“Now I saw, though too late, the folly of beginning a work before
I counted the cost, and before I judged rightly of my own
strength to go through with it.”
~Daniel Defoe
Being a Pastor in a small town parish is lot harder than most people think.
In addition to the challenge of having to survive on virtually no wages–a Parish residence is usually located on church property thus relieving the need for providing discretionary income–Pastors of small town congregations must also be adroitly adept at resolving the petty squabbles and bickering among the members of the flock (failure to do so usually results in a month’s severance and a part-time job at the local grocery store).
And if the challenges of surviving on low wages and diffusing angry factions is not enough, there’s always preaching on Sundays, supervising the church Council, ministering to the poor, comforting the troubled, evangelizing the lost, emptying the trash, fixing the hot water heater, and cutting the grass.
But for those remarkable souls that have made their careers pastoring small town churches, the rewards are beyond measure.
What’s most interesting to me is that with long-time, small town preachers there is a common and consistent theme to their experience–one which confirms that their trials and tribulations work as sort of a refiner’s fire–each time the heat is turned up, the impurities rise to the surface, until, over time, all that’s left is pure gold.
Standing in the Narthex of Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church in Grand Island, Nebraska–a building that was constructed in 1888–I am humbled by the enduring testimonies of those who have occupied the Pulpit in this quaint, country Church and have patiently endured countless trials and tribulations.
For them, I can only believe that triumph and victory are truly theirs.
According to Theologian George Barna, the average tenure of today’s Protestant Pastor is four years.
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