Questions small churches must ask - 3

Today is the third installment of a series of posts on questions small churches need to ask and answer if they want to continue to minister in the future. The question for today is "Where will we get our future pastors?" This question is primarily directed to congregation led churches that seek their own pastoral leadership.

For several years smaller churches have struggled to find quality pastors to lead their churches. Numerous studies have found that many seminary graduates refuse to serve in a smaller church. This is true for a variety of reasons for which we do not have space to address in a blog post, but it is not likely to improve any time soon.

In the past many of the smaller churches in the area in which I live depended on seminary students to serve as pastors. In many cases this allowed them to have a pastor for 2-3 years before the student graduated and went on to a larger church. These student pastors are often unwilling to serve in these churches now as the seminary is not supportive of churches outside its denomination.

Other small churches were able to attract a fully-funded pastor by providing a parsonage along with a minimal salary. They are now finding that many pastors prefer a parsonage allowance and would prefer to not live in a parsonage. As these churches have grown smaller they are not able to provide even a minimal salary to support a pastor and his or her family.

Increasingly, these churches are looking for bivocational leadership even though some are very resistant to the idea. I have a friend who is nearing retirement from a small church where he has served as a fully-funded pastor. The church has declined to the point where their next pastor will need to be bivocational. He said they are not happy about it, but it is the only option they have.

I've written numerous books and articles about bivocational ministry and believe it is a biblical model for many churches. However, few people are going to move from California to serve a bivocational church in West Virginia. This means that the majority of bivocational ministers are going to reside geographically near the church. Although I have no data to support this, I imagine most churches that call a bivocational minister will find that person living within 20 miles of the church.

Something I've advocated to churches seeking bivocational leadership is to look within their own congregation for their next pastor. I've seen this done in several instances and it worked out very well. (I've also seen it not work so well.) Some might object that no one in their church has the theological training to serve as a pastor, but this can be overcome. If a person senses a call to serve in this way, he or she can always receive practical and theological training while serving the church. That's what I did, and countless others have done so as well.

Smaller churches need to realize the new normal as we continue into the 21st century is that they are not likely to find a seminary trained pastor the next time they seek new pastoral leadership. They need to begin now praying and talking about what they will do when the time comes to seek a new pastor. It's a question they will face at some time in the future.