Yesterday, a friend of mine gave me tour of a church where he’s an interim worship pastor for a couple months. On the surface, I would have thought he’d be out of his mind not to take the job full-time. 700,000 square foot facilities with state of the art everything. The student room alone was light years beyond some of the more advanced churches. I tripped over my jaw around every corner. 

But it wasn’t the resources, the spaces, or the equipment that continually pulled my eye balls out of my head. It was realizing all the amazing potential was going to waste under leadership that isn’t willing to trade pride and arrogance for healthy pastoral practices. 

We’ve all had that job where someone we worked for or with just didn’t get it. And no matter how hard we tried to help them see holes they were drilling in the boat, it only made matters worse. But what do you do?What can you do? Is it even worth trying to help when you know nothing is going to change?

The thought kept running through my mind, “I could help these people out. I can help them see the light.” Then I started meeting the staff – who at one time or another all said the same thing and now was either on their way out or trying to find a way out – literally working on their resumés in their office. Some even cracked jokes about not sticking around too long or the misery might become contagious.

It was the saddest thing I’ve ever seen.

How does it get to that point? How does the church environment become the absolute worst place in the world to work? You would think it would be the opposite no matter how bad it got because you understand – you are called to – and eternal mission. 

I asked why anybody was still working there. Why put yourself through the stress and torment. Then it hit me. In this economy and with the amount of money this particular church was willing to pay for more staff than they need, it is better to have a bad job then no job at all. 

What would you do?