Tribal Church

I’ve been gone for a few days of conferences, and now I’ve got a couple of deadlines looming, so I can’t write much.

As many of you Presbyterians know, Rebuilding the Presbyterian Establishment has gotten a lot of discussion going. Now I’m part of a group of people who are responding to it for the Office of Worship and Theology of the Presbyterian Church.

How would you respond? What do you think about it?

24 Comments »

I’ve been working on a practice of visioning for the Sacred Practices Leadership Series. We are using Walter Bruggeman’s Prophetic Imagination as a text, and it has been wonderful to think about this more.

I’m realizing how much metaphors feed me in my personal and corporate life. For instance, if a person suffered abuse as a child, then she will need to go through a process of identifying the abuse and healing from it. Often that healing process can be helped through developing new metaphors that will help us to walk from seeing ourselves as a victim to a survivor (you know, like Henri Nouwen’s Wounded Healer).

I remember one point in my ministry—the lowest point—when I had a couple of people in our congregation who didn’t like me much. As a pastor, there’s always someone who doesn’t like you, but they were constantly complaining, and I have never been called so many nasty names in my life….

The leadership in the church (like many churches) had a bad habit of caving to bullies. They wanted peace, so they would often go out of their way to placate people, and they were often urging me to do the same. It was hard to cave though, since the majority of their complaints had to do with the fact that I was a young woman, and there really wasn’t much that I could do about either one of those facts. I was really angry. If they didn’t want a young woman pastor, why did they hire one?

During all of this, my personal life was a wreck. My body was doing all of these weird things that I won’t go into, but I was going in for all of these tests to find out if I had cancer. Then, I had a miscarriage. I wanted that baby so badly that it still makes my stomach tremble to think about it.

It was a very bad year.

I never told my congregation about all that was going on, and I wasn’t safe enough to do so. After all, how do you tell a congregation that regularly complains that you’re a woman that it feels like you’re falling apart because you just had a miscarriage and you might have breast cancer?

I did, however, pray an awful lot. I would go on long walks in the woods and my tears would bubble up, and I would have a safe space to be an emotional young woman.

One of the most healing moments during that time was when I saw a baby bird, shaking on the ground. I walked right up to her, and she didn’t move. I immediately felt a connection, and I kept saying to her, “I wish I could help you. I wish I knew what to do.” Even more than wanting to assist, I felt like that bird, completely weak and shaken.

After a while, I walked on a bit. But when I came back to that spot, the bird was gone. I looked up and saw a bird flying in the air. I don’t know that it was the same one, but somehow I gained great strength from the moment. In times of difficulties, I thought about the bird soaring above me, and I knew that I would make it through the year.

I did make it, and I learned to look for those metaphors, not only in my life, but also in the life of our spiritual communities. Much of my pastoral counseling is leading people into thinking about metaphors that will help them to move from a place of brokenness to wholeness.

It is, after all, what the prophets do: imagining streams in the midst of deserts, clay that is being formed, and fragile young birds that are being comforted under God’s wing.

photo by Little Miss Sunshine

12 Comments »

I never know exactly what to do with these staggering statistics. 

In the PC(USA) we have [edited on 4/23] 2208 ministers looking for a position and 645 positions available. That’s 3.4 pastors available for each job.

Of course, we have a glut on one end, and empty pulpits on the other.

About 5,000 (48%) of our churches have less than 100 members and most of them don’t have installed pastors, and many of the Boomer pastors will soon be retiring (though with the economic crisis, maybe not as soon as we thought).

But still… these are some shocking numbers.

What are we going to do? We’re letting many of our gifted leaders go into other professions. 

Dig a little deeper into those stats and we might find a solution to some of it:

How many searching pastors would like to start a new church development? 566.

How many new churches is our denomination starting? 7.

Seven new church developments in our whole denomination? Aren’t we closing churches pretty rapidly? What’s happening to that land and that money? Are our middle governing bodies living off of the endowments instead of putting them into new church plants?

It might be time to look at how we do business.

Why not start 550 churches right now? I know the way that we have traditionally done it costs a lot of money, but it doesn’t have to. Plus, we all know that there has been almost no time in our history when vision follows money. Money follows vision. So before we start with the fact that we have no money, let’s start dreaming a little bit.

How about this?

•We could start nesting new congregations in older ones. We’ve been doing this with immigrant congregations for a long time now. What if we began to think of emerging churches, or churches that are reaching out to a different demographic, in the same way? Instead of thinking of them as a community with competing interests, we can welcome them as people who are extending our church community.

•We could start churches in rented spaces. We’re seen it happen all over the place: coffeehouses, living rooms, and art galleries.

•One pastor could intentionally start more than one congregation. This would be important for small, home communities that could not afford to support a pastor.

What are your ideas? We have the most important resource: willing pastors. Can we find a way to let them do what they feel called to do?

20 Comments »

A week or so ago, I blogged that we can no longer afford an educated clergy. The discussion has generated a lot of links, emails, and it’s still getting comments.

Those who are interested in further responses:

Sarx posted Can we afford seminary? 

And Lee Hinson-Hasty, the coordinator for theological education and seminary relations in the General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) replied with We Can’t Afford Not to Educate Clergy.

7 Comments »

So, Bruce Reyes-Chow, a blogger, West Coast pastor and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the PC(USA), and I will be co-hosting an Internet Radio Show starting on May 4. We’ll be reflecting on faith, culture, politics, and life.

I’ll keep you updated with more information, in the next couple of weeks. But… right now… Landon Whitsitt, our amazing producer, is gathering topics.

So, what would you want to hear about? Or, what sort of things do you want the larger church to hear about? Topics, anyone?

13 Comments »

Maybe it’s the economic crisis that’s bringing a whole lot of stress to our jobs and making them unbearable. I don’t know, but it seems like I’m getting a lot of off-line emails about queries, frustrations, and excitement that comes with the search for a new pastorate. So, I thought I’d put some guidance out there for the committees who are calling pastors. 

Be timely. I know that Pastor Nominating Committees are made up of volunteers, but I don’t know how many times I have seen committees drag their feet, going through the stack of hundreds of resumes, and it takes them so long that all of the good candidates have lost interest or found other jobs.

If you’re on a committee, you might be looking at that stack, thinking that you have so many possibilities. But, there might only be a couple of people who are right for your church. If you do take a long time on different steps of the process, make sure that you keep in close contact with the candidates whom you are serious about. No one likes to be left hanging.

Beat the bushes. In the Presbyterian Church, we have a Call Referral Service, which is kind of an on-line dating service for pastors and churches. It will generate a great deal of paper for you. And it works too. I received my last two jobs through CRS. However, often the best information comes from good, old-fashioned word of mouth. A lot of churches realize that they are really great, and they figure that all of the good candidates will be beating down their doors. But, it doesn’t always work that way. Committees will still need to work hard to find the best qualified person.

Check the stats. (PCUSA churches can find them through this link. Search for the congregation, then for congregational statistics.) I know I am going to get a hard time from my pastor colleagues on this… and please feel free to take issue on this point. I just bring it up because I’ve seen it happen too many times. A great church calls a handsome, tall, intelligent pastor who just happened to have the last three congregations implode while he was there. Or, during the eight years when he was ministering to the congregation, the attendance dropped to one-quarter of its previous size. Then, when the same thing happens to calling congregation, they are shocked.

I say this, not because those stats are completely accurate. I followed a pastor who did a bit of number finagling. Everyone kept telling me how much the attendance had increased, but the denominational stats did not tell that story. When I dug a little deeper, I realized that there was a significant difference between the actual numbers and the ones that were reported.

Also, growth does not solely depend on pastoral leadership. There are many, many factors that go into it.

But, nonetheless, the stats can be good warning signs or they can be hopeful. Of course, if there is a problem, you will want to talk to the pastor. There can be many explanations for a dramatic drop in numbers (i.e., the town’s main industry closes down or the session finally let the pastor clean the rolls).

Understand the Google generation. If you’re looking for a pastor who is under the age of thirty (or sometimes older), and you Google his or her name, you might be appalled by what you find. You may find a blog with free-flowing thoughts, complaints, and even misspelled words. You might find some pictures on Facebook of her at a social event. You might find a lot of things that you may not have wanted to see.

Is this because the pastor was immodest? No. It is just that when people are under a certain age, they have a different idea of publishing information on the web. Their lives have been chronicled there.

Maybe you don’t want to know all of this about your pastor. Maybe you want your pastor to stand up in a robe, in a high pulpit on Sunday morning, and you don’t want to know that she might have a social life, or thoughts about anything other than the 4th chapter of Matthew. You may not want to know that she is capable of typos. Should this deter you from hiring her? No.

If your church has on its information that you want to grow, or that you want to attract young families, then realize that there is a shift in accessibility. Many younger members aren’t looking for the untouchable pastor. They are more comfortable with someone who is accessible. So while this might seem scandalous to some, it can actually be a great asset.

So what would you add? What do you wish you could have told the committees who interviewed you last? What mistakes do you see them making? Feel free to comment anonymously, if you need to.

photo by eGabrielle

10 Comments »

I am fascinated by change, and I love reading and talking to smart people about how publishing is changing. I wish that I could quote specific people, but since I have not gotten any permission, I won’t.

I will say that I’m in the midst of an interesting stream of people who are thinking about this stuff all of the time. My husband and I have friends who work for NPR. My colleague, John Wimberly, is on the board of the Presbyterian Outlook. I write for Alban Institute, and, of course, I have a wonderful group of creative friends who write and keep up with all of this.

So, let me tell you what I’ve gleaned recently…

We have heard the horrible news of newspaper after newspaper going under. What is happening? What will people be looking for in the future? Here are my predictions, which aren’t really mine because they have all been stolen from people who are much smarter than me.

If publications dig in their heels, and stick only with print media, they will die a slow and sad death. There’s just not much growth in print-only media, and the business there is based on nostalgia. If companies hold on to print-only media ideals, they will end up with an increasingly older, shrinking demographic as their readership.

I know it’s painful. I know we are longing for the way that it was, the smell of an old book and the feel of having a newspaper in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, but younger generations don’t pick up newspapers and they subscribe to few magazines.

And so publishers need to begin thinking of themselves as media outlets, instead of just people working in newsprint. They will need to start diversifying into informative websites, podcasts, twitter blasts, social networking, and whatever else might stick.

Alban does a good job with this. They don’t just publish books, or a magazine, but they have webinars, emails, podcasts, blogs, and twitter updates. They have consultants and speakers. And they are even rethinking their educational events so that they might be communities of spiritual practice and learning. They are exploring the possibilities of on-line publishing. 

News will be distilled to fit onto a Blackberry/iPhone screen. We have gotten more and more used to headline news, the scrolling bits, and the distillation of a story into 140 characters or less.

Book demand will increase. This was actually a surprise to me, but a friend in the industry said that people will be looking at short headlines, but when they want to read more, they will turn to books. The in-depth reporters that are being laid off from newspapers, will start writing timely volumes. He forecasted that the quality and pricing of books will go down, and the demand will rise even more.

So what do you think? What would your predictions be? What will all of this look like for church leaders? Will we also be expected to be versed in the multiple mediums? Should seminaries start teaching classes on how to create podcasts and give pointers on what to put on a blog? Should denominations offer continuing ed on social networking? Should pastor search committees be looking for aptitude in these things as they search for a pastor? (For Presbyterians, should it at least be listed as one of the skills on our PIF?) Should we keep putting our church advertising money into newspaper ads? And (at the very least) shouldn’t our colleagues quit ranting about how all this stuff is a just a waste of time?

Photo by alankcrain

7 Comments »

CC Pastor (which, I’m assuming from the context stands for Calvary Chapel) wrote a good comment, which I replied to, but there was so much there, that I thought we could discuss it more in depth. If you’re not into reading 38 comments, you can get the general context here.

Mark let me suggest this connection.  Ms. Merritt attended a large Calvary Chapel.  She considered herself smarter than the pastor there.  Assuming this is true and she is not just proud [author aside: this is a very generous assumption!] why then are Calvary Chapels growing and the PCUSA shrinking?  Is there something wrong or missing in the training and education that Presbyterian(USA) pastors are receiving?  I think the problem is you can not replace passion with education, training or technique. There is something about conservative theology that changes the hearts of people.  We may not like the fact that the PCA is opening churches where we are closing churches.  Or that the Bible is not always politically correct.  Or that most large and growing churches are conservative churches. Or that conservative church inspire people to give more enabling them to support their pastors.

There is in this comment the presumption that many people make: conservative churches are passionate, large, growing, and inspiring, and conservative theology changes the hearts of people.

I certainly don’t deny that. There was an emotional intensity in the congregations of my youth that I don’t experience now. But, I have to say that I’m relieved. I had to leave my conservative congregation, after witnessing a great deal of abuse (and I don’t use that term lightly) to my friends and family. I needed a congregation that recognized my call into ministry, even as a woman. And I needed a place where the church did not center around a man who was a charismatic performer, yet very aloof pastor.

I am thankful for my conservative colleagues. They are reaching out to a group that I do not have the ability to minister to. And that’s okay. We are welcoming people into our growing, vital congregation who would never feel comfortable in a CC church.

The thing I do want to think about here is that underlying this assumption that often goes with the thought that conservative churches are passionate, large, growing, and inspiring. And that is that all mainline churches are shrinking, closing, unable to support their pastors. That education ruins good ministers.

All congregations have a life-cycle. Even mega-churches. In the laid-back beach culture of the 70s and 80s, I saw them spring up quickly, and I saw them wither and die at the same rate. About half of new congregations either grow or they don’t.

Most of our mainline denominational churches were founded during the post-World War II boom. It was a very exciting time for our denominations, one of great expansion. The Builders of that generation worked hard, constructing beautiful church buildings in our downtowns.

But we did not fare well in the seventies. Many of the Boomers did not want to go to their parents’ church. They wanted something radically different—a personal faith. Things were changing, and so the wonderful evangelical tradition in our country began to meet their needs in a way that mainlines could not. Conservative evangelicals began to plant churches at a rapid pace, and the congregations, which were not formed with the cultural expectations of the fifties, were much better at meeting the needs of a new generation.

Childcare was never questioned, youth and campus ministries were supported, and mothers were not expected to take on a load of volunteer work for an older generation. There was a shift in emphasis from being baptized into a household of faith to an intensely personal decision, to accept Jesus in your heart as your personal Lord and Savior. There were in many cases, no committees, and (I’m sure CC Pastor is right, although no one every knew exactly what our pastor made) it was never questioned that pastors would make a lot of money.

The PCUSA has a couple million members and we came to this country along with the first settlers. We, like all mainline denominations, realize the cultural changes that are happening within and around us. As a tradition that has been around for almost 500 years, we are well-acquainted with the cycles of life of any body. We know that, just as new companies grow faster, new churches grow faster. We also know that the most stable and profitable companies have been around for a long, long time, and we pray that it is the same for our denominations. 

And so, we are closing congregations and planting new ones. Some of those older churches, which were situated downtown, are finding new vitality with people a new generation. Another shift is occurring as some of the men and women who grew up in the folding metal chairs, in rock-concert churches, with charismatic pastors are slipping out the back door and finding an (often uncomfortable) spot in the pews of our sanctuaries. They’re looking for a church that they can be a part of, even if they didn’t vote for McCain/Palin. They are longing progressive theology that affirms women, cares for creation, feeds the hungry, and honestly wrestles with the fact that the Bible is not always politically correct.

I am not sure how this will play out. Will our congregations welcome them? Will we be too arrogant about their own educations, financial security, and denominational pedigree to open our doors to their energy, ideas and leadership? We’ll see…

Different religious movements spring up, and others die. It doesn’t depend on how much education or passion that a pastor has. It depends on how the Holy Spirit is moving, how different demographics are playing out, and what our philosophical milieu is as a culture. And, whether our tradition is on the growing trend or the shrinking one, I do hope that we can all the humility to appreciate what God is doing in each time and place.

photo by dragonballyee

42 Comments »

It’s Holy Week–Holy Saturday, in fact. As we sit, in longing expectation for Easter, I feel like I ought to be writing something meaningful, and… um… Holy.

But I’m not. I guess I’ve been in the midst of writing a whole lot of sacred things during Lent, and for some reason, while we remember Jesus in that cool, dark tomb, my mind is moving to practicalities.

Maybe that’s because something that my friend, Ruth Everhart, mentioned in an artice has stuck with me for many weeks. She wrote about the practicalities of many of our decisions as churches—mainly, whether we can afford them any longer. Among the many things she questioned was our model for ministry.

In the Presbyterian Church, we have an educated clergy. That’s among the main reasons why I joined the PC(USA). I wanted a pastor who was smarter than I was, and I wasn’t finding that in the Calvary Chapel megachurch that I was attending.

We love that our pastors know Greek and Hebrew. We take great pride in our seminary and ordination requirements. In fact, we have so much pride in them that we have been fighting over ordination standards for decades….

Oh, but, this post is not going to be about same-gender relationships, because there is another very perceptible shift in our ordination standards that has crept up on us, that affects far more people than we realized, but we’ve hardly noticed it. At least we’ve barely acknowledged it.

We can no longer afford an educated clergy.

The cost of undergraduate and seminary education has gone up too high, and our churches have gotten too small. And…let’s face it, my friends…in many, many cases, our congregations can be way too stingy when it comes to pastor’s salaries. Churches don’t realize the enormous debt that students take on in order to uphold those ordination standards. And with the crushing economic situation, shrinking budgets, and a sanctuary filled with parishioners who remind us regularly of their “fixed incomes,” even if they did realize it, many of them couldn’t afford to do anything about it.

I visited Texas a couple of weeks ago, where I was told that many pastors are on food stamps (I know we qualified for them in first 7 years of ministry—even with two salaries. I never used them because we were serving in small towns, and I didn’t want to embarrass my congregation. What was I thinking?). Though pastors’ job satisfaction rates are high, our burnout rate is also high, and much of the burnout is due to financial problems.

So what are we going to do? Does a congregation of less than 100 members, with 30 people in worship, really need a pastor with seminary training? If not, then we need to think about this, because about half of our churches look like that.

In rural areas, they have already made the shift. While the denomination continues to make the ordination process more and more difficult, the number of Commissioned Lay Pastor (CLP) ministries keeps growing.

Are we going to acknowledge what’s happening? Are we going to face the fact that our seminary graduates can’t get jobs, but we have more and more CLPs? Are we going to embrace the fact that we are no longer a denomination that values an educated clergy, because we don’t have the resources to pay an educated clergy? Are we going to admit where our current trajectory is leading us? That we will be a denomination that will be largely lay led? Will we admit it, and begin to be honest about who we really are? 

Or, will we begin to figure out ways to pay our seminary graduates? Will we begin to shift our resources, so that they are no longer feeding their families with food stamps? Will we stop shaming the clergy for being greedy, and calling on them to make more and more sacrifices, when they already made an incredibly huge sacrifice to Sallie Mae?

When will we acknowledge that we can no longer afford an educated clergy, and do something about it?

Photo by Sebatl 

68 Comments »

The Internet Radio Show is coming together. Thanks to our lovely readership, Bruce and I have a name for the show: The God Complex.

Now we need a tag line.

Through the magic of twitter, blogging, and facebook, we got an amazing, thoughtful, and witty list. But, it’s hard to narrow it down.

What do you think? Go on over to Bruce’s blog. He’s got a poll, where you can vote on the top choices.

4 Comments »