Rowland Croucher was recently asked how many ex-pastors he estimated there were currently in Australia. All our international list members can ‘listen in’ to his commentary on the situation and see how they think their own country compares…

When we started John Mark Ministries in 1991 our estimate was that there were 10,000 ex-pastors in Australia. That is, there are 10,000 people who were in parish ministry of some sort, and are now in some other religious ministry or secular vocation – teaching, truck-driving, cross-cultural mission, denominational executive, hobo – you name it! They left parish ministry for reasons other than retirement or death.

How did I arrive at that figure? I had a ministry with World Vision, as you know, as a kind of minister-at-large to the church in Australia and beyond. In the many pastors’ conferences I addressed I would ask ‘How many of you can say that in your exit/graduation/ordination year more have left than stayed in parish/pastoral ministry?’

Among the Pentecostals there was a significant drop-out rate: more leave than stay; among the ‘Evangelical’ denominations (Salvation Army, Baptist, Churches of Christ, etc.) about the same number stay as leave; in the mainline churches (most Anglican dioceses, Lutheran, Uniting, Reformed, Presbyterian) more stay than leave.

Why, why, why? Well, many Pentecostal pastors are church-planters: a high-risk vocation! In other denominations with a significant number of church-planters (C & MA, Wesleyan Methodist etc.) there’s a similarly high attrition rate.

The Evangelical churches’ clergy have a significant role in ‘attracting customers’: they grow by accretions to membership from other churches or none.

The mainline churches look after their clergy better, financially. They are more secure. But the flip-side of this is that some clergy who should possibly have left hang around until retirement.

Harry Ballis has done the definitive research on SDA pastors. During a period a decade or two back, they lost more pastors in Australia than have left any denomination at any time. That was when that denomination was turning itself inside out over several issues…

Now, back to the statistics: they are getting worse, in my opinion. More are leaving. There are more options for those who leave, and there is less disgrace in leaving (as has also happened in cross- cultural missionary work in the last couple of decades).

Why do they leave? We have isolated 40 different ‘presenting’ variables. That is, when asked ‘Why did you leave?’ there are 40 different discrete answers. (See the ex-pastors’ questionnaire on our website – http://jmm.org.au/articles/2001.htm ).

Beneath these variables is the context of leaving – almost always one of conflict.

And beneath that, I have discovered in my counseling of ex-pastors and their spouses, is the ‘manhood factor’: most men are not properly initiated into manhood in our culture. They therefore have difficulties in relating to strong women, in resolving conflicts, in espousing a ministry of ’empowerment’ rather than a clericalist model etc. etc.

All generalizations, but there you are.

So I’m saying there’s one ex-pastor for every serving pastor. And 13,000 clergy are registered with our government as marriage celebrants.

Shalom!

Rowland Croucher