Firing a Preacher
FREE e-book download - go to http://www.thejenkinsinstitute.com/shop and search for
You’re Fired! Now What?
You have decided to fire your minister. You have that right. You may have been trying for years to avoid it, or it may be the result of some immediate action/sin/false teaching. I know you have prayed about this. It will be painful no doubt. But if we can minimize that pain for all involved, we, as Christians should. Can I now ask you to do a little more?
Remember this man and his family. In every step of this think of how Christ would want you to behave. Practice the Golden Rule. Here are a few things for you to consider:
While this man may no longer be your man, unless there is an overriding issue there is still a place for him somewhere. “…Surveys now indicate more than 25% – leave church ministry involuntarily. They are usually forced from office by a faction of ten people or less … sometimes by their governing board. Most of the time, the process is handled clumsily, resulting in seething anger, ecclesastical division, and incalculable damage.”
Make sure he sees it coming. Now, he won’t, but give him repeated warnings and corrections with stronger admonitions if he is missing it. Do your best to let him know if changes are not forthcoming that changes will be coming. If he sees numbers dropping, energy depleting and hears warnings about changes that he needs to make, he should be able to read the handwriting on the wall.
You are not hiring me to fire me but as Jerrie Barber says: “Anytime a preacher moves someone got fired. Either the church fired the preacher or the preacher fired the church.” Determine pre-firing that we’d like for us to handle this well.
Discuss with him how you want him to handle it when he gets an offer that sounds interesting and how you will respond? He may not handle it how you want but it is better than him being fired because he got a call and talked to someone and then you found out second hand and were mad about it.
Be honest: The thing most preachers are most upset about when they are fired is that they do not feel the leaders have been honest with them or that they are never really given the reason this is happening.
Give him the opportunity to resign rather than be fired and do your best to help him see the long term implications of each. It may give him some temporal satisfaction to see the leaders squirm when the event is being explained BUT long-term it is harder to find job when you have been allowed to resign.
If another church calls you about him, be honest but I would suggest you do what I heard of one eldership doing. If he was fired, have the contacting eldership ask HIM why it happened and then you either confirm or deny what he said. Also, if you allowed him to resign, do not pollute his future by then saying: “He resigned but if he had not we were going to fire him.” Just say he resigned.
Unless there are mitigating factors that would prohibit it, let him write out his last goodbye to the church and then let him read it. Assure him the elders will follow his statement and if he tries to burn the house down it will be corrected. He’s been a minister to these folks, it seems only right to let him say goodbye.
Treat him so well that it will make it hard for him to say anything but good about you. Or so well that when he does run you down the person he’s talking with interrupts him and tells him he was treated really well.
Do MORE than you promised you would, not less: I am amazed when I hear of a leadership who has promised a three month severance and when something happens they back peddle on it. It makes you look both dishonest and miserly. If you promised him three months salary, why not go four or five. It ultimately won’t hurt the church and it will certainly make the blunt easier to handle. The general rule for severance among executives is one month salary for every year he has served.
Treat him as you would your own son: It’s a good and fair rule of advice that if you treat him like you would like to treat your son you’ll do well.
Think about how you’d want this to be played out 5 years from now: If someone was to look back on this event five years from now and evaluate your behavior would you be embarrassed, ashamed, content, happy? Behave the way you’d want this remembered.
Check in on him: About two months after you have released him check on how his search is going. If he has not gotten any good leads, would it hurt to help him a little more? Maybe pay a month of his insurance or his house note for a month. I don’t know that there is a way to fire a guy but I do think a church should not just forget them when they are gone. Check on them. Have they found a place to go? What is their financial situation? Could you help them more and be “bigger” than any issue that may have caused the parting?
Check on his family. How are they? Let them know they are still loved. If he’s a dad, don’t let his children feel like their dad is a failure. He probably just wasn’t the person you needed at that time. Don’t let them feel like they are why he was fired. I can remember growing up thinking that if I did not behave as a preacher’s son dad may get fired for my actions. That was probably a long way from reality, but at a young age that was my perception.
It may be that you are just bored with this fellow and want someone different to “feed” you 30 minutes each week. You have the right but remember this is his life, his soul!
Behave how you are going to behave regardless of how he behaves (see chapter ___ on personal manifesto). The saddest thing I have ever heard said during a forced termination was by an eldership: “If you act like a Christian we will to.” So, if he doesn’t - you won’t? Or that you might even see that as an option concerns me greatly.
