Churches are supposed to be places of friendship. The Apostle Paul wrote that God changed us from enemies into his friends and gave us the task of making others his friends also (2 Corinthians 5:18 GNB). And yet the church is frequently a battleground that produces casualties instead of friends.
The world has always been a place of power politics where nations use threats, sanctions, covert operations, and even warfare to achieve goals. Sometimes people use such approaches in churches too, and ministers are a growing casualty.
The Abilene Reporter-News says that sixteen hundred Protestant ministers are terminated or forced to resign each month in the United States. The average church permits two months of continued residence in their parsonage and provides 2.5 months of severance pay. There are no unemployment benefits for ministers.
Terminated ministers often feel betrayed, angry, and helpless. Nearly half cannot bear to continue the work of professional ministry. However, a group of pastors who survived formed the Ministering to Ministers Foundation (MTM) in 1994. The ministry operates today with professional staff and a board composed of clergy, mental health professionals, attorneys, and business people.
MTM offers spiritual, emotional, physical, social, financial, or legal assistance to ministers and their families – 600 in 2009. MTM conducts intensive Healthy Transitions Wellness Retreats – seven with 77 participants from 10 different denominations in 2009. Visit the MTM Foundation website at www.mtmfoundation.org to learn more about the friendship MTM offers to ministers and their families.
MTM is an example of God at work in the world; transforming injustice and heartbreak into friendship and community.
www.mtmgeorgia.org published a version of this post previously.
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