Since 2001 I have served as a judicatory minister. Yesterday we had our usual monthly staff meeting, but there was nothing usual about it. For two of our staff it was their last meeting. Both are retiring at the end of this month. A significant portion of our meeting time was spent sharing our appreciation with these two wonderful servants of God. Unfortunately, this is not the first time we've had such meetings. When I came on staff we had eleven ministers serving as executive staff; after these two retire we will be down to four plus one interim. For the past several years, as people have retired they have not been replaced simply because we've not had the money to do so.
This problem is not limited to our judicatory or our denomination. It is common among many judicatories in the United States. Some denominationas have combined two or more of their judicatories. Some follow the practice we've followed and do not replace those who retire or resign. I know some who have been forced to let some of their staff go. As churches continue to reduce their giving to their denominations and judicatories we are likely to see this reduction in staff continue.
What will happen as staff continues to decrease? The obvious answer is that the work load will be spread out to those who remain, but eventually even the most dedicated of servants will reach a point where they simply can't accept any more responsibility. At that point tough decisions will have to be made about what the judicatory can continue to offer its churches and what ministries will have to be allowed to die. The "do-not" list will become more important than the "to-do" list. Even more important will be for the judicatory to have a clear vision of its purpose and reason for existence because that vision will determine what items goes on which list. Perhaps more important yet will be the need to clearly communicating the vision and the two lists to the churches they support.
In my opinion, judicatories exist to provide the resources their churches need to fulfill their God-given visions for ministry. Judicatory leaders are no longer a "pastor to the pastors" as so many of us were trained to believe. We are resource ministers charged with the responsibility to provide whatever resources the churches and pastors need. Different polities may identify different resources and services they will provide their churches, but most will agree that they exist to made resources available to their churches.
One thing is certain: judicatories will have to find new ways of doing what they are doing. Few now have the personnel and financial resources to do everything they have done in the past. It will be impossible for declining numbers of judicatory leaders to attend every meeting they have attended in the past or to participate in every special occasion in the life of their churches. Each will have to decide what is the most important activities in which to invest.
Another thing that is certain is that non-supporting churches will find they receive less and less assistance from their judicatory. Some might complain that is unfair, but what is unfair is that supporting churches are subsidizing the non-supporting churches, and in many cases the non-supporting churches demand the most assistance from their judicatories. We'll talk more about this in tomorrow's post.
Having been in this role now for twelve years I can say that judicatories have much to offer their churches. We assist in pastoral placement, provide training, help with leadership identification and equipping, assist with conflict situations, provide mission opportunities, serve as a conduit between the denomination and local churches, and offer just about any resource the churches need to fulfill their ministries. And, yes, we still minister to our clergy and their families when they need a pastor. As a bivocational pastor in our judicatory for twenty years I benefitted greatly from our judicatory, and I am convinced that you and your church will as well if you will take advantage of the many resources your judicatory offers.
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