When I began serving as a Regional Resource Minister in 2001 it wasn't uncommon for me to be able to give Pastor Search Teams 30-40 pastor profiles that seemed to fit their search requirements. Understand, I didn't give them that many all at once. But, that many would come back when I entered their information into our denominational profile system. That soon began to change, and by the time I retired from that position in 2019 I was fortunate to provide 5-6 profiles that might meet at least some of their requirements.
Since retiring I have served two churches, good, strong churches, as their Transitional Pastor. One took two years to find a pastor, and the other church took 2 1/2 years. I am now serving a third church in this position, and they have been without a pastor for nearly three years. I am their second Transitional Pastor. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to find a pastor for the traditional church. To find a bivocational pastor is even more difficult.
There are many reasons for this: fewer people enrolling in seminary, and of those who do enroll, many are not planning on pursuing pastoral ministry when they graduate, the current people serving in ministry are aging and retiring, the stresses of ministry drive many out of ministry into other careers (50% of seminary graduates leave the ministry within five years after graduation), some ministers are focused on serving in newly planted churches rather than in traditional churches, the lack of denominational support that exists in many denominations (this one isn't often mentioned but it bears a study of its own), and a list too long to mention in a blog post. Regardless of the reasons, most denominational leaders will admit that there is a severe shortage of pastors for churches, and this isn't likely to improve soon.
How do we solve this problem? Perhaps the first thing is to address any unrealistic expectations that some churches might have when seeking new pastoral leadership. A church of 30 people do not need a seminary trained, MDiv graduate to serve their church. They need a bivocational pastor who loves God and feels called into the ministry. When I worked in the factory every new job I had I learned through on-the-job-training. When I began as a pastor I had no experience and no education beyond high school. It was on-the-job-training which I later supplemented by attending a Bible school and pursuing more formal education (all while serving in ministry) and eventually earning an MAR and a DMin.
Secondly, we might look at how we prepare people for ministry. For decades (perhaps longer) seminaries have primarily trained persons preparing for pastoral ministry to be research theologians. When they graduated, they really weren't equipped to do either! You'll notice when I attended seminary it was to earn an MAR which was much better preparation for pastoral ministry than the typical MDiv. (I often get into trouble for saying that, but I'm 75 years old so I don't care!) The MDiv is great preparation for those who plan to eventually earn a PhD, but it's probably an overkill for persons called to pastoral ministry.
We also need to look at what needs to be offered as continuing education. Regardless of what one studies in college and seminary, much of it will be outdated in 10 years. In fact, some of what we are taught in college is proved to be wrong within a few years when further research is done. Churches change, culture changes, and in ten years much of what we have learned in our studies needs to change as well. Just this evening I was looking at my library and realized that I needed to throw out many of my books because they are simply outdated and no longer apply to today's ministry needs. It was not a pleasant realization!
There is much more that could be said, but this is enough for this post. Look for future blog posts for further thoughts.
No comments:
Post a Comment