sermon preparation.
A few pastors band together to plan a series of messages for their congregations in an annual planning session and then share some notes throughout the year to help each other improve.
Ultimately, 95% of them study the scriptures and prepare a message that fits their congregation and context.
FALLACY: There is a lot of plagiarism of messages.
FACT: Well, there is some borrowing.
Everything is fodder for a pastor who preps so many messages a year. The scriptures don’t change. A congregation's needs do change over time, but current needs are recognized.
When a pastor hears a great series title, message title, or snippet from another pastor’s message, it does sometimes get incorporated into their own messages on the subject.
The best will cite where they heard it first, but often, that person was not the originator of the idea.
Pastors don’t write PhD dissertations in their messages; they are trying to help people apply the scriptures to daily life.
And if they find something that helps their congregants, they will use it.