Now is the Time

 Many of us live in a wonderful land of Someday Isle. How many times have you said, "Someday I'll....?" You can fill in the blank yourself. We've all been there and done that. Faced with opportunities and choices we often choose to put them off until a more convenient time. We come up with dozens of reasons why this isn't the right time to do .... Ah, but someday I'll get around to doing that.

Then a funny thing happens. One day we realize that time has passed us by and there isn't time to do that thing. When this realization hits something happens inside us. A dream dies, and a little bit of us dies as well.

Who among us has not wished we could go back and relive our lives, or at least part of it. I doubt anyone wants to go back to when we were being potty trained, but there are many times in my life I wish I had made different decisions. I would love to have the opportunity to revisit those times and make a different decision than the one I made at the time.

Even though I've been blessed with opportunities to do many things in my life, there's probably 101 other things I would have liked to have done. Many of the things I did do I wish I had done differently.

Probably my two biggest regrets is that I wish I had become a Christian sooner than I did, and I wish I had gone into the ministry sooner. Out of all the things I've done in my life, apart from my family, nothing has been more rewarding that the ministry to which God called me.

Since we cannot turn back time I want to encourage you to make the best of every minute. Focus on the things that are most important to you and give them the time and commitment they deserve. Live every moment. Live life to the fullest. Determine what God has called you to do and pour yourself into that.

Now is the time to read that book, take that vacation, develop a savings and investment strategy, or further your education. Now is the time to spend more time with your family and create memories that will outlast you. Now is the time to clear away the clutter in your life so you can more easily focus on the things that are truly important. And, now is the time to invite Jesus Christ into your life if you've not already done that. The Bible says that "Today is the day of salvation."

Don't put off the most important things in life until tomorrow because none of us are promised tomorrow. Now is the time to do the things you've always wanted to do.

Why did you go into the ministry?

 In the late 1970s my pastor and I were driving to a conference in Kentucky when he asked me a question that has changed my life. He asked if I had ever felt God was calling me into the ministry? I admitted that I had felt that call many times in my life but had never pursued it. For the remainder of our journey we discussed that calling. He later came to our home to talk to me and my wife about the ministry, but it wasn't until he had left our church and another pastor came that I requested the church license me into the ministry. Since then I have served as a church pastor, a denominational minister, and now, in retirement, as a Transitional Pastor. The past 40 years of my life has been spent in the ministry because someone challenged to consider that God might be calling me to ministry.

Back then it was not uncommon to hear pastors issue four challenges in an invitation. One was to receive Christ as Lord and Savior. A second was to recommit one's life to Him. The third was to join the church, and the fourth was to commit oneself to Christian ministry. In many churches you will still hear the first three challenges, but you seldom hear the fourth one. Perhaps this is why we see the current shortage of pastors for our churches.

I have talked with many leaders of various denominations over the years and have never heard one say their denomination had too many people wanting to serve as pastors. In fact, it has been just the opposite. Many churches today, especially smaller and mid-size churches, struggle to find pastors. I worked with many pastor search teams during my time as a denominational minister and told everyone of them that the pool wasn't very big and wasn't very deep. It's not uncommon for a church to spend 18-24 months to find a new pastor, and sometimes it's even longer.

Most persons serving in ministry with whom I've spoken told a story similar to mine. Someone they respected asked them to consider if God might be calling them into the ministry. Quite often their experience was like mine. They had felt such a call on their lives but had never pursued it. Perhaps they weren't certain of the call. Maybe the call frightened them. In some cases they weren't sure how to pursue that calling. Often, they just needed someone they respected to challenge them before they were ready to move forward.

It's important to remember that none of us can call anyone into the ministry. This is God's job. However, we can ask people in whom we see certain pastoral gifts if they have ever felt led to enter the ministry. In fact, I believe this is an important task of every current minister. We need to be passing the baton on to the next generation. I'm convinced that the shortage of pastors we see today isn't because God isn't calling persons to that role; it's that these individuals are not being challenged to consider that they might have such a call on their lives. It is up to those currently in ministry to issue such challenges.

Where does the time go?

 The great Baptist preacher Vance Havner wrote 

A South Carolina friend told me about meeting a typical old Southern gentleman who said, "I used to come over to your town quite often in the old days. It was a day's round trip by horse and buggy. I can do it in an hour now but I don't have time!" That just about sums up the tempo - and the tragedy - of these hurried times. I noticed recently that one of our church hymnals now no longer carries the precious song, "Take Time to be Holy." Who has time to be holy? We've got a program we must put over!"

Wow! Truer words have not been written. At one time people were concerned with computers and all the other "time-saver devices" that people's biggest problem would be boredom, but I haven't found that to be a problem. Neither have most people. In fact, it's just the opposite. It seems the more time we save, the busier we are and the less time we have. 

Holiness does take time. So does relationships. I can remember growing up on the farm and spending many evenings sitting on the front porch with family or visiting neighbors. Few of us even know our neighbors today. I remember one evening coming home from a PTA meeting with Mom (do they even have those anymore?) and seeing Dad sitting on the front porch talking to a neighbor. He had come over close to dark, went back to our lake and caught a feed sack full of bull frogs. He was going to take them home to get a mess of frog legs for future meals after visiting for awhile.

Some talk about the good old days, but I doubt that many really want to go back to dirt roads, outhouses, kerosene lamps or three channels on our TV sets. What they probably mean is that they wish we again had time to build relationships with one another, spend time with our families, have time to actually sit down to think and meditate on truly important things, take long walks down country roads and spend quiet time with God.

The same is true for churches. Some of us spend so much time trying to find ways to make our churches bigger that we fail to make them deeper. Like our relationships, many churches are a mile wide and an inch deep. Too many people's faith lacks substance and depth. Even if they sing "Take Time to be Holy" a look at their lives would find little holiness.

I wonder what would happen if we slowed our lives down a little and focused more on the really important things in life and less on what others think is urgent. What if we spent more time in the Word of God and less in the things of the world? How would our lives be different? What if we spent less of our time on lesser things and began investing our time in more important things? 

The Messiness of Ministry

 A few decades ago ministry was fairly cut-and-dried. Our family moved a few times when I was growing up, and everywhere we moved we attended a Baptist church very similar to the one we left. The Sunday school material was the same, many of them used the same hymnbooks, the order of the service was nearly identical, most of the people dressed alike and thought alike. People knew what to expect from their minister. Other than the architecture of the church most of them were nearly duplicates of the previous churches we attended. That is not the case today!

Many people are not concerned with the name on the church they begin attending when they move. In fact, they may attend more than one church for the various programs and ministries they offer. Look out into many congregations and you're apt to see people from various walks of life and with many different life experiences. Some will hold to some very strong opinions that are markedly different from those traditionally held by members of your congregation. It's likely that some have come from different denominational backgrounds with traditions and polities that are different from yours. All of these things mean that ministry is much messier today than it was in earlier times.

A Baptist pastor called me a few years ago asking my opinion on an issue that existed in his church. A couple from a non-Baptist background had been attending services there and had become quite involved in the life of the church. They wanted to become members of the church, but the church required baptism by immersion to become a member. Both had been sprinkled according to their former church's teaching, and because their conversion and baptism had been so meaningful to them, they did not want to be re-baptized. Because the church limited the number of things non-members could do, they were unable to use many of their gifts in the church. The pastor was sure the church would lose this couple soon if the problem wasn't resolved.

In a book I recently read a pastor wrote about a trans person who began attending the church. He wanted to know this person better and so he invited the individual home for dinner. The person replied he would be bringing his wife. At dinner they discussed how they had been married for years and had raised their children when he began to suffer from gender dysphoria. It was decided that he would make the transition to female, but because they were Christians who did not believe in divorce and very much in love with one another they had remained married.

When I was still serving in regional ministry a church began seeking a new pastor. When I met with the search team they said the church needed a pastor who could develop a strong youth group in the church. A few months later they called an individual to serve as their pastor. Several months later I was eating lunch in the community when a member of that former search team approached my table. I asked how the pastor was doing, and specifically if he was able to build a youth group in that church. She said he had been very successful in growing a youth group, but now the older members complained that he spent all his time with the youth, and because he was ignoring them they had quit supporting the church financially.

These are just three examples of how challenging ministry has become in the 21st century. Entire books could be written with stories like these. Unfortunately, this not apt to change soon, if ever. We are called to meet people where they are, and this is where many of them are today. Ministry is messy today because people's lives are messy. Those of us in ministry need to pray for wisdom and courage as we continue to serve. We also need to encourage people that no one's life is too messy for God to change. Perhaps it is in the messiness of our time that we will find the greatest receptivity to God's message of grace.

Interesting fact about incoming seminary students

 For a number of years the Association of Theological Schools (ATS), the national accrediting agency for seminaries, has conducted a survey of incoming seminary students. An interesting finding is that about 30% of those students intentionally plan on being bivocational ministers when they graduate. That is a significant number, and it shows the growth of bivocational ministry and the likelihood that it will continue to grow. I'm not aware of studies done prior to when the ATS began their study, but I would guess that back then that number would not have been so high.

Students give a variety of reasons why they plan to pursue bivocational ministry. Some want to be involved in in a career outside the church to give them more opportunities to minister to those who do not attend church. Others believe it will provide a more balanced home-work life. No doubt finances play a part for some of these students, especially those who are incurring a huge student debt load. Students who came out of small church backgrounds may wish to continue to serve in such places and realize these churches are becoming dependent upon bivocational ministers. I'm sure there are many other reasons students have for planning a bivocational ministry career.

This should give pause to those middle-size churches seeking pastoral leadership. Many of these churches are used to having a fully-funded pastor, but they may find it increasingly difficult to find such pastors today. If 30% of seminary students are planning to intentionally pursue bivocational ministry that takes a significant chunk out of the future prospective pool. Other students plan to be Ministers of Education, Ministers of Worship, Youth Ministers, Chaplains, Missionaries, work in Christian non-profit careers, new church planting, professors, counselors, social workers and workers in parachurch ministries. This further reduces the number of persons available to serve as church pastors. Add into the equation the large number of older ministers and those near retirement and the pool becomes even smaller. Many denominations struggle to provide suitable candidates for their mid-size churches seeking pastors, and this is unlikely to improve.

Many smaller mid-size churches will be forced to seek bivocational leadership when they begin to search for a new pastor. Likely, there will be great resistance at first from members of the congregation who are used to having a fully-funded pastor available whenever they wanted him or her, but the reality is that these pastors are unlikely to be available for these churches. The good news is that studies find that bivocational pastors provide quality leadership to their churches at about the same rate as their fully-funded counterparts. In fact, these churches may find they will greatly benefit from having a bivocational pastor.

However, this transition will not come without challenges. Bivocational churches cannot function as fully-funded churches. These churches will have to learn a new way of doing ministry that does not depend on the pastor every moment of the day. Congregational care must replace much of the pastoral care the congregation has grown to expect. Some administrative tasks will have to be assumed by the congregation that they formerly left to the pastor to do. There will be a learning curve for the church, but the transition is possible if the congregation is willing to work through it.

We need to remember that bivocational ministry was the norm for much of our nation's history especially in the Baptist and Methodist traditions. It wasn't until the 1950s that seminary-trained, fully-funded pastors became to be considered the normal expectation for churches. What we are seeing today is a return to the bivocational, tentmaker model that served our churches so well for many years.

Ministry life after retirement

 What do ministers do after they retire? A better question might be should ministers ever retire? Let's address the second question first.

At some point in a minister's life he or she is going to find that their days of serving a church as pastor are over. This may be due to health reasons when one becomes physically incapable of handling pastoral duties. I once knew a pastor who suffered a significant stroke affecting his speech, his movements and his energy. Although he wanted to remain in pastoral ministry he simply could not function well enough to serve a church.

Other pastors may be in good health but find that most churches are not interested in calling a 75-year-old as their next pastor. I served 14 years in a judicatory ministry and worked with dozens of churches seeking new pastoral leadership, and I never saw one seriously consider older candidates. While I understand the desire to call a 45-year-old pastor with 30 years of pastoral ministry to be a church's next pastor, I also know that many churches, especially smaller ones, are overlooking a lot of experience and wisdom when they ignore the older candidates. The argument usually given is that the older candidate might not be with the church for very long, but this overlooks the fact that the average pastor in our denomination changes churches about every 3-4 years. Realistically, the younger pastor probably won't be at the church for a long time either. While one might not want to retire, retirement might be forced upon him or her due to a lack of interest from churches due to one's age.

This brings us back to the first question. What does a minister do when they do retire? Many make themselves available to serve as supply pastors filling in when pastors are absent from their churches. Others are willing to serve as interim pastors or transitional pastors for churches when they are seeking new pastors. Since my retirement I have served as a transitional pastor for two wonderful churches, and I am still at the second one.

Serving in this capacity gives the minister the opportunity to use his or her experience during a challenging time in the church. Seeking new pastoral leadership is a stressful time for congregations, and the transitional pastor can help them work through some of that stress.

Another way retired ministers can continue to serve is to find ways to minister outside the church. Before I retired I received a license to be an auctioneer. I view this as a way to expand my ministry to persons who may not be involved in churches. People often call me when they are downsizing and find out that family members are not interested in their possessions. They are worried that they cannot take everything to their new home and uncertain what to do. When I assure them that I can sell their items for them at auction they often express great relief.

I also get to minister to persons who need to close out an estate after a loved one passes away. Some of them may live several states away and wonder how they can dispose of everything. When I agreed to sell one estate the daughter's shoulders dropped as she breathed a sigh of relief. She said it was like the weight of the world was off her shoulders.

More than once I've been called to someone's house to talk about doing an auction and had prayer with them before leaving. One individual I had never met before that day began to share some of the struggles she had lived through in the past few weeks. She was obviously hurting. I explained that was also a minister and asked if I could pray for her. I've never been refused in such times. After praying for her I asked if she had a church, and when she replied she did not I was able to recommend two in her community that I knew would minister to her.

Use the gifts and wisdom God has given you to find ways to continue to minister even after retirement. You may find such ministry quite rewarding.