Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) and Pastor Search

Not long ago, a clergywoman was called as Senior Pastor of a church in the South. Her spouse was also a minister and would be looking for a job as they moved. Meanwhile, another church in a neighboring city had just started searching for a Youth Minister! I reached out to the sibling church thinking it could be a wonderful opportunity to call a top-quality youth pastor who would soon be in their backyard without incurring the costs of relocation and the vacuum of leadership.

Fear of missing out is the feeling of anxiety that something happening somewhere else is more exciting that what is currently experienced.

Their response was trite and curt; they wanted to do a national search by themselves for fear of missing out (FOMO). At the time, I was the denomination’s national search manager acting on their behalf, but to no avail. The church’s search dragged on for over a year before they called a minister whose sights were set on pastoring a congregation (which means the church will probably be searching again in a few years). In fairness, the church’s new Youth Minister is a good pastor. However, I firmly believe the congregation acting with FOMO ironically missed out on disciplining a grade-level of students, ministerial longevity, adolescent expertise, deepening ties with a like-minded church nearby, and stabilizing a new family and two church families. Anxious organizational systems don’t always think critically.

I wish this story were rare, but I’ve seen the same results played out across the United States. Why would a church belabor the already laborious process of calling a qualified, credentialed, and reputable minister close by? Four words: fear of missing out. FOMO is the feeling of anxiety that something happening somewhere else is more exciting that what is currently experienced. While FOMO is often produced by endlessly scrolling through social media posts while viewing highlight reels of friends and celebrities living their best lives #blessed, FOMO is also the chief culprit for pastor search committees stalling the calling of a new leader.

Seven steps to call and keep a minister:

1) pay a thriving wage 2) give a sabbatical 3) provide continuing education 4) hire a coach 5) set boundaries 6) establish a support team 7) empower them

In place of fear, congregations should take joy in missing out, especially when seminaries are training fewer congregational leaders and even fewer specialized ministers like Ministers of Education, Music, Youth, Children, and Missions. With the supply of staff ministers at drought level, churches ought to do everything in their power to call them quickly and keep them happy. By “everything” I mean, pay them a thriving wage with insurance, retirement, and paid leave benefits, give them a sabbatical (1.25 weeks of sabbatical leave for every year of service at negotiated intervals), provide for their continuing education, hire them a professional coach, set healthy boundaries, establish a pastoral support/advocacy team, and empower them to do the ministry to which God called them!

The search team called a minister after a tenuous process, finally opting to shop local rather than thumb through another stack of resumes from freshly minted Masters of Divinity. Instead of wondering, hoping, and praying to get a deal or a steal, they decided to extend the call to a gifted minister in the area. As Saint Jerome wrote in his Fourth Century Commentary on Ephesians, “Never inspect the teeth of a given horse.“ It’s one thing to look a gift horse in the mouth, to find fault in good favor and good intentions; it’s another thing to refuse to consider the gift altogether. Those who won’t listen have to learn.