Week 7 Church Conflict Story

Week 7
February 23, 2009

1. Interviewed: Marty Reiswig
When: February 23rd,2009 @ 4:45pm

2. Church Conflict Story:

The Senior Pastor and the Children’s Pastor were not getting along in the Church. The pressure kept mounting between the two and so The Children’s Pastor put in her resignation to leave and told the pastor to start looking for a new children’s pastor to take her spot. The Senior Pastor did not look for another person rather tried to “fix” the issue that was going on between him and the children’s pastor.
When the Children’s Pastor was about to leave, the Senior Pastor still had yet to find another person to fill her position. So he approached the youth pastor. We went to the youth pastor and began asking him questions about numbers and attendance of the youth. The Senior Pastor told him that he does not have enough youth to fulfill his job requirements. The Youth Pastor explained that he also is director of activities for the church in which he is responsible for. Not satisfied with the answer and had already made up his mind, the Senior Pastor told the Youth Pastor that that evening he was going to make a recommendation to the board that the Youth Pastor should also take on the role as the Children’s Pastor.
Infuriated, the Youth Pastor went home and explained what had happened to his wife. This was not the first instance that he had dealt with the negligence and poor leadership skills of the Senior Pastor. He wanted to leave. But his wife calmed him down and explained that the best thing to do for now is to explain your side of it to the board, but respect any decision that is made. And so he did.
That evening at the board meeting, the Senior Pastor recommended the that Youth Pastor take on the second role as Children’s Pastor (knowing full well the youth pastor was fuming). The Youth Pastor spoke on his behalf explaining his lack of desire to do and experience with Children’s ministry.
The board recognized the concerns and apprehensions of the Youth Pastor. However, he would need to fill this position until they found another Children’s Pastor. Thus, the Youth Pastor ended up being the Children’s Pastor for about three months.

Advice from the youth pastor: When you take a job position make sure the job description and expectations are clearly stated by the senior pastor, the church, and yourself. Make sure there are lines drawn and if they need to be altered that it is written you will be given as much notice as possible.