Last night I was moderating the session of a smaller Presbyterian church in transition and an interesting idea came up that I thought would be perfect for ‘Presbyneering.’
Most churches only have one minister so they have to decide what areas of their ministry are most important, or what areas can be supplemented in some other way. Churches that have the luxury of being able to hire 2 full time pastors can find ones that have different skill sets.
This leads me into the session meeting last night. This small church was interviewing two Certified Lay Pastors (CLP) about being the temporary supply pastor for the church in order to have some stability and leadership. The church is not in a position to hire a full time ordained pastor at the moment but hopes to be in the future. The session had an interesting choice on their hands. The liked both candidates and saw different strengths in each. One candidate is very charismatic in the pulpit and would be very good at business side of the church (organizing, polity, etc.). The other candidate has many years of experience as a CLP and is very good at reaching out to the community, building relationships, and pastoral care.
The church wants to grow and therefore believes reaching out to the community is very important but also recognizes the need for pastoral care for the aging congregation. On the other hand the church needs strong leadership to move forward in the hopes of growing and being able to call a full time ordained pastor and wants sermons that are relevant, entertaining, and educational. One member of the session wished they could just combine the two candidates into one person. I suggested, “Why not hire both?”
I don’t know if it has ever been done before, a 2 CLP staff model, where each CLP is only contracted at 1/3 time. I’m not sure how exactly it would work, but one CLP already is commissioned to another nearby church and the other is pretty busy with other commitments so 1/3 time each may be beneficial. It is also beneficial that the church gets the experience, expertise, and gifts of two people rather than just one.
So my questions are: What do you think about this? Have you seen it done before and how did it work? Are there other ways small churches can benefit from diverse leadership while staying in budget? Could more churches use CLP’s to fill in ministerial gaps that can’t necessarily afford more than one full time ordained pastor? Please share your thoughts.
The Committee on Ministry of the Presbytery of Great Rivers has put me in charge of reviewing a document generated by the Albany Presbytery detailing a discernment process for congregations who may desire/need to become a House Church or a Fellowship.
The Presbytery of Great Rivers is made up of over 100 churches, but many of those are small rural churches of less than 100 members. The Presbytery has closed a few churches in the past few years and it looks like more could close in the future if things don’t change.
Are there new options for small congregations to continue to worship, fellowship, and do mission together that may not look like that church’s past?
I would appreciate it if you could look at the this document that you can download here or you can go to www.greatriverspby.org and click on House Church Fellowship Manual. What are your initial reactions? What questions do you have? How do you think it could best be implemented or discussed for the first time with congregations? Could this be used for NCD’s as well as churches that are struggling with finances, leadership, etc.?
This is what Presbyneering is all about. What new paths for ministry can we cut given our current contexts? Thank you for all your input. As I look more at this document and work with a team in Great Rivers Presbytery that will give a report to COM, I will report our findings, views, thoughts, concerns, about this option for congregations.
The landscape of many small towns in America is changing and poverty is hitting closer and closer to home. I serve a church in a small town in central Illinois which once, while small, was very prosperous. The town had several grocery stores, gas stations, clothing boutiques and more. There were many affluent people who lived in beautiful Victorian style homes. But if you drive through Delavan today you will come to the one main intersection of downtown and think you are driving through a ghost town. The store fronts are mostly empty or falling apart, the Victorian homes are in need of renovation, and there is only one grocery store and that just recently reopened.
Communities of faith in Delavan have to reexamine how they do ministry because the community itself has changed. Many less fortunate people have moved into Delavan because of the cheap housing available here. The community is no longer an affluent bedroom community or a homogenous community of mid western middle class white families. There are now children who attend school with things on their feet that can barely be called shoes and who often arrive hungry because they were not able to eat breakfast. The small food pantry has a large crowd come every Thursday morning and churches have more people stop in asking for help.
When I first arrived at the church I was informed that it was the church’s policy to just send transients or people seeking help to the township office. I said that was going to have to change, but I also knew it would be difficult to help everyone who stopped in and most ministers know what happens when word gets out that a church is offering handouts. Yet, as I’ve said from the pulpit, “the day people stop thinking they can come to a church for help, is the day I’m done with church.”
So what can small town churches do when faced with growing poverty in their small town and diminishing resources and assets themselves? I don’t have any definitive answers but I can tell you what we have done so far that I think has been positive. In March, we instituted a program called “Free Fourth Monday Meals.” On the fourth Monday of every month the church provides a meal to anyone who wants it. We use real china and flatware and create nice table settings. The first month we served meatloaf, fresh roasted broccoli, mashed potatoes, and dessert and just this past Monday we had Brinner (breakfast for dinner). The first Monday we had about 30 people come and this past Monday we had about 50. Some people come because they are lonely and are tired of eating alone, some come just for the fellowship, and some come because they need a free meal. The great thing is people come for different reasons but are able to break bread together and no one knows why anyone else is there. Some people come just because it is a meal at a church and they go to every church function they can. It is a way to bring people together.
The truly exciting thing is that other churches in town like the idea and are looking into offering a free meal on a different Monday of every month. It would truly be wonderful a free meal was offered every Monday in town all year long. I think that is truly the key- churches working together. I think people often see churches as very competitive and self-serving, but if churches can work together to help alleviate suffering, poverty, etc. then we are truly beginning to exhibit the Kingdom of Heaven.
The local ministerial alliance here also works together. We had a series of Lenten services this past Lent where we collected an offering which was split between a local mission and the ministerial alliance itself each week. The 5 services collected quite a bit of money that went to the local food pantry and local rescue missions, but we also were able to put some in our Ministerial Alliance account. When someone comes into one of our churches seeking help, we call the other ministers to talk about giving out aid. This way no one church carries the whole burden, and there is a group discernment process about how to help, how much to give, etc. It also protects each church because there are less situations of one person hitting up each church and attempting to play churches off of each other or con them which has happened before.
The cooperation of these 5 churches: Methodist, Presbyterian, Missouri Synod Lutheran, Mennonite, and a non-denominational has brought together a diverse community of faith in this small town to reach out and help their neighbors. Many people have commented how nice it is to all be able to worship together, eat together, and serve together. If we, as Christians, can pool our resources together (time, talent, money, etc.) we can do so much. We don’t have to have doctrinal agreement on everything but I think we all can agree that preaching good news to the poor and then acting to bring hope is part of our calling as followers of Christ. The meals, donations, benefit concerts, and food drives will not alleviate poverty, but I think they can at least bring hope to those in our community, and it is hope in the name of Jesus Christ. It is my hope that as we work on these issues together as a community of faith in Delavan, new conversations about global poverty will be started and they will not only be social and economic discussions, but also theological.
