One of the roadblocks pastors often encounter when they try a new ministry or suggest a new way of doing something is that the church's constitution doesn't provide for the change. Many pastors have learned the hard way the risk associated with ignoring the church constitution or the greater risk of suggesting the constitution be changed!
A number of pastors have found it is easier to ask the church to modify the constitution for a specific period of time (2-3 years) in order to try some new things in the church. Oftentimes a church is more willing to go through a trial period than to just completely change the constitution. If the new methods do not work within that time frame the church automatically reverts to the old constitution. However, if the changes do produce positive results the church will be more apt to make those changes permanent.
If you have tried without success to encourage your church to take a new look at the constitution and begin to revise it, maybe you could suggest that the changes you want to make be tried for a limited period of time and then evaluated. It might just help your church make some changes that it needs to make.
1 comment:
Hi Dennis,
Thank you so much for the blog, the great article in REV this month (just read it), and your commitment to bivocational ministry. I was a full time staff member of a large church, went to seminary, then decided to be a bivocational pastor. I just see it as a great way to do ministry (my tent is education as a public school teacher). I just wish I had more time to share my experiences.
This constitution question is even more important to my church - we are now chartered in TWO denominations, the Presbyterian Church USA and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It was great fun combining the constitutions and polities of these denominations (I'm ordained in the PCUSA).
Here are some links of interest:
http://tlpc.org (my church, I serve 20 hours a week- it is also ecumenical being part of two denominations)
http://www.pcusatentmakers.org/ (the bivocational umbrella org. for us PCUSA tentmakers)
http://www.pcusa.org/ministers/models/tentmaking.htm (Some great resources here)
http://www.nassam.org/ (secular ministry website of the Episcopal church)
I look forward to sharing conversation in the future!
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