Ministry is a High-Risk Job
It means putting lots of eggs in one basket
Sometime in 2023, I came across someone mentioning that Christian church ministry is what they called a “high risk” job. That is, when you take a full-time ministry job in a local church, you are putting all or most your eggs in one basket. And if you have to leave that job for any reason, you stand to lose a lot. Having this named for me gave me clarity in some of the difficulties I’d navigated, so I want to pass this idea on to you.
What does this look like specifically? Well, it’s especially true when someone moves in order to take a job at a church. You uproot your life and move to a new city, where often the only people you know are the ones you met in the interview process. The church becomes your workplace and source of income, your place of worship and source of spiritual growth, and your primary source for relationships and support (outside of whatever you may have from immediate family). So if it turns out to not be a good fit for any of those categories, you’re in a hard situation.
Maybe you love the job and your coworkers, for example, but you end up realizing that the church, for any number of reasons, isn’t all that you hoped it would be for relational support, pastoral care, and spiritual growth. Sometimes there’s something you can do about that kind of a challenge, and sometimes there’s not. You could get caught in a situation where another church across town might actually be a healthier place for you personally, but because of your professional commitment, you can’t make that change.
Maybe the job doesn’t work out in some way — or worse, you get fired. In this case, you (usually) lose all of those things (workplace, spiritual support, and community) in one swoop and face a situation where you will likely need to uproot again in order to find another job in the same ministry field… and put your eggs in a new and equally vulnerable basket.
And the moment that the job doesn’t work out, it creates an awful scenario: your life is filled with grief, loss, conflict, and possibly shock, and you probably can’t be open with your own brothers and sisters in Christ in your local church about it. In really bad situations, you and/or the church members may even be instructed not to talk with each other about it, with threat of repercussions if you do.
Sometimes the loss happens because the church or job ends up not being a good fit, or the church is full of issues and conflict and becomes an unhealthy place to continue to work in. I’ve heard youth workers in agonizing situations, weighing whether they were called to stick it out or move on. Either choice leads to great personal costs.
For women in youth ministry, I’ve also seen churches which were once supportive environments for them become less supportive. A new supervisor was hard to work with, or a new lead pastor was less supportive of women in ministry in general, and there was no path of recourse or others who offered support. This can add to the level of risk for women. At some point in my youth ministry career, I learned that staff changes could vastly affect how I experienced my work environment, and I became much more alert for signs of possible changes. Living constantly on alert like that can take a toll — another personal cost.
When I see these situations, and watch others I know leave hard situations by choice or force, I lament. If you’ve gone through a difficult situation like this, I’m so sorry.
Seeing and/or experiencing enough of these situations leads some to conclude that the risk is too high for them. They find there are other ways they can live out their sense of calling to ministry, without having to take on such high risk. For others, they continue to have a strong sense of calling to vocation within a local church, and they continue to be vulnerable to these risks and pay the personal costs that often accompany them. God’s calls for each of us will look different, so I’m not saying one better than the other - just that both paths can be difficult.
Even when a church job doesn’t end poorly, the high risk is still there. Say you love the church and the job, but you also feel called to move into a different role at a new church. Because of the nature of church work, taking a new job means you will be giving up not only a workplace and working relationships, but also your church family and relationships. You’ll also likely be moving to a new city. When one basket holds so many eggs, giving up that basket leads to a lot of loss.
It has helped me to be able to name these costs. But I think we can also do more. I long for ways that we can improve situations for local church workers. Off the top of my head, I’d suggest at least these three things:
Church workers, get connected to networks and build relationships that can be an outside source of support and pastoral care outside of your church.
Church staff who supervise others, make sure your direct reports have the support they need outside of the church.
Churches seeking to hire and candidates seeking jobs, you both would do well to rethink your hiring and searching processes. It’s not easy to accurately assess in a normal interview process whether any church/job is worth putting all these eggs into. It’s kindness to all involved if we can do better.