The interim pastor was an older gentleman, and he was also highly educated, a doctor in fact. His age and experience demanded a different level of respect. He wasn’t someone that I would challenge.
After almost a year of working for the church, I hadn’t experienced any stability whatsoever. I longed for it. I kept thinking that my exhaustion was due to the lack of stability in the office and that the workload would be more manageable when that stability finally came. I had high hopes that this older gentleman would bring those things, if only for a short time.
Before the interim pastor was hired, the church hired an interim youth pastor to handle the youth services and activities. That was also an odd time.
He went to work making many changes in a very short amount of time. He renamed the program, ordered shirts, redecorated the youth building, and made it seem like he would be there permanently. I never understood why he would do all of that in an interim position. It was confusing to the kids for sure. He knew from day one that this position was only to be filled by him until the new pastor was hired, and a full-time youth pastor would be hired after that.
I still had extra work to do while he was there because he didn’t come to the office throughout the week. He was hired by the hour and not required to spend any time in the office. He made quite a bit more than I did. It was frustrating in a lot of ways.
There was one point between the time the pastor left and when the interim pastor and youth pastor were hired: the secretary and I were writing the entire newsletter twice a month. There was a pastor’s section, a youth pastor section, and my section. I became creative in making each section sound different, and she filled in all the other parts. It was a lot of work. But I took it in stride. That was actually one of the easier things; it was just something that took time away from other things I needed to do. The secretary and I worked our tails off, and so did the music minister. I can’t speak for them, but at the time, it just felt like we needed to be doing whatever it took to keep things running until we got a new pastor. We took on so many extra duties that I can’t even name them. Many extra responsibilities were added to our plates. We were all carrying extra weight. This was only temporary; things would normalize soon, we thought. Surely, they would. Do you know what would’ve made it better? It would’ve made us all feel less used if the church had noticed the extra work we were doing and compensated us somehow. It would’ve even made it better if they had just noticed, but they didn’t.
In fact, that year, the church decided not to give any of its employees a raise because, they said, the giving was down since we didn’t have a pastor. The church was far from being financially strapped. In fact, they were paying the good old interim doctor very well. He was rarely in the office. He didn’t help with the day-to-day. He only showed up on Sundays and Wednesdays to preach, and he missed several of those for personal reasons. He didn’t seem very focused on the church, but the one thing he was focused on was money.
Before I go into the things I feel he did so wrong, let me give him a few praises. He was never mean to me, he honestly had very little to do with me and could be condescending when he did, but he wasn’t mean. He gave me excellent reviews on my evaluation; he said I worked hard and did a good job. And even though the church didn’t give raises that year, he talked them into increasing my work hours to 12 hours each week, which made my paycheck a little bigger.
Here are the things he did that made me so very angry…
He charged the church for everything… if he made an appearance at a Sunday school party, he charged for a full day which I can’t remember exactly how much that was. Still, it was more than I made in an entire week, plus he was paid mileage. If he came into the office for an hour and didn’t even speak to us, he charged the church for an entire day plus mileage. If he had lunch with someone from the church, he charged. We began to think he was taking advantage of the system. Still, the final straw for me was when he charged the church to ATTEND the funeral of a very faithful, young church member. He had no part in the funeral whatsoever. He just showed up and left. That funeral attendance cost the church over $300, and it cost the doctor any respect that I ever had for him.
He showed up at the hospital the day this member passed away. I had been there with the family for most of the day and spent my time with the family’s three kids. I hung out with them while the family made some decisions and just tried to be there for them. After the doctors turned off the life support, I walked with the youngest daughter to the room to say goodbye to her dad. The mom requested that I do so. That walk was long and sad. I explained to this young girl that her daddy was in heaven. I held her hand and cried with her. That’s when the interim preacher doctor decided to make himself known.
He hadn’t been there with this family. He hadn’t loved on them, hurt with them, and hadn’t been a pastor to them, yet he decided at that moment that he should help me with my job. He stopped me in the hallway to tell me I shouldn’t take this little girl to her mom, that I shouldn’t be taking her to say goodbye to her daddy. She was too young, he explained; she didn’t need to be here. He had zero idea what had happened that entire day; he didn’t know the family, and he didn’t know the little girl. I was livid, but I kept my cool and just kept walking. That day will remain in my memories for a lot of reasons.
The last “favor” the good doctor did for the church was to recommend a preacher he felt would be a good as the new pastor.
The pastor search committee was almost ready to call someone else when the doctor entered his opinion and candidate. I have a friend who is the friend of the preacher the committee had their eyes on before the good doctor’s recommendation. They were planning to recommend this candidate to the church. Evidently, the committee had made it very clear to this man that he was their first choice. So much so that he had looked at housing possibilities in the town. So, this friend called me one day to tell me he was excited about the pastor we were about to get.
He wouldn’t tell me his name but said it was as good as done. This guy was in his late 50s; he was ready to settle down in the area. He had worked in a church the size of ours and had experience managing a church staff. He would soon be coming in view of a call… he sounded terrific, and I was excited. Stability was in the future. This information was solidified when someone on the committee told me that they were indeed looking at someone in this age range.
That was until the doctor “recommended” that maybe the committee talk to this younger guy in a neighboring state before they decided. This preacher had grown the church he was currently pastoring from just a few people into a congregation of over 100 people in just a few short years. In addition, he was leading that church in a massive building project. He was younger than the other guy, he was full of new ideas, and if this man could bring such growth to the church he was currently pastoring, surely he would be a good fit for Tree Town Baptist. However, this preacher had never managed an entire church staff. He had zero experience in this area. The good doctor promised the committee that his friend was a quick learner and would be able to handle this larger church with an entire staff easily.
He assured them they were close friends. The doctor had known him since he was a child, and he himself had led this good man to Jesus. He would even be willing to mentor him and help him in any area. He highly recommended the committee press pause on the other guy and look into this option before making a recommendation to the church.
How could a pastor search committee not take the sage advice of this good doctor?
They did. The committee took the good old doctor’s advice; they visited this pastor’s church. After doing so, they began to pursue him as pastor of Tree Town.
When the committee voted the last time, the vote was split… half wanted the older guy, half wanted the younger one… the last vote was taken to break the tie. That vote went for the younger guy that the good doctor recommended.
I would meet him for the first time in November of 2017 knowing no details about who I was meeting before walking in the board room. I would learn the information about the committee and their decisions at a later date. It didn’t take me long to realize that this man I was meeting wasn’t the older, more established, qualified man my friend told me about.
I would later discover that the good doctor has terrible taste in pastors and was doing a favor for his friend. Who wouldn’t want to help their friend get a better-paying job? Never doubt that there’s a “good ole boys” club in the SBC. It’s real.
Until next time,
Whitney