I attended Bible College (Pacific Christian College) for a few years in the 1980s but the closure of Champion's Bag Plant and my subsequent move to Texas prevented me from staying long enough to graduate. Nevertheless, I was employed as a youth pastor for a short time, and have served as an interim pastor for a couple of churches, neither being positions that I had sought. I have also served in various roles. including secretary, treasurer, secretary-treasurer, and deacon in various churches, and for a couple of years I was responsible for the Wednesday night services at the American Baptist Church here in Millinocket, which was not a pastorate but in my role as deacon. Although there are some here who have had far more experience in the inner workings of a church than I have, I have on the inside of local church politics, at least enough to know that it exists and that it isn't always pretty. While I was a youth pastor, I was discouraged because I felt that the emphasis was on making Christians of those who could contribute financially to the church rather than on what I thought was more important. The church was a white enclave in what had turned into a mostly Hispanic neighborhood. Very few members of the church still lived in the neighborhood. Our youth program would attract some of the neighborhood kids as well, some of whom would come to church on Sunday. I thought I was doing a good job with it, but then I was called into a deacon's meeting in which they complained that the youth program was eating into the church's resources without attracting contributing members. Some of them encouraged me to make a point of reaching the kids' parents, while another complained that he couldn't allow his own kids to attend youth events because of some of the other kids who were there, which I took to mean that he didn't want them mixing with the kids who actually lived in the neighborhood. This used to be a point of bitterness with me but I have since realized that I didn't do everything right either. I was doing my own thing, without realizing that I should have made sure that they were all a part of it all along before it got to a point where anyone felt that they had to address it. That was a Grace Brethren Church and, given that they closed a few years later, I can see that they were probably dealing with some tense financial situations. At another Grace Brethren Church, where I served as Treasurer and then a deacon, I saw nothing ugly. In fact, I saw no hint of church politics in play. People in the pews rarely see the ugliness but I was on the inside, and I didn't see it there. In another church, a member of the church's founding families wanted his son to be appointed elder, this despite the fact that his son was seventeen years old. To be honest, when I first heard him bring it up, I thought he was joking, but he wasn't. When the pastor spoke against that, not publicly, but privately within the meeting of church officers in which it was proposed, the change was unmistakable. From that point on, people who had been very happy with the pastor before were now turning on him. Nothing he could do was right, and I don't believe that most of them even knew what it was all about as that was never openly proposed as a reason for dissatisfaction. Within six months, he was gone. I don't know if the kid was appointed elder or not because I left too. That was the ugliest that I have ever seen.
When the mill closed in Millinocket, we lost six of the seven pastors serving the town within a couple of months. You see, when a pastor is looking for another pastorate, one of the things that a pastoral search committee will look at are the numbers. I know, because I have also served on search committees. The committee will look at the number of members that the candidate's last church had when he started and compare it to the number that was there when he left, and use that as a measure of the pastor's effectiveness. The population of Millinocket was cut in half within a year of the mill closing, and no pastor wanted that on his record. So they all bailed out of the sinking ship at a time when the people who remained probably needed them most.
First, I will tell you Ken that you can come up with some very interesting topics. No real "church politics" in my life, but have met some very nice Pastor's and Minister's. Anyway, between my Legal Guardians, it was my mom (what I called her) who was the one who pushed my dad and me into going to church each Sunday. When I moved in with them, in the summer of 1963, I had never attended church before. The Aunt I had been living with before the Legal Guardians never went to church, that I remember. Anyway, we went to Early Service (8:30AM) and I quickly became the one to give the Church Bulletin out before the Service and sat on a chair by the door so I could turn off and on the sanctuary lights when the Minister done the sermon. My mom would get upset, sitting in the pew, because my dad would continuously nod off during the sermon. He definitely wasn't much of a Christian, because as soon as he got into the car to go home, he would start cussing (IOW, the Lords name in vain). Mom didn't like it at all, but since "dear old dad" was the "breadwinner", she put up with it. As for me, I never swore at all. While at Navy "Boot Camp" aka Basic Training, I chose to became the Protestant Petty Officer and in-charge of getting the guys together that wanted to attend Service on Sunday AM. In doing this, I also got out of standing any Watches, except for one on the night before graduation. During my regular Navy years, I don't remember attending church on Sunday at all and swearing just wasn't a part of my personality. After my discharge, I still didn't attend church either. When I met my wife, in March of 2000, she had a church she was going to and I had no problem attending an outside Easter Service with her. After that, we started attending a church in Garden Grove, CA called The Crystal Cathedral. I'm sure some of you have hear of that church. Unless we were at a rodeo on the weekend, each Sunday we went to that church. Later, we found a nice Baptist church down the street from where we had a house in Parker, CO. We'd go to the Early Service there, go home afterwards and grab our boat and head to the lake...…...of course, summer months only. My wife feels that she married a really descent Christian man and I know, without a doubt, that I married a great Christian lady. We never found a church here that we really liked, but do have one that we attend Christmas Eve Service at. Hopefully, once we move, we will find a nice church to attend. For now, my wife watches church, with John Hagee and his son, on her laptop each Sunday AM. As for me, I enjoy watching Joyce Meyer on tv.
I generally stay out of church politics, as there is no way I can discuss religion without offending someone. My wife is the "administrator" of the church we attend, so I support her in any way I can without getting involved in the politics. I was raised a United Methodist, but left that church when they came out in favor of abortion on demand and against homeschooling, both opinions being opposite of my beliefs. Many of the divisions within Christianity seem to be due to ignorance or misunderstandings. I don't belong to a church now, but attend my wife's church on a regular basis. I was very active in Christian activities when I was young, was accepted into seminary at one time (but did not attend) and served for a summer in a medical mission in Bolivia. We have an American Baptist preacher (retired) here who seems to represent everything I thought Baptists were against, although most of my contact has been with the Southern Baptist Convention. This guy is one of the leading campaigners for gay and transgender "rights", including choosing the restroom or locker room of your feeling at the moment. I corresponded with him for a while, and he is an Existentialist and follower of Bertrand Russell, and believes that God changes as human society changes. I didn't know Baptists of any type believed any of that.
The problem with many of the Baptist denominations is that they hold to a congregational church polity, meaning that each local church is autonomous. So even when the national organization has adopted policy statements against such things as same-sex marriage or the ordaining of gay pastors, each congregation is free to do as it pleases, and eventually, that comes to represent the entire denomination, as liberal congregations and pastors seem to be more interested in working their way up the ladder of the denominational government. One of the churches that I was a deacon of was an American Baptist church. After our pastor left, I was on the search committee and we had one woman on the committee who very much wanted to call a gay pastor if possible or, failing that, the most liberal pastor she could find. Most of those on the search committee didn't seem to really care who was called as long as they could fill the slot, but our bylaws called for unanimous approval from the search committee before anyone could be called as a pastor, so myself and one other deacon overruled all of her choices until they finally agreed to someone who was a very old conservative pastor who died a few years later. I no longer attend that church so I don't know who they have as a pastor now.
The last Methodist church I attended was pastored by a woman, who was much to my liking, but the national church was moving away from me, so when she left, I left. Her husband was also a pastor, but he said that co-pastoring was not his thing, so he became the chaplain at a "local" college, 60 miles away. That church then got a divorced lesbian pastor with two children. She tried to turn the church into a center for gay activities. Almost the entire congregation left while protesting to the bishop. With attendance so low they couldn't even pay the heating bills, a male pastor with a family was installed with the task of rebuilding the church congregation. He succeeded and was there for several years before being followed by another married couple who were both ministers. They worked as a team for a number of years, and have recently been replaced by another male pastor with a family, who my wife knows through workshops and such. She describes him as a great man; I have never met him. I have (for discussion purposes) divided Christian denominations into "Episcopal" (having a bishop or president who makes pastoral assignments) and "Congregational" (those whose attendees determine the pastor). Stand-alone churches founded by a single pastor with a "Calling" I group with the Congregational group. As you said, Ken, the theology or philosophy of the Congregational-type churches can be all over the place, often with no theological basis, other than the feelings of the congregation or the pastor. I find I like the "Episcopal" type churches better, but each to their own.
There is also something in between, in which the denomination has a published and agreed upon set of standards that must be adhered to in order for a church to continue to be a part of that denomination. Churches within the denomination can choose their own pastor so long as he (or she) adheres to these standards. Some of the Lutheran denominations are set up. Where the denomination does not ordain women, a member church might be free to ordain a woman as the pastor if they wish, but they would no longer be part of that denomination. I think the Southern Baptist Convention does something similar, but am not sure. I have only been a member of one SBC church and I wasn't involved in church politics.
I have been asked to pastor on a few occasions and for varied church’s from Southern Baptist to a Nondenominational church but pastoring just isn’t what I am called to do or I am just bull headed. The later is probably the more accurate reasoning because whenever I have gotten close to the men in the back room I have continually found some tweaks to their original statement of faith and / or the mission statement. Another problem might be that I have found that although someone might carry the designation as a pastor, the actual leadership comes from the deacony or elders as it were. The pastor preaches what he is told to preach and does what he is told to do and nothing more. Situations whereby a devout evangelistic preacher can be quickly lead into sectarianism and that too, keeps me from accepting a pastorate. I once happened to mention Christian church politics to a couple of board members and one of them answered that politics have always had a place within the church to the degree that Paul and Peter had their own stances as to who was to be evangelized. My question followed with “how did that work out for Peter?” That last bit of rotten logic is one of the reasons my wife and I quit going to a church here in Huntsville. The church had a bluegrass gospel music night with a popular band leading the night. I asked a few men and women at the mission if they would like to attend and received a favorable response. I asked the pastor if the church bus or some of the people in the congregation would help drive the program individuals to the event. At that moment I received a maybe and later after he made the inquiry from those wonderful creatures from the backroom, I was told,....no. The church had a more than obvious closed door policy regarding the homeless and for that reason, my wife and I no longer attended. My marching orders ( description of ordination) says that I am to “preach the gospel wherever it may be heard” and I am absolutely sure that means to Whomever also.
What we don't like is the salary of some pastors and ministers. The church we attend on Christmas Eve, has a rather large yearly budget for their Clergy, like around 3 million dollars. The senior pastor, who is only in his early 40's, makes around 1 million a year. We knew a member of the church committee, an older Senior, that disagreed with the Clergy budget, but it still passed. Joyce Meyers complained about how some people complained about how her and her husband lived...…...fairly extravagant. She stated, "Why can other people make great salaries and live very nicely, but a minister or pastor can't?" She say that her books and dvd recordings give her and her husband the kind of lifestyle they have. John Hagee is the same way, lives a pretty extravagant lifestyle and claims that his books pay for it, but gives a sermon, last Sunday, on how people should "give to the church". My MIL (wife's mom) was giving her church some $100+ dollars a week, even though she couldn't afford it. My SIL (brother's wife) has a different banking acct. than her husband, because she likes to give much more on Sunday than he does. So, what do you think about how much pastors, ministers, priests get as a salary?
As you pointed out, there are exceptions to the rule of giving pastors a living wage, a home (parsonage) perhaps and nothing more. I have never been against paying the shepherd his due but more money equals power and the more power one has equals a firm opportunity for corruption. No one is above temptation and money stands as the biggest temptress of them all which only a very few can truly stand innocent above it. When I see televangelists asking for donations based on greed, then I draw another line. Copeland was famous for citing scripture based on the amount of prosperity one receives from the act of giving. i.e. If you give me X amount of money, God will give you 10 or even 100 fold that amount. I once wrote and asked him for a hundred bucks so God would give him 10 fold that amount and we would all be happy. I received no answer much less the 100 dollars. Of all of the TV preachers, perhaps R. Schuler was the very best when it came to donating money. He always had a book or some Christmas trinket to sell but I never heard him ask for money for a God given return. In fact, he would tell you that you could probably buy one of his books at a book store cheaper than what he charged for it.
I remember attending Dr. Robert Shuller's church, The Crystal Cathedral, when we lived in So California. He was known around the world for his beliefs and church, but got into serious financial trouble when he didn't pay the people (vendors) who were hired to do his two big shows at the church...…...The Glory of Christmas and The Glory of Easter. We had been to both. He, and his family, ended up losing the church due to these financial problems. Everyone thought that, when he passed, there would be a gigantic funeral with all kinds of celeb's and dignitaries from around the world, that he had met. When he died, after losing the church, the gigantic funeral never happened. His popularity went straight down the drain.
For a few years, a friend of mine who has, for years, been doing what I think of as an off-church ministry, was having services for kids at our cafe a couple of times a week. Some of these were kids who had never been in a church building before and knew next to nothing about the Bible or Christianity. I invited a few of those who wanted to know more to Sunday School and church services at the Baptist church where I was a deacon. They weren't unruly; in fact, they were doing their best to fit in, but they didn't know the rules, and having grown up in a church, it was hard for me to anticipate every possible pitfall. An eleven-year-old boy, for example, raised his hand to ask if he could go to the bathroom, obviously equating church with school, which he was familiar with. The complaints were petty, but there were a lot of them, and it was as if I were personally responsible for everything that any child might say or do in his Sunday School class or during services. Then one Sunday, my wife and I were out of town and a few of these kids showed up, and there were people in the church who were furious. Again, the complaints were petty, and rather than trying to help these kids do what they were trying to do, which was to fit in, they just wanted them gone so that they could go back to everything being in its place, and so on. Some of these complaints were coming from people whose own kids didn't attend church. Some churches employ a pastor to conduct the services on Sunday, while most of the rest of the work of the church is conducted by the membership. Of course, if you want your pastor to be available for counseling, meetings, and other tasks throughout the week, or to hold regular office hours during the week, then it makes sense to pay him for it because that's going to make it difficult for him to hold another job.