Longevity Matters

Interacting with fellow clergy here in Blacksburg has been an interesting and valuable experience. One of the things I have learned is that most of the mainline church pastors have been here in Blacksburg for around 10 years. Generally, the longer the pastor has remained the same, the more stability the congregation seems to have - even if the pastor has some strange and heretical views. That helps explain the the lack of stability at this parish - for the longest time there was no abiding pastoral presence here, so the place just slowly unravelled.