This was written some ten years ago. Rather than update the references, I decided to leave the stories intact. Have tweaked the writing somewhat for clarity.
This week President Obama fired his top general in Afghanistan. Therein lies a tale which every pastor and staff member ought to take to heart.
General Stanley McChrystal is a case study in a lot of things: militarism, athleticism, patriotism, gung-hoism, machoism, and egotism.
What got this commander of all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan sacked was a lengthy article just published in the July edition of Rolling Stone magazine. Since the article is online, anyone can read it. I did last night.
Can you say “insubordination?” In a sentence, McChrystal was openly critical of Obama and his diplomatic team. He held nothing back, said exactly what he thought, and had little favorable to say about anyone he works with.
Now get this. The President of the United States is the Commander-in-Chief of all U.S. military forces, which makes him the boss of every general. So, what we have here is an officer publicly criticizing his superior officer. McChrystal would not stand for one of his staff doing such a thing.
Obama had previously dealt with General McChrystal, telling him to bridle his mouth. But some people cannot be told anything; they are a law unto themselves.
The writer says McChrystal prides himself on being sharper and guttier than anyone else. But his brashness comes with a price: he has offended almost everyone with a stake in the Afghan conflict.
The title of the article says it all: The Runaway General: The top commander in Afghanistan has seized control of the war by never taking his eyes off the real enemy: the wimps in the White House.
Assuming this account is accurate–and a layperson like me has no way of knowing–you cannot fire a guy like that fast enough. Get him gone now.
Now, we’re addressing pastors and church leadership here….
Have you ever had a church staff member like that?
I’ve seen out-of-control staffmembers, but clearly no one like this general, a man said to sleep 4 hours a night, run 7 miles a day, and eat one meal a day. He is so intense about his work, he sees his wife something like 30 days a year.
He’s a mixture of brilliance and cockiness, we are told–the poster child as well as the role model for the gung ho culture in the military. (I’m thinking of Pat Conroy’s The Great Santini. Pray you don’t have such a parent and pity those who do.)
Colleagues say of this general, “He puts soldiers’ lives in even greater danger. Every real soldier will tell you the same thing.”
Insubordination means the individual becomes a law unto himself.
Insubordination is what cost General Douglas MacArthur his job in 1953. President Truman grew tired of having his commander on the field countermand his decisions and criticize his policies. He knew what firing this popular general would cost him but did it anyway. I know of no historian who questions what Truman did. It did indeed cost him politically, but history has vindicated him. Entire books have been written on this one subject.
Here’s a scenario for you pastors….
Suppose, for the sake of our discussion, you have a popular staff member whose ministry is little short of amazing. He runs a tight ship, leads a team of fiercely loyal (to him!) co-workers, and is acclaimed far and wide for his successes. He writes articles for magazines on his subject, whether his area be worship leadership, education, youth ministry, missions, children, or administration. He clearly knows his work well and does impressive work.
The downside: He is not a team player. He does not care who the pastor of the church is at any given time. He was in place when you the pastor arrived and fully expects that he will outlast you. He sits patiently through staff meetings, hardly participating, and does all the things required of him, although absent of all enthusiasm. He irritates the other team members by his attitude.
You can’t prove it, but you are confident he is criticizing you and the other staffers behind your back. His team members are his cult followers, think he is the beginning and the end of their responsibility, and have little connection with the rest of the staff.
He has shrewdly built his network within the membership of the church. At budget planning time, his people will invariably be in places of decision-making and outspoken on how he deserves a greater hunk of the finances.
He is the tail that wags the dog.
As the pastor, what do you do with such a one?
The easy answer is: fire him.
If that is correct–and we’re not saying it is–the question then becomes How To Do That? And can you afford what firing him will cost you?
How to get him out and live to tell about it becomes your problem.
What follows are my answers. They may not be yours. If you are facing just this scenario, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you. You will go in His strength or you will not survive the trip, friend.
First, before going to a church with this kind of situation, find out all you can. Know in advance if you are walking into a minefield.
You may assume two things: the pastor search committee will not talk about this with you; you’ll have to find out from other sources. And such a staff member will have one or more of his people on the search committee. They will report to him every step the committee makes.
Former pastors and neighboring ministers are the ones to tell you if a particular staff member is a bear-trap waiting for your foot.
If the Lord gives you a choice in the matter, avoid that church altogether. If you are dead certain the Lord is sending you to that church, make your will, get your prayer life in order, and plan to rent for the first year. You may not be there long. I’m only half-kidding.
–Okay. Now, find out if you have the support of the true leaders of the church.
If you do, and if they are courageous enough to stand with you, you can pull an Obama and fire the rogue general. If they are timid and keep cautioning restraint on your part, your choices are narrowed greatly and you may not be able to pull this off.
You might decide to try to live with the bad situation. After all, it won’t kill you. In fact, one of your options is the last thing in the world you might have thought of…
–You could join that staff-member’s team and become a fan.
Become his biggest cheerleader. Befriend him (to the extent he allows anyone that honor). In doing so, accept that he may be laughing at you behind your back, calling you a wimp for caving in to him. Sometimes religious psychotics respect only those who oppose them and call them the crazies they are.
But joining his team is one of your options. In bringing in new members of your staff, you would inform them in private one-on-one sessions that the Runaway Staffer is the 600-pound elephant in the church office and we’re going to live with him. If they know going in, staffers can usually handle it. What they cannot handle is learning about him the hard way and coming to the conclusion that you have wimped out.
–In one-on-one sessions with the runaway staffer, speak plainly, listen carefully, stay focused on the work of the Lord and the welfare of this church, and keep detailed notes.
The day may come when you have to pull those notes out and defend yourself. If you have taken the time immediately after your meetings with him–every meeting, no matter how casual!–to type up notes of the conversation and to date them, you will be able to respond to the false reports he passes along to his lackies and they to the congregation.
–In case you haven’t decided by now, this is a great reason not to pastor a mega church.
Clearly, it’s the larger churches with huge ministerial teams that are more likely to have the runaway generals on their staff.
These guys–they’re almost always men–have been there for years and have built their own organization complete with secret police. They are the Nazis of the 1930s and the rest of the church the acquiescent Allies blithely wanting only to destroy all weapons and be left in peace. (That’s a terrible metaphor, until you find yourself in that situation.)
Smaller churches will sometimes have their own version of Reverend McChrystal. These will tend to be laypeople not ministers. They think they are impervious to being fired since they do not take a salary. But if the individual is a law unto himself, gives only lip service to the rest of the church program, criticizes you the pastor behind your back, and trains his workers to believe that his program is the only thing that matters–he is your problem and he must be dealt with.
–Get good counsel from professionals before attempting to negotiate this hazardous course.
Your state denominational office will have at least one or two sharp ministers with vast experience which you can draw from. You may have a pastor friend from a previous city or a professor from your seminary whose wisdom you respect and whose counsel you need.
Don’t try this alone. “In a multitude of counselors there is safety,” said the Proverb preacher (Proverbs 11:14).
An acquaintance of many years was visiting with his latest wife. Never without a negative opinion on everything from politics to pastoring, he told me the name of the church he was presently attending. The pastor was a good man whom I had known slightly over the years. He said, “The church is dead, the sermons uninspired and the invitations fruitless.”
I said to him, “The pastor is discouraged. Why not help him?”
It was a new thought to him.
One resource that might not occur to you is a former pastor of your church who worked well with the rogue staffer. Call him and ask if you can take him to lunch. It’s worth a day or two of your time in case you have to drive or fly. Request that this be kept in confidence, then ask for his history with the staff member. After hearing him, you will know whether to tell him what’s going on and ask for his counsel on how to work with the little Napoleon.
You may hear a side of the general you never knew. There’s always the possibility that the guy is redeemable and a potential asset to the church.
Whether you do what the friend says or not is your call. But it’s worth hearing him out.
–If and when the time comes to fire the man, just do it.
Make sure the leaders who count most are standing with you.
Then, take a lesson from Presidents Truman and Obama: do the deed, don’t apologize to the subject, do not take the blame for yourself, don’t beat around the bush, don’t wimp out, and get ready to take the heat. Make the termination effective immediately or sooner since this guy is able to do you a lot of damage.
Every staff member, no matter how ineffectual, will have supporters in the church. When you have to terminate a minister, assume some will be unhappy. Decide in advance you are going to love them (as much as they will let you) and keep telling yourself you will get beyond this.
I fired a staffer once whose job I had safeguarded a year longer than the church leadership advised. They had told me before I came to that church that he was lazy and ineffective. I innocently said, “I can work with anyone. Let me try working with him for a year.”
When I terminated him, he was unable to comprehend what I was telling him. This could not be happening. So, that evening, the members of the personnel committee gathered in my office for a session with this unhappy man. One by one, each voiced his/her own reasons for the termination. They even told him that I was the reason he had had employment the last twelve months.
Even then, he left the church angry at me, certain that I had sand-bagged him and done him wrong.
When I told my wife, she said, “Joe, get real. You want to fire a guy and have him like it.” She was right.
In time, years later, that man and I became friends again, although from a distance. He’s in heaven now, and the memory still pains me.
Terminating someone is no fun.
As the new pastor of one church, I had a conference with the staffer in charge of worship music. This good man did not lead worship at Wednesday night’s prayer meetings, but left that in charge of a diminutive senior adult woman who was awful. Her inept leadership was destroying the spirit in the service. I asked why we had to put up with that.
“Pastor, she’s been such a trooper through the years. Everyone loves her. And frankly, she loves doing this and it would hurt her to give it up.”
I said, “It’s hurting the rest of us for her to keep doing it. And the welfare of the whole group is more important than the wishes of one. I want you to deal with this. You are our minister of music. You will lead the music at each service. This is not debatable.”
He did. She took it fine, and all was well.
Sometimes it works out well. Let’s hope it will for you.