What is Severance For?
Each classis needs to determine what is reasonable and acceptable in any situation. We think it’s most helpful to think of severance as a means of 1). Creating space for healing and discernment, 2). Providing temporary income 3). Fulfilling legal employment requirements. We think it’s less helpful to think of severance as a means of 1). Meting out justice or 2). Honoring time served.
Determining Severance: Guidance for Classis
When a pastor and church separate according to Church Order Article 17, the classis is asked to approve a compensation (severance) package. Church Order mandates a minimum of 13 weeks of salary and benefits. Henry DeMoor, in his Church Order Commentary, concedes that this question is a matter of “common law” that each classis needs to weigh according to what they determine is “reasonable and acceptable” in any given situation. We offer the following additional guidance for churches and classes considering appropriate severance, indicating some ways of thinking about severance that are less helpful and some that are more helpful.
Less Helpful Ways of Thinking about Severance
- Severance as a Means of Meting Out Justice
Some may intuitively think of severance as a means of meting out justice. The assumption might be that the threat of a larger or smaller severance can be an incentive for churches and pastors to work out their differences. Thus, churches who act with integrity, compassion and due diligence toward their pastor may expect to pay less severance than churches who act with malice or disregard for the well-being of their pastor. Similarly, pastors who leave solely on their own initiative, contrary to the desires and actions of the council, expect less or no severance.
Using severance in this way, though intuitively appealing, may not be especially helpful. After all, it’s quite hard to sit in judgment upon an entire tenure of ministry, let alone translate that judgment into a dollar figure. The complex network of relationships and decisions that led to this separation moment can be unclear even to those most directly impacted. Furthermore, while treating severance as a mechanism for justice may incentivise due diligence, it could also incentivise pastors or churches to unhelpfully catalogue one another’s shortcomings to present as evidence against the other party to classis.
Generally speaking, diligent church visitors and well-conceived oversight committees are much more nuanced and skillful instruments than a severance package to address bad behavior in ways that might actually lead to repentance, change and restoration. - Severance Honors Time Invested
In his commentary on the Church Order, Henry DeMoor notes that a common “rule of thumb” for an Article 17 severance package is that pastors receive one month of continued salary and benefits for each year served in that congregation. Though this formula has the virtue of simplicity and honoring significant investment of time, it is a rather blunt instrument as a guide.
We observe that a pastor who has stayed at a church for a long time may actually be in a more secure financial situation than a pastor who has only arrived recently. If a mortgage has been paid off and paychecks have been steady for many years, the long-tenured pastor may actually be more able to weather the financial disruption of an Article 17 than the pastor who just received a call after years of expensive education, who recently moved their family and who is now upside-down on the mortgage of their recently-purchased home.
Additionally, a church following this formula for a pastor who has served a long tenure may find they are so financially restricted by their severance payments that they are unable to move forward in ministry by hiring a Specialized Transitional Minister or calling another pastor.
More Helpful Ways of Thinking about Severance
- Severance Creates Space for Healing and Discernment
Pastors are not merely employees of a church. They are also office bearers in a denomination. Not merely hired, they are called to their work and ordained, a process that required the affirmation of not just the church, but also synod and classis. The church, backed up by the classis (by means of ordination exams and a signed letter of call) and Synod (by means of candidacy and ordination exams) made weighty promises to the pastor in his or her ordination. All along the way, the pastor’s call was recognized as “a call from God affirmed by the church.” The entire denomination, then, has an interest in their pastors finding healing from the separation and having sufficient space to discern their next call.
Space for Healing
Article 17 separations can be significant sources of grief and, sometimes, trauma for pastors and, when applicable, their families. Severance provides financial security to allow the pastor some time and space to heal, an important part of blessing both the pastor and whatever churches they might serve in the future.
Space for Discernment
Pastors who separate from their church may suddenly find themselves without a paycheck, without their church community, and sometimes without a home. In such situations, pastors may be quite anxious to “just get a call, any call, to any church” without exercising sufficient discernment about whether they are ready to take a call or whether that calling church is truly the place to which God is calling them. Additionally, it may be that God is no longer calling the pastor to ordained ministry. In that case, too, time is required for the pastor to recognize God’s voice of release in the midst of possible anxiety and grief. - Severance Provides Income for Financial Stability
Given that the healing process and calling process both take a long time, we encourage pastors to think of their severance as income meant to sustain enough financial stability to allow the pastor time to discern their next call less anxiously. A severance package, by itself, may not sustain a pastor financially the entire time he or she is without a call.
Some pastors have waited three, four or more years for their next call. Some never receive another call.
For reasons both personal and financial, pastors have found it helpful (and rewarding) to pursue non-ministerial work for a period of time while they also seek healing and discern God’s next call on their life.
We encourage classis not to include provisions which reduce severance payments in the event the pastor finds semi-permanent non-ministerial work. - Severance Fulfills Legal Requirements
In some jurisdictions, pastors do not have access to government-backed unemployment insurance. A severance package, then, may act as a replacement or supplement for that insurance.
In some jurisdictions, there are specific rules governing the minimum size of a severance.
Your church and classis should consult a lawyer to ensure that your severance package complies with any applicable laws.
No Severance if Pastor Requested Separation?
Article 17 is the Church Order’s prescribed mechanism for ending a pastor’s call to a specific church without ending the pastor’s call to ordained ministry. This means that Article 17 is not just the provision for resolving what were formerly called “intolerable situations” but also the provision for those pastors leaving to study for a PhD, moving to accommodate a spouse’s professional calling or stepping back to care for an aging parent (just to name a few real-world examples).
If the pastor chooses to initiate a release for personal reasons, such as the desire to pursue further education or to accommodate the career of a spouse, should the pastor still receive severance?
In general, if a pastor requests an Article 17 for personal reasons, a full severance is less likely to be required (see Acts of Synod 2010, p. 916), but some severance may still be wise and gracious, as a means of providing a pastor space to discern and heal during a season of transition.
Looks Can Be Deceiving
Additionally, just because a pastor is the one formally requesting a 17, and just because the publicly-stated reasons for the request are personal, does not automatically mean no severance is warranted.
For example, a church might make life so miserable for their pastor, by the church’s action or inaction, that the pastor finally “gets the hint” and requests to leave. The publicly stated reason for the pastor’s request may be “to accommodate my spouse’s professional calling” but that publicly stated reason may be incomplete. The kind of space for healing and discernment that a severance makes possible would still be important for this pastor.
Likewise, a church may have begun pursuing a vision of ministry increasingly in conflict with the pastor’s vision. Rather than resist those changes, the pastor may decide it’s best to leave. Officially, the pastor’s reason to leave may be to pursue an advanced degree. But again, given the events leading up to the separation, the pastor and denomination will benefit if that pastor has space for some healing and discernment.
Classis is Essential
Since looks can be deceiving, we recommend that classis always follow all procedures prescribed in the Church Order for all Article 17 requests. The presenting issue is not always the real or most relevant issue. That’s why the role of church visitors is so important in every Article 17 case.