Responding to the Broken Pastor Pipeline
On Mother’s Day, Axios, an American media company known for non-partisan reporting and signature ultra-short pieces, published America’s Pastor Pipeline is Collapsing. The article began,
Fewer Americans want to become pastors, accelerating a leadership vacuum inside of one of the country’s oldest civic institutions. Why it matters: As the pastor role becomes lower-paid, higher-risk and less trusted, the U.S. isn’t just losing clergy — it’s losing a key layer of local leadership, especially in rural and Black communities.
In other words, the broken pastor pipeline has BIG implications for America. The writer especially noted the impact upon rural areas — the areas where 50% of Free Will Baptist churches are located. And, when we look at recent stats, Free Will Baptists have been impacted. The chart below shows a steady decline in pastors since 1995.
What happens when we lose pastors? Without pastors, churches close or become inactive. Fewer churches means fewer places for people to worship and grow. As churches close and struggle, people quietly drift away to another church or out of church entirely. Spiritual growth declines, and membership gradually falls.
The bottom line is we need more pastors.
Therefore, we must invest in pastors and pray that God gives us more of them. This year, we are challenging every Free Will Baptist to pray every day at 9:38 a.m. or p.m. (preferably both). This mandate comes from Jesus Himself as recorded in Matthew 9:38: “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”
We ask every Free Will Baptist in every location to pray daily God would raise up workers for His harvest. While we desperately need missionaries, teachers, and deacons, no need is more essential to the future of our movement than seeing God call more pastors.
What else can we do while we wait for God to answer our prayers? We began addressing this problem more than five years ago in the series of articles below. I encourage you to read or review those articles to acquaint yourself with the complexities of this issue.
Ten Functions of the Local Church
Addressing the Pastoral Crisis: Better Transitions
Are You Called to Bi-Vocational Ministry?
The Pastoral Crisis & Greener Grass
Everyone’s Problem: We Need More Laborers
Take Care of Our Pastors
Refresh Counseling. The article from Axios noted the high number of pastors who considered quitting the ministry. The National Association began offering the Refresh Counseling program in 2022, and to date, we have conducted more than 3,500 counseling sessions. This fulfills our belief that a laborer is worthy of his hire. Several participants indicate the program helped them through burnout and enabled them to continue, even excel, in ministry.
Rekindle Coaching. Pastors, especially those in rural areas often feel isolated. The Rekindle Coaching program allows pastors to work with a mentor on strategy and planning. This fulfills our belief we are not meant to minister alone. It is truly an example of how iron sharpens iron.
The Shepherding Initiative. Many churches stagnate or close when they go without a pastor. The top reason we lose churches is they cannot find a pastor. Through The Shepherding Initiative, Dr. Tim York works with church members to help them stay focused on the church’s ministry. He trains them to conduct devotions or make hospital visits and keep ministry moving until the next pastor is in place.
Apply Ourselves to Ministry
We first shared the challenge of the pastoral shortage in the March 2021 article, Everyone’s Problem. We shared guidelines for how to pray for and search for pastors and deacons. In the meantime, we must do our best to serve the local church effectively. In short, it appears God is pushing all of us back to Ephesians 4:11-12. Paul made it clear the ministry of the church was never meant to fall upon one person or even a small handful of people. Instead, we all are called to work together to edify the body, working, training, encouraging, and modeling.
If all of us stay busy serving in the unique roles for which God designed us (1 Corinthians 12; Romans 12) while also discipling and training others to follow in our footsteps, Free Will Baptists will not only survive “the broken pastor pipeline,” but we will also thrive.
Let’s stop treating church growth and ministry as “the pastor’s job” and start viewing it as our shared calling. We are, and always will be, Better Together.
About the writer: Eddie Moody is the executive director of the National Association of Free Will Baptists.