This past weekend I had to fulfill my 16 hours of continuing education (CE) required before I can renew my auctioneer's license. Most states, perhaps all, that require a license for auctioneers have some CE requirement. When I owned a heating and air conditioning business we had to have someone with an HVAC license to work in Kentucky. That license also required a certain number of hours of CE before it could be renewed. I've often wondered why we don't require CE for ministers.
There are numerous reasons why CE for many licensed professions are needed. Laws for many professions change, and people need to be brought up to date on those changes. New products and services are developed which people need to know. People need to be reminded of things they may have forgotten. These classes also give people an opportunity to interact and learn from one another. While people may not want to give away their trade secrets, there are always people attending these events that talk about experiences they've had and how those were resolved. It's always better to learn from the mistakes and experiences of others than having to go through them yourself.
The same reasons could be given for requiring ministers to undergo regular continuing education. The laws surrounding churches and ministry do change. One state now requires churches to charge sales tax for charitable events it hosts. This applies to everything from bingo cards people purchase to benefit golf tournaments. I wonder how long it will be before a church in that state gets into trouble because they didn't know the new law.
Ministry has changed over the years since many graduated from seminary. I'm not sure what the half-life is for a seminary education but I doubt that it's very long. However, some ministers are still operating like they were taught in 1975, and they and their churches can't understand why it's not working.
Many pastors operate as lone rangers. Attending a CE event gives the minister an opportunity to interact with other ministers and learn from their stories. Even if the event doesn't provide a lot of helpful information, that interaction probably will.
As a judicatory minister I worked with many churches seeking new pastoral leadership. Our denomination used a standard form in place of a resume for our ministers seeking placement. This form had a place to list CE events the minister had attended. When I met with the search teams I told them if that did not include any CE events it should send up a yellow flag that meant if they interviewed the person they should ask why there was nothing there. Maybe that information had not been submitted leaving that space blank, or maybe the minister saw no need to attend such events. If it was the latter, I told the search team that would turn that yellow flag into a red one for me. Why would any church want a minister who saw no value in improving his or her ministry knowledge and skills?
Ministers should seek out CE events on their own. I suggest a minimum of one or two a year. If they don't, the church they serve should insist on it. The Personnel Team or others in leadership should discuss this with their ministers and part of their annual evaluation should include CE events they've attended. Denominations and judicatories could also begin to insist their ministers attend CE events and have some method of enforcing that.
I'm sure some ministers will say no one has the right to require this of them. Auctioneer commissions, HVAC boards, nursing boards, and a host of other professional organizations require their people to have CE before they can renew their licenses. As ministers, we are responsible for the eternal souls of those whom we serve. This is much more important that knowing how to unstop a toilet or call a bid. We should be held to even higher standards than others, and requiring regular CE is just one way to ensure that we in the ministry stay at the top of our calling.
No comments:
Post a Comment