Pastors are on the move this time of year. Time for the ol’ pastor rotations. July 1 is traditionally the start date of newly reassigned Catholic priests and United Methodist ministers, especially. The bishops made the announcements in the spring and then made congregations aware of the changes. More often than not, folks in the pews are not surprised, although its never fun to lose a great pastor, then to be disappointed by the replacement.On the other hand, as fate will have it, the bishop sometimes answers prayer and dispatches outstanding, gifted, personable, alive, energetic pastors to be great teachers and preachers for as long as that lasts.
There have been farewell events in parishes and some nice send-off gifts, and now in the dead of summer, priests and pastors start all over again in new jobs. There are new people to get to know, to pray for and to work with. Its a lot like major league baseball where players change teams and the lineup is sharply changed with the new season. Styles of ministry sometime take getting used to. Parishioners sometime analyze why their priest was chosen to straightens things out over at St. Marthas, but wasn’t ready for prime time at that giant parish with the wealth and marble rectory.
In the United Methodist Church, the musical chairs is not as pronounced as it once was when most pastors got new jobs with the start of July . Some Methodist ministers just about stay for as long as they wish and truly become “permanent pastors until they retired. Often the bishop recognizes a good fit in a healthy congregation and deems to leave things alone for the foreseeable future. Often the new assignment even allows a pastor to keep the same home.
For Protestants, the furnished parsonage has largely become a thing of the past. The “free home” furnished and maintained by the local church was sometimes on campus but usually in the neighborhood. For decades, it was the duty of church volunteers to make sure the house was painted, roofed, carpeted and maintained for the pastor and family. With the change of pastors, there was usually some kind of makeover, plumbing thoroughly upgraded, tile replaced and fences fixed. The parsonage provision has been replaced by a housing allowance to permit pastors to rent a home of their choice or to cover mortgages if they wanted to buy homes where they chose with the amenities that appealed to them.
Faiths that continually rotate clergy seem to believe the message and service are more important than the messenger, that there is merit for both the pastor and the congregation in recirculating leadership. There’s much to be said for the system where the congregation and pastor largely have a mutual agreement of terms of service, and they can set them themselves. That arrangement carries certain accountability, and if things go sour, they can split immediately.
So look for many folks to get back from vacation and summer breaks to a new face in the pulpit.
