It was summer vacation 2010, and I was sitting on a lakeshore in Montana with T. David Gordon’s new book in hand, Why Johnny Can’t Preach. As I opened the book and read the first page of the introduction, I yelled to my father, “Hey, listen to what this Gordon guy says about preaching today: ‘I’ve always feared to state publicly that, in my opinion, less than 30 percent of those who are ordained to the Christian ministry can preach even a mediocre sermon.’”1 As my father shook his head, I heard an audible laugh and a lady yell out behind me, “Isn’t that the truth!” as she walked off to the parking lot. The immediate, passionate nature of her response was troubling. What began as a moment of amusement turned into a painful realization of a problem in Christian ministry that I had never taken seriously. If preaching is the primary means of grace through which God chooses to save people, what are the consequences of mediocrity in preaching?
As much as I wanted to write off what had just happened, I knew that was the easy way out. As I continued to read, I realized that Gordon was reacting to this problem primarily in conservative Reformed churches. Things got worse for me and questions began to follow as I kept reading. Gordon stated that, of the sermons he has heard in the last twenty-five years, only 15 percent had a discernible point.2 I began to ask if my sermons are contributing to this awful assessment. People seem generally positive about my ministry. What would be the consequences of an ineffective pulpit ministry upon the congregation I serve? Most of all, how would I even know these things?
In this article, I am tackling the difficult subject of how to evaluate a pastor’s ministry. Admittedly, any pastoral evaluation is a demanding task that requires a great deal of wisdom, effort, and humility. The motivations have to be correct, goals have to be properly established, and the process has to be charitably and lovingly implemented. But it is my conviction that such a process is not only necessary but also, when done properly, a rewarding blessing for the spiritual growth of the pastor’s ministry. The goal of this article is to help elders implement a pastoral evaluation process that is intentionally supportive of the pastor in his calling and positively constructive in helping the pastor identify areas for needed improvement. An evaluative process that is done well will help foster an atmosphere of trust, strengthening the relationship of the pastor with his congregation.
The Necessity of a Pastoral Review
The old proverb rings true that “the greatest of faults is to be conscious of none.” Christian pastors should be the first ones willing to admit their faults and address areas in which they need to improve. The challenge is that pastors, just like all other sinners, struggle to see their own faults. Habits can develop in the course of a pastor’s ministry that lead to stagnation and a lack of personal growth. These developments can greatly harm the effectiveness of a pastor’s ministry. The pastor needs encouragement, feedback, and direction to grow in his calling. A pastor who is not growing and developing his gifts will carry this same kind of stagnation into the life of his congregation.
The beauty of Reformed church polity is that the pastor is kept from functioning as a lone ranger, bearing the sole responsibility to assess his own performance. This is one of the most important responsibilities God has given to elders, namely, to oversee the minister of the Word and the faithful discharging of the pastoral office. Understandably, the task is a daunting one. Where is the elder to begin? Elders who serve well in their responsibility to oversee the work of their pastor must have some understanding of the nature and struggle of the pastoral office. Often these struggles are not as appreciated as they should be.
Consider for a moment a few reoccurring statistics and challenges of pastoral ministry:
The top two reasons pastors leave the ministry is burnout and moral failure.
More than 70 percent of pastors have no close friends to talk with and share their struggles.
Eighty percent of pastors believe the ministry has negatively affected their families.
Pastors often claim to have no means for resolving conflict.
At any given time, 75 percent of pastors want to quit over severe stress that causes depression, fear, bewilderment, and alienation, among other things.
Eighty percent of pastors and 84 percent of their spouses face depression.
Ninety percent of pastors work more than 60 hours per week.3
This raises a few important questions: If around 90 percent of pastors are worn out and frequently fatigued, who is overseeing their time, priorities, and ministerial expectations? Who is ensuring that they are not being overextended in duties beyond their primary calling to minister God’s Word? If burnout due to conflict is the number one reason pastors leave the ministry, how are pastors being shepherded to prevent this burnout? Who is overseeing what is clearly an intense spiritual struggle happening in the life of the pastor and his family?
The sad reality is that little to nothing is in place in our churches to provide care for the pastor in these struggles. Gordon states that “almost no churches conduct an annual review of the pastoral staff.”4 The calling of elders is to help their pastor remain energized and effective in his calling, and the review is helpful way to accomplish this responsibility.
Therefore, consider the tremendous benefits, both for the pastor and congregation, of a pastoral review. A proper channel of communication promoting accountability will be established. Members will witness a healthy, active, and accountable relationship between the elders and the pastors. The pastor will receive feedback that is designed to help and encourage him. When this kind of feedback comes from spiritual men called to oversee the ministry of the Word, it will have an energizing effect upon his ministry. Further, when seasons of conflict come, the pastor will have already experienced an active, shepherding elder body that has demonstrated care for his ministry and family. Critique of his ministry will be much more received in this kind of healthy relationship. Only those who understand how ravaging spiritual conflict can be to church life will appreciate the benefits of this kind of relationship. The pastoral review can be one of the best and most rewarding ways to promote a healthy ministry.
The “When” of Pastoral Review
There may be a few understandable reasons for the absence of the pastor review. Elders may be fearful of how to tackle what seems to be a daunting task, especially if the pastor has a strong, opinionated personality. Gordon believes that pastoral reviews are lacking “because ministers don’t want to be told that their preaching is disorganized, hard to follow, irrelevant, and poorly reasoned, and because churches don’t want to insult their ministers or hurt their feelings (and churches often know that the review would have some negative aspect).”5 Even if one believes Gordon’s assessment is overstated, addressing deficiencies in a pastor’s preaching ministry or other areas of his calling is certainly an intimidating prospect for many elders. But such a review is necessary for the following reasons.
First, there is often lacking any avenue through which the pastor receives meaningful and positive feedback in his labors. Pastors need positive reinforcement and feedback just like anyone else. An appreciated pastor is a thankful pastor in his service to the people. An unappreciated pastor will struggle with discouragement and motivation in his calling. Encouragement from elders is motivating and energizing, especially when it feels like pastoral labor is accomplishing so little. Positive feedback is essential to promoting the growth of a pastor.
Second, pastors often receive negative feedback at the worst times and in the wrong places. Elders are generally unaware of how harmful such occurrences are to the pastor’s relationship with the congregation. Undoubtedly, pent-up frustrations are often expressed in times of conflict. When critique comes improperly, such as during the handshake line after a service, or over an angry phone call, over time, a certain measure of estrangement between the pastor and the congregation begins to build, especially if there are growing pockets of dissatisfaction with his work. Improper responses also have harmful consequences that deeply affect the pastor’s personal and family life. It should also be noted that, in many circumstances, congregants who complain against the pastor do so because they feel little is happening by way of elder oversight of the pastor. This too encourages critique of the pastor by members at the most unhelpful of times.
Third, there is often little reflection that a pastor’s ministry is going through different stages. Understanding these stages of pastoral ministry will help solidify the case for a pastoral review in the early seasons of a pastor’s ministry. Not every ministry will look identical to the following breakdown, nor can these stages be delineated too precisely. Still, in general, the following breakdown may help elders understand what is happening in the course of a pastor’s ministry and where it would be best to implement the review.
• Honeymoon. The honeymoon is often an exciting season of church life. Though circumstances will vary, this season is accompanied with real excitement over the reception of a new pastor. It’s a fresh start for the church. It’s a time of up-building and establishing new relationships. Expectations are often high.
• Building and refinement. In this season the pastor and congregation have come to know each other, and the people are accepting the direction of the pastor’s ministry. The high expectations of the honeymoon stage are often brought to ordinary levels as the pastor and congregation move forward with the normal life of Christian ministry. It’s a season of steady building and refinement in the ministry of the Word.
• Adversity, conflict, and testing. Seasons of conflict and testing in the life of a congregation are inevitable. The devil, the world, and our flesh are active in working to disrupt the peace of Christ’s church. Pastors often become tired and weary in these seasons of conflict. One of the most destructive occurrences in church life during these seasons is a weakening of the pastor-congregation relationship. Trust between the two can be lost and the pulpit ministry weakened. The spiritual health of the pastor and congregation is a crucial factor in how the church will go forward through the conflict. Preventative measures that have already been put in place and practiced will have an alleviating effect upon the severity of the conflict.
• Strengthening. Endurance through seasons of trial and adversity has a fruit-bearing effect in the life of the congregation. The season following conflict is often one of the best fruit-yielding times that a congregation will enjoy. If the pastor endures the conflict well, this has a strengthening effect upon the bond that a pastor has with his congregation.
• Reassessment. Sadly, many pastors do not make it through the seasons of conflict. The number one reason pastors exit the ministry is burnout due to conflict. A pastor who has enjoyed a season of strengthening in his current ministry may come to a point when it is necessary to consider another call to pastor elsewhere. Through this process he will prayerfully determine whether God is calling him to another congregation or remain in his current calling with renewed focus.6
Considering these general seasons of pastoral ministry will help determine when the pastoral review should be implemented. Most attempts to help a pastor in the middle of conflict are too late. Anyone familiar with the trajectory of pastoral dissolutions (a sad but increasingly common occurrence) will find classical and synodical officers often trying to pick up the pieces after a long, protracted struggle in the local church. It is nearly impossible to resolve the conflict when broader assemblies are trying to intervene at the end of the process. Something went wrong along the way. Little or nothing was in place to address positively the beginnings of the problem. As the problem festered until reaching a point of no return, pastoral dissolution was the last and only remedy.
In almost all of these circumstances, elders feel that the situation quickly spiraled out of control. It was generally late into the process, beyond breaking points, and seeing the inevitability of division in the life of the church that elders began to intervene and assess the pastor’s ministry. This is unfair to all parties involved, especially to the pastor. Evaluation of the pastor’s ministry in the heart of conflict is almost always viewed punitively. This rarely goes well.
What I am arguing for, therefore, is a process of review that has already been established before the season of conflict. Elders need to have a good understanding of the spiritual dangers that are potentially present in the course of their pastor’s ministry. Ideally, the pastoral evaluation should be established during the honeymoon process, or in seasons of momentum in the ministry, and on a yearly basis. When established early in the pastoral ministry, a platform has already been created to address future problems in a non-threatening way and to the benefit of the whole church. This kind of proactive care in the shepherding of the pastor will promote a healthy reception of his ministry in the life of the congregation.
Understanding the Goal of the Pastoral Review
By this point I hope a case has been made for the necessity of the pastoral review and the importance of its early implementation in the pastor’s ministry. But in order for the review to be helpful to the pastor and beneficial to the life of the congregation, proper goals need to be established. While it is important that the review be comprehensive and thorough, a word of caution is necessary. Once the door for pastoral review is opened, there is the real danger that the evaluation will deviate into a micromanaging of the pastor well beyond the duties and dignities of the office itself. In fact, I was somewhat apprehensive to write this article due to fear that I would open the door for added burdens to be placed on the pastor’s back that he is unable to carry. I recently heard of one pastor’s newly implemented review, a review consisting of thirty pages of grueling critique. This was one of the most discouraging interactions the pastor ever had with his elders. Recognizing this as a potential problem, it cannot be emphasized enough that the pastoral evaluation should not become a means of pastoral scrutiny beyond the design of the office itself.
Establishing the goal of the review, therefore, is of extreme importance. The review should have the goal of being positive for the up-building of the pastor in his office and service to the people. The pastoral evaluation provides a platform for elders to recognize areas of strengths in the pastor’s service, offering support and encouragement in areas of struggle, and identifying areas of needed improvement. From this basic goal we can begin to think about what the pastoral review should look like.
The Content of the Pastoral Review
The pastoral review should be simple, clear, and intentional in its content. It should not be overbearing or cumbersome. The best way to construct the pastoral review is to focus on the following primary duties of the pastor.
Preaching and Worship
Preaching has always been central to the ministry of the church. In classic Reformed theology, preeminence has been given to preaching in corporate worship based upon the conviction that the minister is an ambassador sent to proclaim God’s holy Word, making known his salvation to the peoples. Preaching that is conducted in demonstration of the Spirit and power is Christ’s living voice to the church today. The apostle Paul tells us that it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe (1 Cor. 1:21). For these reasons, the highest responsibility of the pastor is to give himself to the call of proclaiming God’s holy Word.
To be sure, elders should maintain the highest standard of respect for the act of preaching since we believe the pastor is speaking God’s Word. But such respect for the act of preaching does not negate the responsibility of an elder to oversee the preaching. There certainly can be bad preaching even when nothing overtly unfaithful is said. And yet, while it’s true that preaching should be faithful, its effectiveness should be no less emphasized as well. Preaching that makes a lasting difference in people’s lives is both faithful and effective.
Elders need to think through how best to encourage their pastor to strive for a faithful and effective pulpit ministry. The preaching ministry may be evaluated by the following three marks: the text is clearly explained, the gospel is faithfully proclaimed, and the people are driven to response. Below are four questions that may help elders assess their pastor’s preaching.
• Is the preaching clear? One of the greatest hindrances to an effective Reformed pulpit ministry is when the sermon is made into a lecture. It’s a tragedy that Reformed sermons are often characterized as being hard to understand, full of theological jargon, overly academic, and without a discernible point. No one should ever walk away from worship questioning what the sermon was about. If that happens, the fault lies with the pastor, not the people. Clearness in preaching is accomplished by explaining the sermon text with speech that strikes the heart of the hearer in a manner he can easily understand.
• Is there a goal in the preaching? All preaching should have the goal of reconciliation between God and man through the proclamation of the forgiveness of sins through the free grace of the gospel. When the sermon lacks a clear gospel presentation, the minister can easily place God’s people under the law’s heavy yoke, causing them to wonder whether they have done enough to really be accepted before God. The goal of gospel ministry is to lead people to confess sin and receive the life-changing free grace of forgiveness offered in the gospel.7
• Is the preaching practical? All preaching must faithfully apply the intention of the text to the circumstances and lives of the people. Effective preaching explains the text and then applies the text. Applications must arise from the text itself with the goal of leading God’s people to walk in the newness of life. Preaching without application hinders God’s people in their sanctification. The congregation needs clear, direct application as a response to the grace received in the gospel.
• Is the pastor persistent in preaching? For a minister to be both faithful and effective in his calling, he must be diligent in giving himself to preach. A minister who is growing, progressing, and developing in his preaching will see progress in the lives of the people he serves. Sadly, the minister is often pulled away from his primary task of preaching with a variety of administrative duties, filling his time answering emails, and tending to other responsibilities of a secondary nature. Preaching that is done well requires a lot of time in study and reflection throughout the course of a week. Elders must ensure that the pastor is not developing habits that are undermining his duty to preach. Promote the pastor’s growth as a preacher since it is crucial to the spiritual health of the entire congregation.
Personal and Family Life
In this part of the evaluation, the elders should determine the spiritual and physical vitality of the pastor and his family. The purpose is to determine whether he has become overburdened in his calling with the accumulation of duties, leading to the neglect of his personal walk with Christ, shepherding his family, and taking physical care of his body. Are there patterns of neglect in these areas? If so, why? Elders will also need to determine whether their expectations of the pastor are beyond what is reasonable. Failure in these areas will have a direct correlation to the effectiveness of his ministry. If the pastor cannot manage his own household, how will he care for the household of faith? This part of the evaluation focuses on safeguarding the pastor from himself and from unrealistic expectations.
Pastoral Care and Discipleship
Jesus desired to be among the sheep, caring for them, helping them, and loving them. Our Lord was accessible to his people as one concerned for their spiritual and physical well-being. Caring for the sick and the dying is a vital part of the pastor’s calling. When it comes to visitation and pastoral care, if improvement is needed, first determine whether the pastor clearly understands the expectations of the elders. The pastor should insist that his elders share with him the responsibility of meeting pastoral needs.
When it comes to discipleship, elders will need to assess how the pastor is promoting the growth of the congregation through teaching and counseling. The annual review should include the pastoral care of young people. This may require rethinking on how accessible the pastor is to the next generation. Young people want a relationship with their pastor, and the elders need to ensure, with priority, that such a bond is being developed.
Other questions under this category may include: Does the pastor make himself available to visitors? How is he promoting the enfolding of the lost? How is the pastor’s ministry propelling the Christian witness?
Leadership and Administration
Finally, an assessment of the pastor’s leadership strengths and weaknesses is a helpful place to close the evaluation. In Reformed church polity, the pastoral role in leadership is one of assisting the elders in the shepherding and care of the congregation.8 The pastor holds an incredible position of power that can be easily abused. It’s a sad but common problem that pastors are often known as controlling and manipulative. Sometimes elder bodies become no more than a group of yes-men to whatever agenda the pastor desires to push upon the congregation. At other times the pastor is viewed simply as a church employee and his leadership is hamstrung. While a pastor is certainly called to be a leader, this leadership must be accompanied with the heart of a servant.
With this in mind, elders will want to assess the pastor’s leadership among them. Is the pastor too domineering in his leadership, or too passive? Does his leadership demonstrate that he desires to assist or control the elder body in their shepherding of the congregation? Further, how is the pastor’s leadership promoting the growth of other leaders in the elder body? Is the pastor known as a servant in the interests of Christ or a pusher of his own agenda on the body?
Implementing the Pastoral Review
After determining the content of the pastoral review, it’s important to have clear direction in how the review will be implemented. And while there may be a variety of ways to do this, the elders should think first and foremost about which approach is most beneficial to the pastor in properly communicating the consensus of the elder body with regard to his work. Some processes are unhelpful and overly burdensome if not communicated well. For this reason I suggest the following.
First, the elders should establish the content of the review. A subcommittee of elders may be appointed to draft the pastoral evaluation with the agreed upon categories that will comprise the review.9 Second, upon approval of the review by the entire elder body, the elders should complete the review form and return it to the clerk, who will collate their assessment. Third, the full consistory—or a delegation of elders who possess strong personal and communicative gifts—should share the results of the review with the pastor. Fourth, the congregation should be notified that the elders conducted an annual review of the pastor’s work with an added note, if appropriate, of the growth the elder body is witnessing in their pastor. This is very healthy for the congregation to be made aware of publicly.
With God’s help a pastoral review will aid the growth of the pastor and the spiritual life of the entire congregation under his ministry.
1 T. David Gordon, Why Johnny Can’t Preach: The Media Have Shaped the Messengers (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2009), 11.
2 Gordon, Why Johnny Can’t Preach, 18.
3 There are many resources that document pastoral burnout statistics. The statistics listed here provide a sample of some of the more important for elders to consider. There is an entire website devoted to this problem, and many of the statistics above can be retrieved from http://www.pastorburnout.com.
4 Gordon, Why Johnny Can’t Preach, 33.
5 Gordon, Why Johnny Can’t Preach, 33.
6 Some of these stages were adapted from the following similar breakdown: Thom S. Rainer, “Five Stages of a Pastor’s Ministry,” The Christian Post, October 8, 2013; web, August 30, 2015.
7 Consider John Calvin’s summary of gospel ministry: “Many other things, undoubtedly, are contained in the Gospel, but the principal object which God intends to accomplish by it is, to receive men into favor by not imputing their sins. If, therefore, we wish to show that we are faithful ministers of the Gospel, we must give our most earnest attention to this subject; for the chief point of difference between the Gospel and heathen philosophy lies in this, that the Gospel makes the salvation of men to consist in the forgiveness of sins through free grace.” Commentary on the Gospel of John, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1847), 271.
8 CO, art. 2.
9 For a reproducible sample review, see Appendix A in Faithful and Fruitful: Essays for Elders and Deacons, edited by William Boekestein and Steven Swets (Grandville, MI: Reformed Fellowship, 2019).
Christopher J. Gordon pastors Escondido United Reformed Church (URCNA) in Escondido, CA.