My denomination, like many mainline Christian denominations, is working through a reformation though no one has named it as such. It is more than a remodel of our existing systems and, in fact, it is a time of contraction that almost always follows a period of unsustainable growth. That is a very “corporate America” analysis, but I think it fits. Contraction brings grief, fear, and a questioning of identity because it is the kind of change that is experienced and often expressed as “failure” rather than opportunity by those inside and outside the system. In any downsizing, the rationalized, softer corporate term is “right-sizing,” there is pain, confusion, and often middle judicatory ministers and personnel appear like George Clooney’s character, Ryan, from the film Up in the Air. We are there to help congregations begin a journey they never considered: moving from a full-time minister to a part-time minister or a bi-vocational minister or merging with another congregation or sharing a minister with another congregation or closing the congregation and creating a legacy with their assets. No one wants their congregation to cease to worship, cease to be relevant in their community, nor hear the doxology sung on their behalf. It happens to ministers and to congregations.
Today, there was an interesting post on Sojourners, God’s Politics blog titled, The Dangers of Bi-Vocational Ministry. The author articulates some of my concerns about ministry, the Church, and the way my denomination is dealing with questions about ordination and what “ordination means.” In some pragmatic ways my denomination is treating ordained ministry more like a “certification” rather than a calling that requires an education and systemically we continue to forget that we ordain persons into Christian ministry and not specifically for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). As the author of this piece points out, it is harder to convince younger people, high school and college age persons, that ministry is a serious vocation to which one might give a lifetime as their profession, not professional Christian, but profession as prophet, pastor, teacher, theologian: a minister of the gospel of God.
The Dangers of Bi-Vocational Ministry
Beau Underwood | God’s Politics | July 30, 2014
The number of bi-vocational ministers is increasing rapidly. Many pastors who work full-time jobs and serve in congregations part-time receive little or no pay for their church service. This trend has been described as “the future of the church” and extolled because the model is a return to “the original church” that will “enliven congregations.
Such thinking appears to be nothing more than trying to put an extremely positive theological spin on a very dire ecclesiastical reality. There are two very significant reasons I’m skeptical of such rosy claims about bi-vocational ministry. Click here to read more.
My brand of Christian witness, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), is like many mainline denominations living through a period of contraction: membership, financial, relevance in culture, and ministry focus. Some of this can be attributed to changing culture, but of late I’ve wondered if we’ve forgotten how to be in relationship? This means that the dysfunction of our political system, our polemic culture, and hyper consumerism has reshaped Christianity at large and the CC(DOC) expression of being Christian. Don’t misunderstand, change is part of living and part of institutional life, but I’ve wondered what H. Richard Niebuhr would have to say about Christ, Culture, and Christianity today.
Enter Seth Godin, a marketing guy, whose words are instructive and worth reflection for local congregations and for denominations as a whole.
And, for those serving in ministry in my denomination here is a self awareness exercise from Godin.