. There are a number of reasons for this, but the end result is we are facing a leadership crisis in these churches. One of my responsibilities is to assist the churches in my Area in their pastoral search process, and I always have more bivocational churches without pastors than I have persons to recommend. Personally, I see this only getting worse as more churches, including some currently being served by fully-funded pastors, discover they need to become bivocational.As I talk to judicatory and denominational leaders of various denominations I find they face the same situation that I do. The numbers of bivocational churches are growing, they anticipate this growth will continue, and they do not know where the leaders will come from for these churches. However, I do not believe this situation has caught God by surprise! I doubt that He is scratching His head wondering how to solve this problem. In fact, I believe He has been calling men and women to ministry positions to fill these leadership positions, and many of the ones He has been calling are sitting right in the sanctuaries of the churches they are going to serve.
I am convinced that many smaller churches will find their next pastor already in their congregations. These will be people who may have been serving in leadership positions in the church for years, and who never dreamed that God would ever call them to become a pastor. But, they will find that when the church needs their next pastor, they will be the one God taps on the shoulder and says, "It's your time now."
I serve 77 churches in my Area, and in the nine years I've had this position I've seen this happen several times. A long-time deacon came to me a few years ago and said that people in his church was asking him if he would consider becoming their pastor. They had been looking for several months and had not been able to find anyone willing to be called to their church. He wanted to know if I felt he could do the job. I assured him that he could and that he would go there as pastor with a huge advantage over someone new: the people already knew him and trusted him. He did accept that call and has been doing a great job leading that church and continuing to farm. He is now enrolled in our Church Leadership Institute learning additional ministry skills to use as a pastor.
One of my churches saw three of its deacons go out to serve as pastors of small churches in their association. All three are having a great ministry in their respective churches. That church is now being led by a bivocational pastor who formerly served as a deacon in the church I pastored for 20 years. Another church in that same association called their long time association moderator as their pastor a few years ago, and he is providing excellent leadership to that church. This story is being repeated over and over again in small churches.
God has been calling people to these positions. The challenge for those of us currently in ministry is to help these people identify that call
on their lives. We can't call anyone to ministry; that is the work of God, but we can challenge people we believe have the necessary gifts to consider that they may be called. I am in ministry today because I had a pastor who simply asked me if I had ever considered that God might be calling me into the ministry, and I bet you could tell a similar story. Ministry leaders need to be asking that same question to persons we believe God may be preparing for ministry, and then we need to find ways to help them get some preaching and leadership experience. We need to help them find training opportunities so they can fine tune the skills and gifts God has given them. As we intentionally begin to develop home grown leaders within our churches we will find that we have more than enough pastors for our smaller churches.
4 comments:
What are your thoughts on yoking churches?
I think the Methodists have proven yoked churches can work. They are the only denomination in my area that have yoked churches, and the churches that they serve seem pleased with the arrangement. We have recommended this to some of the churches in our judicatory but so far we've not had any takers. Usually, one of the churches we suggest this to is willing but the other one is not, so we've not found two churches who are willing to be yoked.
I think one of the struggles for us is that the church that perceives it is the weaker church is afraid they will be shortchanged in the relationship. There would have to be some intentionality by the pastor to make sure they did not feel like that once the yoked relationship began. Several years ago I was asked if I would take a second church a few miles from the one I was serving. I was agreeable, our church was agreeable, but the other church, a very small church, announced they wanted their own pastor. I believe they were convinced they would be low on my priority list. As a result they went through several more years of changing pastors every 12 months or so until they finally called a local bivocational pastor who has now been with them for several years.
So, I think yoked churches can work and would be a good option for many churches. There would have to be deliberate steps taken by each church and the pastor to ensure that everyone felt they were receiving the ministry and leadership they needed.
What does this say for seminary education? Does it make it irrelevant? Does it need to change?
Should the ABC be less eager to have their pastor's have M.Divs?
Should seminaries offer more "dual degrees" as standards, especially those that might work for bivocational ministry. For instance: should there be more MDIV/MAT programs so that pastors called from another place to a bivocational church is equipped with a teaching degree.
I think you are so right with this, and although the homegrown leader may be a good option in some places, it is a very difficult one in others.
Good questions Friar!
I have sometimes been accused of being anti-education and especially anti-seminary. That's simply not true. If I was I would not be completing my DMin. However, I do think that seminary education is not the only way a minister can prepare for pastoral ministry nor do I believe that the MDiv is the only degree a pastor should consider.
A number of seminaries now offer a variety of Master of Arts in various ministry disciplines, and for many ministers these may be a better option. They typically require about half the hours of an MDiv and tend to be more practical. I often quote one Christian writer and pastor who noted that seminaries typically train persons who want to become ministers how to be research theologians, and when they graduate they are not really equipped to do either. I think some of these other degrees might be more applicable for many pastors, especially bivocational ones, while the MDiv could be a great degree for those considering pursuing a research degree such as the MTh or the Phd.
Dual degrees are slowly growing in popularity, but there are still very few schools offering them. They could be a viable option and could make it easier for bivocational ministers to relocate.
In addition to the formal seminary education, I still think that denominations and judicatories must offer more local training opportunities such as the Church Leadership Institute we have here in our region in Indiana. It certainly cannot go into the depth of a seminary education, but it is far better than offering nothing to our pastors. A growing number of persons will enter bivocational ministry within the next few years who will not be able to pursue a seminary education. We must find ways to provide some training for them, and programs such as this is one alternative.
I don't think the ABC (of which I am a member) should be less eager for their pastors to have an MDiv, but I strongly believe that it should no longer be required for an ABC recognized ordination. I understand why that requirement came into being, but that was a long time ago in a different age. I hate to break this to some of my ABC colleagues, but we have now entered the 21st century, and this is one piece of our polity that long ago lost any validity it might have once enjoyed. Until this is changed our denomination will continue to make our bivocational ministers feel like second class citizens.
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