Staying in the pulpit

[Reynolds]

Why? How can either the pastor or the secretary steal funds they have no access to? Our Treasurer didn't even have access. He need a consensus from the Finance Committee. And anything over 500 dollars needed deacon board approval, and anything over 5000 dollars needed congregational approval.

A church that allows a single person access to the money has nobody to blame but themselves if some or all of it turns up missing.

Well, It was an elaborate scheme that should have been detected by the treasurer, but he missed it. It involved unauthorized bank accounts in the church name that the pastor and Secretary opened without knowledge of the deacons or treasurer.
As it was told to me, virtually all the cash was skimmed. Deposits into the hidden accounts were skimmed. Investments were redeemed into hidden accounts when mature. When the treasurer demanded the "books" for an audit, the unbacked up computer was fryed by a power surge.

The bilaws said the Chairman of Deacons, Treasurer, Assistant treasurer (who later in Ammended bilaws was defacto the secretary) and pastor were the finance committee. The chair of deacons and treasurer were the same person, so you see what happened.

Stupid people got manipulated.

 

[Salty]

Stupid people got manipulated.

or was it they meant well when they put full trust in their pastor?

 

[Reformed]

There are a myriad of reasons. One area I'll address is the lack of preparation and due diligence on the part of the pastoral candidate. All too often they fail to interview the church. They are too worried about impressing the elders or deacons and getting the call. Candidates need to grill the church and establish expectations. The candidate should be more afraid of the wrong call instead of no call at all.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

[Reynolds]

or was it they meant well when they put full trust in their pastor?

They meant well, but It did not turn out well.
The first time I met him I thought he was a con artist. I told several of the deacons at that church that he was a con artist. I told all of them "I told you so" on multiple occasions.

 

[Squire Robertsson]

While many here have brought up the negative reasons for the five pastorate, I have thought it is rooted in the practice of the Methodist-Episcopalians and the Presbyterians who up to the mid 20th century had their pastors on a five year rotation.

 

[Reynolds]

While many here have brought up the negative reasons for the five pastorate, I have thought it is rooted in the practice of the Methodist-Episcopalians and the Presbyterians who up to the mid 20th century had their pastors on a five year rotation.

I thought the United Methodist still rotated???

 

[TCassidy]

I thought the United Methodist still rotated???

They do. The UMC across the street from our church building just lost their pastor to the 5 year rotation. They really liked him and are very unhappy with his replacement.

 

[Reynolds]

They do. The UMC across the street from our church building just lost their pastor to the 5 year rotation. They really liked him and are very unhappy with his replacement.

Yeah, that same thing happened to the UMC church down the road. They rotated out the "best pastor we ever had" and replaced him with that "crazy Yankee woman."

 

[ChrisTheSaved]

It's still KJVO but I could fellowship there.

KJV only is the best way.

 

[Squire Robertsson]

My mother's mother's father was a Methodist-Episcopal pastor. Since that was way before the merges that formed the UMC, I only spoke to that denomination.

I thought the United Methodist still rotated???

 

[TCassidy]

My great grandfather was a Methodist preacher, John Wesley Delcamp. His daughter, my grandmother, Sarah, married Herman Kantzer, a Huguenot in 1903.

 

[Reynolds]

My great grandfather was a Methodist preacher, John Wesley Delcamp. His daughter, my grandmother, Sarah, married Herman Kantzer, a Huguenot in 1903.

Wonder who he was named after?

 

[elder_jeffery_endicott]

Just checked some of the past minutes of the association I am part of before commenting on this in 2003 9 of the churches (then 26 now 21) had the same pastor as is pastoring the church now. My pastor is currently the longest serving pastor in any of our churches I believe over 45 years and still going very strong.

 

[David Kent]

My great grandfather was a Methodist preacher, John Wesley Delcamp. His daughter, my grandmother, Sarah, married Herman Kantzer, a Huguenot in 1903.

There is an Huguenot church that meets in Canterbury Cathedral. The main Huguenot church in England is in Soho Square, London. I went to a lunchtime service there once. They had a reading from the old testament in French and then in English and the same in the gospel and then again from the epistles. Then they had lunch and discussed a Huguenot exhibition going on at the time and the main point of discussion was a charred Huguenot bible which had been thrown in an oven when the Government Troops arrived. I got the impression that they were living in the past.

There is a village a few miles away that was founded by Huguenots. It is called Sarre. The village sign says La Ville de Sarre. There are another two villages near there called Upper Hardres and Lower Hardres which are probably Huguenot origin as they are French spelling. About 40 miles away across the channel in France, there is a village named Ardres. Hardres and Ardres would be pronounced the same in French as they don't pronounce H.

 

[Pastor Sam]

Apparently a pastor only stays in a church for 3-5 years.
Granted, there are some who stay for decades - ie Stanely - 40+ years

So why do pastors tend to leave a church after just a short time.

Open for discussion

 

[Pastor Sam]

I think the reason Pastors don’t stay long is because they run out of the sugar messages. They go some where else and preach the same messages. I served one church 16 years and another 8.

 

[Revmitchell]

Let's not assume pastors change churches because of their own decision. The vast majority times pastors change churches has to do with small churches who eat pastors for supper.

 

[TCassidy]

Let's not assume pastors change churches because of their own decision. The vast majority times pastors change churches has to do with small churches who eat pastors for supper.

There is probably a lot of truth in that. I was the 17th pastor, in 38 years, of the church I pastored for 27 years.

The first pastor was there for 11 years and the second for 9. So I was the 15th pastor in the past 18 years!

The guy before me lasted 11 months. The guy before him lasted 51 days!

I guess I turned out to be a tougher old bird than the others. They bit and gnashed, but had to spit me out.

 

[Revmitchell]

There is probably a lot of truth in that. I was the 17th pastor, in 38 years, of the church I pastored for 27 years.

The first pastor was there for 11 years and the second for 9. So I was the 15th pastor in the past 18 years!

The guy before me lasted 11 months. The guy before him lasted 51 days!

I guess I turned out to be a tougher old bird than the others. They bit and gnashed, but had to spit me out.

Many of these pastors who are eat up which are young and new find other things to do.

 

[Reynolds]

Let's not assume pastors change churches because of their own decision. The vast majority times pastors change churches has to do with small churches who eat pastors for supper.

I thought "God called me somewhere else."
That's the common reason given.