The Blame Game
In internet time, this post is eons too late. But a NY Times Op-Ed from Sunday still bothers me three days later, so I’m posting yes, even 72 hours after its publication.
In the Op-Ed, “Congregations Gone Wild”, Jeffrey MacDonald a UCC pastor, blames the trend in pastor burnout on congregational pressure. Congregation members treat religion as a consumer experience, he argues, so pastors who don’t entertain or placate face a bleak future.
Sure, there’s some truth to MacDonald’s argument — congregational life and pastoral leadership has surely changed in the last fifty years. Pastors these days are less often consulted for moral advice than at one time and their standing in society has declined. Yes, pastors face a slough of competition on Sunday mornings from sports to SAT prep courses to second homes. Certainly, pastors’ high obesity rates and waning cultural relevance has something to do with their congregations, but by the end of the article I wanted to scream a classic phrase from pastoral care 101: you’re blaming the victim!
It’s all about the parishioners, MacDonald says. They’re the problem. Somehow he suggests the issue isn’t pandering pastors; not unhealthy-vacation-skipping pastors; not non-exercising hypocritical pastors; not wealth-consumed pastors; not pastors who fail to study or teach the Bible; not pastors who fail to lead relevant services or preach quality sermons; not pastors who forget tradition and take the easy road out; not pastors who read too little and watch TV too much; not pastors who would rather be moderating an investment club than a church council meeting. No, it’s somehow all the fault of the parishioners.
I think that’s bogus. It’s unfair to blame congregation members who have been formed by poor pastoral leadership. It’s unfair to suggest that a family who moves from an unhealthy congregation of one denomination to a thriving congregation in another is somehow contributing to the dilution of pastoral authority. It’s unfair to blame the victim — our poor congregation members — rather than the pastors who lead them, the seminaries who form the pastors, and the broken systems other pastors have developed which current pastors inherit.
I know I’m supposed to be nice and not rant, but my brother in Christ has managed to get under my skin. MacDonald seems to suggest pastors have some higher calling which they must forsake due to the wanton ways of lowly congregation members. But I think the pastoral calling — not higher not lower than any other, by the way — must include the gifts to work within the parameters MacDonald decries. That’s the congregational culture we’ve made ourselves, so pastors need to step up and stop blaming their congregations for the situation in which pastors are called to lead.
Let’s not blame our congregation members. If we must place blame, let’s call it corporate sin, confess it, and be forgiven to live into callings that encourage, support, challenge, nudge, lead, and serve together. Pastors challenging congregation members and members challenging pastors. Nobody wins the blame game but the Evil One. I think Jesus would want that game burnt out, then say, “come and follow me.”
image by Andrew Beierle
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I’d say I’d agree with you and most generally I do. Yet this article struck a chord with me, since I’ve most recently been challenged that a few folks are grumbling over supposedly political comments I’ve made from the pulpit and on social media. I do think there can be a sense in which some people don’t want to be challenged to ask how their faith should influence their politics, their living, or anything else. And it does make our pastoral calling challenging or less fulfilling if you’re pushing people to think about their faith and they in turn push back.
Agreed on all points. I’ve never understood why members of any profession–clergy or any other–should be afforded respect only because of their office. When we’re idiots, or lazy, or lost with no leadership skills, why should anyone follow us?
I also think there’s something to figuring out what lay people know about why church matters to them and building on that. “Why would anyone choose worship over other things on Sunday?” we could ask, and then listen instead of scolding people for not choosing worship. Lay people and clergy should be thinking/talking together about why we think anyone should join us for anything at church or sponsored by the church.
We might find that our institutions, as they are currently configured, are dying because they are irrelevant to people’s lives. To blame institutional decline on the people whose lives are untouched (not to mention untransformed) by our work would truly be, as you say, to blame the victim.
For the most part I can hang with you on this one. Where I’ll depart is in the very real reality that the congregation weilds enormous power over their “employee”. When you’re up against a mortgage, etc that can be a daunting place to be.
Thanks, though, for the caution on the other side.
Adam, you make some good points. I wonder what you will say in say five years.
That’s a fair question for all of us, Joan. In five years, who knows where we’ll be.
@Landon, I agree re with financial aspects of it all. Again, though, I think that’s more of a systemic denominational issue largely brought on by pastors themselves than an individual congregational question. What can we do about that? 1) regulate the amount of pastors looking for calls to be more closely aligned to calls available and 2) treat money, as a whole, as a gift from God rather than a weapon which gets back to the main point of pastors teaching better in the first place.
@everyone else, thanks for the good points. As always, it’s not a black and white issue, but I do disagree significantly with MacDonald.
Wow! Preach it, brother! When I read McDonald’s article over the weekend I was seething. I am a congregational member. I have seen good and not-so-good pastors in position of leadership. Can I quote Spiderman (or rather his father) here and say, “With great power comes great responsibility”? When we take responsibility for our own health and state of mind we stop blaming others (or at least give it a good, honest try). And you are SO “right on” with #1 in your comments above. Congregations have got to start looking more clearly at candidates to make sure the match is good and clergy have to make sure they answer a calling based on a good match and not “because I’ve always wanted to live there” (or whatever).
Hey Adam….if you get tired of the cold north…come on down and over to the east coast…I’ve got a church for you in an interim time seeking a new pastor. And we’ll talk about the match before we even get to the part about it being a great place to live.
Thanks for sharing your post on my blog. I think the NYT op-ed has value but the criticisms of it have added to a good discussion.
Both of these articles are over simplified in statement. We have images of those who have been in the church a while and another who has not. It simply is not that easy. First let me say that when one is called to the pastoral office, they SHOULD be respected from the start. Why should a pastor called to a new church HAVE to prove themselve again and again? THAT is the problem. Our job is tough, it is more and more like being the coach on the sidelines while everyone else in the stands know how to better coach the team. Don’t misunderstand what I am saying. I believe ministry ought to be a team approach. I also believe that God calls us all into ministry. Having said that however, the lack of respect for the pastoral office does seem to grow. I once had a church member say in the middle of the sermon “but that is your opinion.” Everything is great theology so long as they agree with you. However, if they don’t agree, then it becomes an opinion.
I am sure like any profession, there are those who are lazy, and do enough to get by. The bottom line is we are not all great wonderful T.V. preachers and mega church pastors, and frankly, I am okay with that. The pastoral office is another place where people want to have power and control over … just like the cop hears “I pay your salary!” I am thankful for those in my congregation members who express thanks for the challenge that I offer to them. And in return, I seek the challange and open the door for discussion. So, Adam, I think your comments are both correct and off the mark at the same time. I think that it is okay to blame the congregation if it fits, but to say “blame the victim?” … that has gone too far. You have not considered that some of those “lazy” pastors who watch more T.V. than read, did not start out that way. They try to keep to the faith of the call, but yet protect themselves from what they have experienced. I say the same to you, in your letter, it is you who is blaming the victim. Think about it. I’m just saying…
I read the same article and it stuck to me as well. I’m pleased to read your response. Thank you.
[...] I held my tongue on writing about it because I have never been a pastor in a church, but then the Rev. Adam Copeland posted his own response to the op-ed piece. I tend to agree with most of what he says, but the comments are particularly [...]
I did a study on burnt out years ago at Columbia which included input from pastors around the world. The #1 biggest cause of pastoral burn out? – Bad Time Management
I’m a pastor. I’ve had a knife pulled on me by an angry husband when I supported his abused wives decision to go to a shelter. A prominent member was stalking a teenager and after careful evaluation and profesional consultation the Deacons and I confronted him and stopped it, he mounted an internet/ telephone campaign against me. Have you ever experienced a malicious and decietful organized campaign against you? A congregational pastor placse their families well being in the hands of people who are being conditioned by media such as cable news stations to act with real intense anger about any number of issues, from all sides. A young boy, eleven years old, murdered a young girl, ten years old and I knew both of them and I still cry about it, I’m still devastated by that, and I’m supposed to deal with people yelling at me because they didn’t understand that the grant money I procured by my own overtime efforts was designated for a specific program? Your dismissive attitude towards the very real stresses clergy are encountering in a deeply divided cultural and religious landscape is a part of the problem. Critucal, sure. It’s a two way street and certaintly there are very poor Pastors who have not served congregatins well. But dismissive? No. When anyone for any reason tries to express why they are in pain, is a dismissive attitude ever helpful?