Denominational responsibility and their churches

Yesterday's post focused on the need to provide training for bivocational ministers who may not have any kind of formal training for ministry. I ended that article by saying if they refuse to take advantage of that training perhaps denominations and judicatories need to refuse to assist them with future placement needs. No doubt some of my readers thought that was a terrible thing to say, so I promised I would discuss that more in today's post.

Here are some hard, cold facts. Denominations and judicatories continue to shrink in size. As an example, when I began as a judicatory minister in 2001 I think we had 14 people on Executive Staff. When I retired in 2015 there were 3-4, and only two of them worked in the field. Some part time people were brought in to serve some of the churches. Other Regions in our denomination had cut back even more. Some judicatories in other denominations were closing and merging with nearby judicatories. All of this is due to declining finances.

At the same time, we are a nation of small churches. I believe the median size church now is 75 people. Many of these churches are struggling to survive, and many of them will not make it. Last Sunday a small church in an adjoining county to me held its last service. Approximately 100 churches a week, 5000 a year, close their doors in the United States.

Many of the smaller churches that remain open struggle to find pastoral leadership. I've written about this numerous times in this blog, and many other writers have addressed the issue as well over the past few years. No one sees any improvement in the near future. If these churches are to survive, and hopefully, enjoy many more years of effective ministry, they must have quality, healthy leadership.

I strongly believe in the smaller church. I've seen what can happen when such churches enjoy healthy pastoral leadership, and I've seen what happens when they are led by someone who doesn't know if he's pitching or catching. I've seen struggling churches flourish under good leadership, and I've seen healthy churches become very unhealthy under poor leadership.

Two things need to happen. Denominations and judicatories need to quit ignoring their smaller churches and begin to focus some much needed attention on them and their pastors, and smaller churches need to stop thinking they don't need their denominations and judicatories. Both need each other. These are the cold, hard facts. Now, what needs to happen.

As I said above, denominations and judicatories need to focus some much needed attention on these churches and their pastors. They need to become very intentional about finding persons called to bivocational ministry and become very intentional about training these individuals. They need to determine how they can help these churches become healthy and vibrant places of worship, and I truly believe this begins with proper training of the pastoral leadership.

Smaller churches need to accept the assistance of their denominational and judicatory leaders, especially when it comes to pastoral placement. Perhaps, in some cases, they might consider allowing the judicatory to name the individual who will serve as pastor. Right now some churches are saying that will never happen; that they are a congregational church who will decide for themselves who they will call as pastor. Let me ask you the Dr. Phil question: "How is that working for you?" Now, I'll answer it for some of you: "IT'S NOT WORKING! IT HASN'T WORKED IN YEARS! THAT'S WHY YOU ARE IN THE MESS YOU'RE IN!" And, if something isn't working then you need to try something else.

If the denomination or judicatory has done its job of identifying good people who can serve in a bivocational role, and if they have developed a quality training program for these individuals, what should they do with those churches and individuals who will not use the people and the training they've developed? In light of the ongoing shrinkage that is occuring in denominational and judicatories the only thing they can do is wish the churches and their pastors well and focus on the churches that do want their help.

At that point, there is no sense in assisting the church with any future placement needs because the church has shown it's not interested in getting quality pastors from the denomination or judicatory. There's also no sense in assisting pastors who aren't willing to be trained in finding new churches. There is no sense in sacrificing good pastors on the altars of dysfunctional churches, and there is no sense in sending unqualified persons who have never had a healthy ministry into good churches to ruin them.

Cold, hard facts are never easy to talk about or read, but they are real. Denominations and judicatories can no longer afford to support their churches that refuse legitimate offers to help them become healthy with quality, trained leadership. Likewise, they cannot afford to support those who want to lead churches but refuse any training to help them lead those churches grow and become healthier.