I know the title sounds incendiary. But hear me out. For many of us, “church work” slowly became running a religious event company: content calendars, weekend experiences, seasonal campaigns, attendance dashboards, and the endless scramble to keep everyone “engaged.” Meanwhile, the people right in front of us—neighbors, students, coworkers, the barista who finally asked for prayer—were waiting for ministry, not management.
After more than three decades on church staff, I stepped out. And to my surprise (and grief), I’ve had more one-on-one gospel conversations, led more people to Christ, and witnessed more tangible kingdom fruit outside the payroll than many years inside it. That shouldn’t be normal. Something in our model is off.
How We Drifted: From Equipping to Entertaining
The New Testament picture is unambiguous: pastors and leaders exist “to equip the saints for the work of ministry” (Eph. 4:11–12). When the people become the ministers, the church becomes a multiplying movement. But we drifted into a vendor-and-consumer arrangement. Pastors produce; people attend.
Dallas Willard asked the question that still stings: “Is my first aim to make disciples? Or do I just run an operation?” His warning about the “great omission” of discipleship continues to haunt the church.
Eugene Peterson saw the vocational shift up close: “The pastors of America have metamorphosed into a company of shopkeepers….” His call was not to bigger shops but to the unglamorous essentials of prayer, Scripture, and spiritual direction.
The Crisis of Leadership: Gifts Over Character
There is a deeper wound here. The church has increasingly elevated men to senior pastor roles who are poorly equipped to shepherd and love the sheep. Instead, we clap for gifts and ignore character. I have seen it firsthand—very recently, in fact, a pastor was elevated though clearly disqualified by New Testament standards (1 Tim. 3; Titus 1). In too many modern churches, the view behind the scenes is not only alarming, but looks very much like heresy. Best thing to do is run…fast!
But this is not new. John Stott once wrote that the true measure of leadership is not dazzling ability but humble servanthood shaped by the cross. And Peterson warned that when charisma outruns character, “we risk using the gospel to prop up our own egos.”
The consequences are devastating: churches fracture, discipleship thins, and the name of Christ is dishonored. If our scorecard values platform presence more than pastoral presence, we have lost our way.
The Cost of the Wrong Scorecard
When the scorecard prioritizes butts, budgets, and buildings, we inevitably trade depth for breadth. Research bears this out. Barna and related worldview inventories have long shown how thin discipleship outcomes are in the U.S.; shockingly few churchgoers demonstrate a functioning biblical worldview in daily life.
At the same time, pastors are stretched in unsustainable ways. Recent studies from Lifeway highlight the isolating demands of ministry, with many former pastors citing time pressures, conflict, and burnout as key factors in exiting. Even among those who remain, a sizable share report family strain and isolation.
“Quit the Job”—Keep the Calling
So what does it mean to “quit your church job and go into ministry”?
It’s a call to reject a job-shaped version of ministry that crowds out discipleship & affirms self-centered leaders. For some, that will literally mean stepping off staff to re-enter the neighborhood as a missionary disguised as a teacher, contractor, nurse, designer, or retiree. For others, it means staying on staff but resigning from the event-factory mentality and reorganizing your vocation around equipping God’s people for the works they are called to do (Eph. 4:12).
My own story is simple: outside the staff machine, conversations multiplied. Dinners around tables became sacred spaces. Prayers on porches turned into baptisms. Mentoring students led to repentance and healing. It felt like Acts—not because it was flashy, but because it was close.
A Better Scorecard for Churches (and Ex-Staffers)
From Attendance to Apprenticeship
How many believers are apprenticing themselves to Jesus—learning to obey all He commanded (Matt. 28:18–20)?From Events to Environments
Create small, reproducible environments—tables, triads, living rooms—where Scripture is opened, sin is confessed, prayer is offered, gifts are discerned, and mission is planned together.From Pastors as Producers to Pastors as Poimen (Shepherds)
Reclaim Peterson’s “angles”: guard time for prayer, Scripture, and spiritual direction. Cancel some content to make space for actual care.From Programs to Pathways
Replace activity menus with clear formation pathways: belong → believe → become → bless.From Platform to People
Stott reminds us that preaching aims at obedience. Put just as much creative energy into the church’s everyday obedience—houses, schools, workplaces—as you do into the weekend service.
The Call
This is not an anti-church rant. I love Christ’s church. It is a plea to return to the church’s biblical identity and the pastor’s biblical vocation. Quit the metrics that keep you from ministry. Quit the event cycle that bloats the calendar and starves the soul. Quit clapping for gifts while ignoring character. Re-enter ministry—wherever God sends you—as a disciple who makes disciples.
What would happen if a generation of leaders moved from producing religious goods to equipping God’s people as everyday missionaries? I think we’d rediscover the joy of ministry—and the world might rediscover the church.
