
DATE: Saturday, April 19, 1997              TAG: 9704180064

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Religion 

SOURCE: BY DIANE TENNANT, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   95 lines

A NET TO CATCH PASTORS SHORN BY THEIR FLOCKS NEW PROGRAM OFFERS HELP TO BURNED-OUT MINISTERS

THE ETERNAL flames that punish sin aren't the only things that sear churches.

Pastors get burned, too, through conflicts with the governing board, questions of theology, personal failings, clashes with church members. When the heat gets too high, nearly a quarter of them leave the pulpit for good, according to a study in Your Church magazine.

In the words of one such pastor: ``I loved God, I loved God's word, but I could do without the people of God.''

That pastor, fortunately, met Charles Wickman, former senior pastor of Kempsville Presbyterian Church. Their relationship turned Jim Amandus back to full-time church leadership and Wickman to a new career: starting a national ministry to rescue burned-out pastors and their damaged psyches.

``Some just quietly leave, become insurance salesmen or whatever the case might be,'' said Wickman, who retired earlier this month to start the Pastor-in-Residence Program. ``We're trying to put into effect, around the country, nets into which pastors can fall when they are forced to resign.''

Nine local churches have agreed to provide the first net here, and two more are interested. Churches in Austin, Texas, and Phoenix, Ariz., also are trying to organize nets for their communities.

The Pastor-in-Residence program takes ministers who have been forced to resign and pairs them with host churches so they can continue as assistants while they receive counseling and support and decide whether to return to active ministry.

The unusual part of the arrangement is that it costs the host church nothing. The pastor who will be in residence gives the host church a list of persons who are interested in him and his family. Both pastor and church write to the people on the list, asking for donations, and the resulting funds are placed in a church-operated account.

Every person on the Pastor-in-Residence staff is self-supporting; the organization pays no salaries. Even Wickman sends out fund-raising appeals to his friends and associates to raise his living expenses.

The troubles that plague pastors are the same as those that bedevil the lay world: too much overtime, in-house politics, low pay.

``In ministry, as in a lot of things, there's the variety of role expectations,'' Wickman said. ``He's expected to be a little bit God and human, too. He's expected to work 90 hours a week. He's expected to be as contemporary as a 30-year-old and as mature as a 60-year-old. Nobody can be everything.''

Somehow, though, pastors are expected to be above all that by virtue of their higher calling. But 40 percent of pastors have a major conflict with a church member once a month, according to the Fuller Theological Seminary in California. Wickman's own doctoral research showed that the main reason pastors leave the pulpit is because of conflict in the church over how they carry out their ministry.

``He (the pastor) started out thinking he ought to be this self-sacrificing servant of everybody,'' Wickman said. ``And after awhile he wonders why he's driving an old car and can't feed his kids and financially he needs to do better.''

Wickman's interest in burned-out pastors dates back at least 10 years. His doctoral research examined why pastors leave the church, which led to his helping several pastors, including Amandus, through their personal trials and back into ministry.

Amandus overcame anger and resentment arising from a dispute with church elders over including a divorced man in the church's singles ministry, a clash that led to his resignation. He now leads a church in the state of Washington, and is on the Pastor-in-Residence board of directors.

Working with Joseph Umidi, a professor at Regent University's School of Divinity, and with Calvin Frett, a former pastor-in-residence at Kempsville Presbyterian, Wickman developed a formal program and began forming the first net.

``Not only does a guy need an affirming environment, not only does a guy need some kind of re-tooling experience, but he also needs a place to stand and a jump-start back into ministry,'' Wickman said.

Even without a formal program in place, Wickman has fielded calls from displaced pastors around the country.

``It's a real need and I hope we are able to address it some way,'' he said. ``We're not selling anything. We just want to offer service in some way.'' MEMO: For more information, call (757) 495-7889. ILLUSTRATION: MICHAEL HALL

The Virginian-Pilot

AREA CHURCHES PARTICIPATING IN THE PASTOR-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM:

Bayview Baptist, Norfolk

Western Branch Community, Chesapeake

Glad Tidings, Norfolk

Willowwood Presbyterian, Norfolk??

First Baptist of Norfolk

Norfolk Garden Baptist, Norfolk

Grace Bible, Virginia Beach??

Liberty New Testament, Portsmouth

Kempsville Presbyterian, Virginia Beach