How long should a pastor stay?

Response about last issue's pastoral tenure discussion, from Best Practices readers:

I stayed in my first district two years, second 3 years, and third 13+ years. There is no question the longer we stay the more effective we can be in reaching our communities and building up the church. The key to staying long, is reinventing ourselves with new ideas that create energy in the church.
 - Dave Livermore

No question: the longer the pastorate, the better the possibility of church growth.  Other factors may impede, such as community attitude, social culture, etc.  I've been in my current district 18 years.  Some of these issues have prevented the growth I'd like to see, but it's been a rewarding experience nevertheless.
 - Doug Rennewanz

I have argued for years that changing pastors in a short period is detrimental to the work. The community wonders what happened and why you are leaving. The church is left to mourn, as losing a pastor can be just like dealing with a death. The economic effect on pastoral families is horrendous. The psychological cost to the children may push them away from church work and even out of the church. (The blessing for me is that my kids are still in the church and one is in the work.) In the Baptist congregations in cities where I have worked the pastors are usually there until they retire or die and all of these churches have experienced phenomenal growth over the years and great stability and wide influence in the communities. We SDA's should take a page from those books.
 - S. Peter Campbell, Sr.

I believe there cannot be a hard and fast rule to tenure. Our church leaders must be constantly tuned to the leading of God. There will be a pastor who comes only for a short time, but he is the right man to break the bonds that hold a congregation so the next pastor can lead them into growth. There will also be times when the church will not work through their issues no matter who the pastor is, so the church will continue to circle the mountain, pastor after pastor, until they either decide to go through or the Lord comes. And there are pastors who have not dealt with their own issues, and stay in a church until they become so uncomfortable we move them. That's why I appreciate the work of those in authority over me.  They need the wisdom God has promised to help me and the churches I will serve to hear God's call, in God's time!
 - Wayne Morrison

I think too often whether a move was good for the local church(es) or the pastors' family at the time either was not taken into consideration, or not taken seriously enough. When a pastor is moved because of a church conflict, the conflict remains unresolved, the church learns that it doesn't have to deal with its issues, and the message to the pastor is s/he is incompetent and must be moved to a new place where hopefully nothing bad will happen. So while I can see wisdom in moving pastors to spread our weaknesses around, on the ground it seems like a lot of these decisions get made with too little thought about whether the move will be good or bad for the local church or the pastor's family. Is this the way it should be? Perhaps we pastors are supposed to be like Abraham, strangers and aliens in this world with no place to call home so we can keep our minds on our heavenly home? I think that if staying longer means pastors get to invest in people, build trust, bring change, and lead a congregation somewhere, then it's a good thing. If staying longer means we all maintain the status quo and go nowhere together, then it's bad - but the length of tenure does not produce that problem, and moving a pastor may just move the problem to the next place.
 - Bruce Blum

Ellen White's comments in Gospel Workers that she had "been shown" carry a lot of weight on this subject. I do wish she would have been more specific as to how many years are too many. 
 - Ray Roth

As we were starting in our first church, the first words of the member who was helping us move in to the parsonage were, "We'll be moving this stuff out in a year." Phil was the seventh pastor in seven years. We stayed about five years. In the second church we stayed over ten years. I feel that building community relationships takes time and there is more productivity and stability with longer stays.
 - Jan White

Every study I have ever seen shows churches grow best when the pastor stays more than 5 years. That first five years is the honeymoon. We divorce pastors way too often. If we gave incentives to pastors like, if you stay five years we give you and your wife a 5-day trip to Hawaii, we as a church would be spending our money far more efficiently. We would force difficult churches to grow up as well as stubborn pastors to seek help.
 - Pete Resz

I am now approaching my 5th year in my current district. I am only now starting to see the growth and spiritual health beginning to start to take shape. I have been through some difficult times here. Some of my difficulties are the result of deeply seated dysfunction at the congregational level which has been allowed to remain without any pastor standing up to those who were leading out in ungodly ways. The churches did not change, and the pastors knew that they would be leaving in 18-24 months on average, so why initiate the stress? The result was a district that did not grow, was anti-conference in attitude, and that had no missional presence. Since I have been here, I have stood up to those leaders. Many have quit leading, others have left. For four years this situation caused me much stress.  However, the last year has shown growth both spiritually, and in numbers.  I believe that much of this can be attributed to the fact that I decided to ride out the storm, though I had chances to move.
 - Mike Lawlor