Part 1: 4 Ways to Keep Your Pastor from “Quiet Quitting”
In a previous post, I shared about "quiet quitting" from the perspective of what pastors and leaders can do to help their church members. But the reality is that in a church member-to-pastor ratio, pastors and church leaders are far more likely to "start phoning it in." Therefore I wanted to provide you with four ways to keep your pastor and leaders from "Quiet Quitting." These ways will come out in a series of posts to allow you time to process each one individually.
Step Up Your Appreciation Game
Please do me a favor and mentally draw three circles in your mind. Inside one of the circles, label it Family; in another circle, label it Finances; in the last circle, label it Friends. Now, I want you to think about your own life and consider how many times each of those three circles overlaps with another circle. For most people, while there is some, there is not much overlap between two circles, much less all three.
For a pastor's family, all three circles overlap almost every day of their lives. The pastor likely relocated to shepherd the church. They build relationships and friendships within the church and for the sake of the Kingdom in the community of the church. Their finances are directly tied to the church's situation; therefore, sometimes, their friends affect their finances, if not make decisions about their finances. Their Family dynamic is affected by the finances of the church, and it is expected that the family finds friendships in the church or for the purpose of building the church. If there is a conflict in the church, the pastor's family feels the effects because they could lose both finances and friends, which would cause tension in the home. Not only do pastors build friendships within the context of the community for the sake of the church, but they also build relationships with other pastors and churches. However, in a tenuous circumstance, even pastoral friends and colleagues can tend to back away from their relationship with the pastor because they have church members who are friends with the people in the church in conflict, and they don't desire to get tagged with that pastor's conflict in their church. This sort of scenario plays out almost weekly in many churches; therefore, your pastor needs you to step up your appreciation game.
Suppose you have to read that paragraph again to understand it because it is so intertwined; welcome to the life of a pastor. One circle affects all the others, and all the others affect one. By stepping up your appreciation through words of affirmation, acts of service, and random acts of kindness, you can help lessen the isolation and the desire many pastors feel to quietly quit trying. You also help reduce the turbulence when the circles start shaking.
