Homegrown leadership

One of my responsibilities as a judicatory leader in our region is to assist the churches in my Area when they seek new pastoral leadership.  Our denomination has a procedure that we follow, and it is one that has worked for many years.  However, it does not work so well when we are seeking pastors for our smaller churches, especially if these pastors will be bivocational.  When I work with churches seeking such pastors I tell them to expect a longer process because these folks are often hard to find.  Someone may be willing to move across the country to pastor a church of 350 people, but not too many are willing to travel across state lines to pastor a church of 50 people, especially if they are going to have to find other employment to make ends meet.  I'm not saying that's right; it's just the way it is.

As difficult as it is to find pastoral leadership for these smaller churches, it is even tougher to find staff persons.  Many of our churches want to find someone to lead their youth ministry or some other specialized ministry in the church.  Many are willing to pay a small salary, but in most cases it is very small.  I frequently receive phone calls from these churches asking where they can find someone willing to serve in that capacity.  Most of the time I refer them to seminaries, Bible schools, and colleges in the hope that they will find a student seeking such ministry while they earn their degree.

The other thing I often tell these churches, whether they are seeking a pastor or staff person, is the best thing they can do is to grow their own leaders.  The fact is that it is not easy to find bivocational leadership.  Yes, there are some people out there who want to pastor a church, but some of these people are downright scary in their theology and their practices.  I have seen incredible damage done to small churches by such people in a very short period of time.  The safest place to find new leadership is among the membership of the church whenever possible.

One of my churches is currently being served by an individual who had served as a deacon in that church for many years.  The church was having difficultly finding a new pastor, and after a few months of searching this individual asked to meet with me.  He admitted he had been feeling that God was leading him to accept the pastorate of the church if they wanted him to.  He wanted to know my opinion.  I responded that he would be an excellent choice.  He would come in with instant credibility with the congregation.  He had obviously bought into the ministry philosophy of the church, he knew most of the people in that small community, and he was well liked by most of them.  He did become their pastor and has done a great job of leading the church.  He recently completed training offered through our Region to church leaders who do not have a seminary education.

Could just anyone make this step to pastoral leadership?  No, but there are those who can.  They have the spiritual maturity, a sound theology, and the willingness to work hard to lead their church.  We need to begin to challenge those who have these characteristics to consider that God may be calling them to lead a small church.

We cannot call anyone to pastoral ministry.  That calling can only come from God.  But, most of us who are currently in ministry were probably challenged by someone to prayerfully consider if God might be calling us to that role.  All I'm saying is that we need to do the same thing with some of the better leaders in our smaller churches.  It may be that God has raised up the next pastor or staff person for your small church from within the congregation.