Senior or solo pastors and staff ministers need a BAMP. This stands for a Best Alternative Ministry Placement. It means if the current conflict situation does not work out, what is the best alternative ministry placement for each minister to continue in Christian ministry service? The goal of having a BAMP is to empower senior or solo pastors and staff ministers to engage conflict creatively and without reckless actions that could permanently damage their personhood and ministerial career. This can happen when they do not feel cornered or trapped, and know what they would do if they need to jettison from the current ministry situation. A BAMP can keep pastors and staff ministers from escalating conflict to an unhealthy intensity.
Conflict can be like trying to herd an alley cat. It a cat feels trapped in an alley with no apparent alternative, it will fight in violent and nasty ways. It is also likely to get hurt or killed. If, however, it has an alternative or an escape, it will remain in the fight and engage other cats differently. It can stand its ground without feeling the need to attack. It can retreat if it looks like a resolution to the potential fight cannot be reached.
Without an adequate BAMP senior and solo pastors and staff ministers may unnecessarily escalate conflict as they quickly become defensive when they feel attacked or weakened by conflict that begins to focus on who they are and what they do. When ministers feel trapped or like they have no alternative they use their worse patterns of behavior rather than their best. At times that can assume the issues being presented are about them when actually they are not. If they act like the manner or content of issues is an attack on them, then they both escalate the conflict and become a core issue themselves.
If pastors and staff ministers have their BAMP thought through and worked out, they can remain engaged in conflict situations longer and with a healthier sense of accomplishment. They can remain healthier spiritually, emotionally, and physically. They can avoid escalating conflict. They can keep from making themselves the issue.
What might be their BAMP? [1] Moving to another congregation in a same or similar role. [2] Being part of a group that starts a new congregation. [3] Moving to another role in Christian ministry. [4] Becoming bivocational and receiving their primary income from another source. [5] Move into a non-church-related employment. [6] Take early retirement and supplement their income in various ways. The beauty of a BAMP is imagining doing something that brings joy.
Some layperson may raise the question, “Doesn’t that mean they will be less committed to our congregation?” Not necessarily. A clear alternative lowers the stress senior or solo pastors and staff ministers are feeling and increases their ability to lead and manage congregations appropriately during times of great threat and challenge.
[This idea is based on the concept of BATNA—Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement—which I first encountered in a book by Roger Fisher and William Ury, entitled Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, New York” Penguin Press, 1981, pp. 101-111.]
Copyright 2009, Rev. George Bullard, D.Min.
