I am a ruling elder, not a minister of word and sacrament, so I don’t have any of my own stories of pursuing a pastoral call as the candidate. Having served on my presbytery’s committee on ministry, and been the COM liaison to several pastor nominating committees, I have stories from the other side. But with the increase in blogging there are numerous first-hand accounts of candidacy and seeking a call.
Adam Copland is regularly writing about his experience in seminary and his progress towards a call and ordination in the PC(USA). He has a monthly “Seminary Reflections” piece on Presbyterian Bloggers (Adam’s contributions from October, November, and December). He usually also posts these on his own blog, A Wee Blether. Beyond the Seminary Reflections series he has other posts on his blog regarding the process and situation, including a recent post about “The huge problem of the clergy shortage that doesn’t exist.” In summary the PC(USA) has roughly twice as many clergy as churches and while the number of churches is declining, the number of clergy is stable. For churches-seeking-clergy and clergy-seeking-churches, it is not really a pure supply/demand problem, but a distribution, affordability, and experience mis-match. And don’t just read the article, keep reading the comments.
Another blogger who is just finishing seminary and has been keeping us updated on his journey is Benjamin Glaser who writes the blog Backwoods Presbyterian. While his blog is usually very theologically oriented, there are good insights into his journey as a student at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, also in Pittsburgh. He is under care of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.
I also enjoyed the account by “Danny” of her time as a probationer in the Church of Scotland and the task of “hunting a charge” in her blog “Rumors of Angels?” There are more great stories in that blog than for any other candidate/inquirer/probationer I can think of. One that I have bookmarked, and can totally see happening after my time on COM, is her story about doing a neutral pulpit at a church for one pastor search committee, and being a “small world,” another search committee that was considering her out caught word of it and showed up as well. I can tell you a bunch of similar stories about confidentiality not being kept and news getting back to home churches and presbyteries before the candidate. As Danny puts it:
I mentioned the difficulties with confidentiality previously … about
being discussed on the golf course… in shops… and via the ‘old
boy’s’ network. Well add the dentist to that list!The church
where I was preaching (for reasons of confidentiality) did not know
until this morning that I would be preaching instead of their regular
minister, but one of their members overheard all the details of what
was going down last Tuesday while in the dentist’s waiting room… hey
ho! I felt quite sorry for the interim moderator who was doing it all
‘by the book’ and trying her best to look after the interests of ‘her’
nominating committee… meanwhile this second committee were discussing
me all over town.Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Well…
if nothing else you have to laugh… and so we did! For some reason the
thought of my being discussed in the dentist seems hilarious… surreal
even… when I go to the dentist I am too worried about potential pain
and discomfort… injections, drills and fillings… to talk to anyone.
While Danny has been successful, there are others who are not, and “Cavman” over at Cavman Considers has been between pastorates for a while and been giving us discrete glimpses of his search. In a recent post he tabulates the churches that have rejected his application but are still without a pastor. He concludes:
So, 5 churches think it’s better to not have a pastor than to have me
(and the other 50 applicants) as their pastor. Interesting.
[With no judgment on Cavman’s situation, let me say that filling a pastoral position is not like filling a corporate position, it is a “God Thing,” a discernment process where both the search committee and the candidates are trying to sense the will of God and who He is calling to that position. I can’t speak for any of Cavman’s rejections, but I have my own stories (from the other side) that I can and will share another time, about where I am certain God was, and was not, calling individuals to particular positions.]
And finally, if you think your candidates’ committee or denomination has unusual requirements, here is one that would keep a few pastors I know out of the pastorate. I leave you with this: A news item about the Mizoram Presbyterian Church‘s highest governing body, the Mizoram Synod. In the meeting this week they have passed a requirement that:
“From now on someone who is tattooed will not be allowed to be ordained
as Probationary Pastors (of Mizoram Presbyterian Church).”
[For background, the Mizoram Presbyterian Church Synod is a constitutate member of the Presbyterian Church of India General Assembly. Mizoram State is in the far northeast corner of India and through missionary work in the late 19th Century the population is predominantly Christian and the Presbyterian Church has a major influence. Please keep praying for the violence in other parts of India where the Christians are a minority.]
My blog post was just sort a weird thought I had one morning. In other posts on the subject, you can see I certainly understand the need for a good fit, and the providence of God. That was clearly the case in one situation- our understanding of grace in the Christian’s life & ministry were different.
But I also understand our sinful hearts. I’ve seen churches have unrealistic, even sinful, expectations. Some churches worship success, or other idols, that remove from their consideration men who would be great pastors for their congregations.
In such cases, the providence of God may be to hand them over to their own selfish desires, as he did to Israel prior to Saul’s anointing as king. I say that only because we tend only to see God’s providence as positive, not as corrective discipline which it sometimes is. (and the same goes for pastors… they too can have idols and sinful motives that need to be addressed in this twisting, turvy process)
grace & peace
Hi Cavman,
Your comments here and on your own blog are absolutely right on. In working with churches I have seen the different combinations: Churches that jump at the first possible candidate even though it is not a good fit, churches that are waiting for the perfect candidate and pass up several “good” fits, and churches that — through prayer and discernment — had the patience to wait and find the candidate that, in hind sight it is abundantly clear, God was indeed calling to that pastorate. And there were a couple of times I had to have a heart-to-heart with the search committee and ask some hard questions about their discernment process and let them know what I was seeing at “the stranger in their midst.” And then there are the churches where the congregation has problems and divisions that will result in almost any pastor failing at that church. I could go on and on, but all this to affirm your comment that the whole process, on both sides, is tainted by our human sinfulness. And that is a major reason that I am a Presbyterian, because I believe that the wisdom, discernment, and accountability of the group, in this case the search committee, help get us around our sinful nature. But then, “even synods and councils may err…” It may have been a “weird thought,” but it was one with some validity.
Thanks for your comment and faithful witness, and I will be praying for you in your search.