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Sociologists who have studied the viability of groups suggest that, when the number of active congregational members who have lost confidence in their pastor goes beyond twenty-five percent, the critical point has been reached.  If conscious efforts do not retrieve a lost confidence, it is wiser for the sake of the viability of the group, to give someone else the opportunity to heal the breach.  Once the group is split 50-50, or near this percentage, the danger of power struggles is exceedingly great.  Therefore the pastor should be ready for the sake of the group to consider himself expendable long before things deteriorate to this point (Oscar H. Heinboth, Calls and Vacancies (St. Louis:  Concordia, 1967), 21).

Before You Move, John R. Cionca, page 67