The huge problem of the clergy shortage that doesn't exist
I’ve been in a fascinating recent email exchange with some pastors, elders, and ministry candidates about the perceived clergy shortage in the Presbyterian Church (PC(USA)). In short: there is none. This began with the forward of a letter from the denominational headquarters in Louisville. The letter asserted things like:
- 4,000 of our 11,000 congregations have under 100 members and likely cannot support a full-time pastor (certainly not one with seminary debt)
- at a snapshot mid summer 2008, there were 166 churches willing to call a first call pastor and 311 seminary graduates actively seeking a first call
- 166 candidates were still in the search process for a first call after a year of searching
When you break it down, as always, we’re met with a combination of troubling factors.
- 56% of candidates seeking their first call limit geographically
- Churches prefer to call candidates with experience, so it’s difficult go even get on the first rung of the ladder
- Size Matters. While 50% of our churches are under 100 members, only 9.5% of candidates are willing to serve such a congregation
As I read these stats: WE DO NOT HAVE A CLERGY SHORTAGE, WE HAVE SEVERE DISTRIBUTION PROBLEM
Or another way to think about it…. on the average, our seminaries are much stronger than the denomination.
A few brief thoughts come to mind. Our presbytery committees and seminaries need to do a much better job of communicating these stats. We speak of context all the time in seminary, but rarely about numbers as clearly as these statistics show. Where’s the emphasis in rural ministry and redevelopment in our seminaries? We should be teaching aspiring pastors secular as well as church leadership skills, that way when they leave seminary they can get a real job and serve a church part-time. Bi-vocational calls are in.
Also, if it often takes candidates a year to find a call, we could start some stopgap measures or mini-placements for candidates in limbo.
Finally, I think there must be a better way to use technology in the call process somehow. PIFs are so impersonal and difficult to differential for call committees. How about a denominational system for candidates to make their own website, post a sermon video, that sort of thing. I figure we should be able to cut down the time churches are searching.
Ultimately, though, it’s all still trying to put a square peg in a round hole: candidates are seeking calls that don’t exist, and churches are seeking candidates that don’t exist. Even if we meet in the middle, every pulpit will be full and candidates will be without a call and a salary.
Other ideas?
P.S. I’ve got another post coming on how a theology of vocation functions in all of this. That’s a great conversation to have, but it doesn’t solve the math.
image by Terri Heisele
A week later
It was a joy to attend the first meeting of the Presbyterian Hymnal Committee last week. Strange, I know, “a joy to attend a meeting.” Truly, though, I had a great time getting to know the other committee members, and getting a better grasp of our task.
The Presbyterian News Service has a wee pic from the commissioning service here.
And Linda Valentine blogs about things here.
I won’t bore you with meeting details, but I will say that I took away from our meeting both great excitement about the road ahead and clarity that the task before us is, well, hard.
The largest American Lutheran denomination (ELCA) came out with their newest hymnal two years ago. Rumor has it, they received over 10,000 hymns to consider for the hymnal. That number is both heartening since it shows the huge popularity of hymnody and explosion of new texts and tunes in recent years, but also harrowing since the committee had to find the time and energy to consider 10,000 hymns!
The PC(USA) is in a delicate place at the moment, theologically, pastorally, financially. My personal hope, then, is that through the process of developing the next hymnal we might in some way, with God’s help, be strengthened, uplifted, and soothed through the collection of hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs to God. After all, it is to God’s glory that we work and sing.
Humming a New Tune (for five, maybe six years)
In a press release today, the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation announced the Committee to Develop the Next Presbyterian Hymnal. Pretty exciting stuff.
Denominational hymnals tend to have a life comparable to one generation, so the PC(USA) is doing well to start the process now since a quality hymnal takes around 5 years to develop. The denomination’s 1990 “new blue hymnal” isn’t so new anymore, so the General Assembly in 2004 authorized the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation to conduct a feasibility study and develop a new hymnal in collaboration with the Office of Theology, Worship, and Education, the Presbyterian Association of Musicians, and the Holy Spirit (sorry, no link). PPC will assume all the costs for development, including the expenses of the committee.
What’s super crazy, though, is the interest in the project. Over 230 applications were received….yes, for a hymnal committee! The committee of 15 is quite diverse, with eight men and seven women, two Asian Americans, one African American, two young adults, a seminary president, pastors, professors, and an internationally known hymn writer. And, perhaps the most disturbing thing you’ll read all week: I’m on it.
Our first meeting is next week. I’m pretty darn pumped. I’m not sure how much blogging I’ll do about the project along the way, but I have heard that so far, at least, folks really value openness and will intentionally seek ways to keep the church involved along the way. So we’ll see.
To see the press release, other committee members, hymnal website, FAQs, or complain about their ridiculous choice of a certain young adult, click on the graphic above or below.
PC(USA) Call Process: PIFs, Blogs, and Cautious Questions
Because I’m strange, I spent the last lull before classes and my last chances to really relax for a while working on my PIF. For all you out there blessed enough NOT to know what a PIF is, in Presbyterian Church (USA) lingo, PIF is short for your “Personal Information Form.” Or in the shorthand of the business world: no PIF = no job; with PIF job possibilities.
Think of a PIF as a precursor to online dating. It’s a seven page document saying who you are, who you’ve been with, and with whom you might like to end up. In our best times as the church, the PIF is a valuable tool that helps churches and candidates discern Christ’s call in their lives. It certainly can be that, and has been so for many friends. On the other hand, I have some friends who have found it very difficult to find calls and I wonder how the document might be improved.
The PIF has 4 1500-character essays:
- Church Characteristics Desired
- Accomplishments in present call
- Leadership Style
- Key Theological Issues Facing the Church
Here’s the basic tension I experienced while writing. Since these documents, by their nature, come with no real background info (e.g. no cover letter) and intentionally don’t show the candidate’s personality, the candidate is likely to write very cautiously. Like ordination exams, PIFs stifle creativity and, basically lead to blandness. For example, I consider climate change as probably the largest issue facing the church and the world this century, but because the climate change discussion carries with it so much baggage and is best done in person, I chose another key issue to discuss for that question.
Candidates–especially those facing looming seminary graduation and loss of housing–are likely to answer questions in ways neither offensive nor provocative, just safe. If in just a few months you need a pay check to make the car payments and buy groceries, and this form is your primary introduction to churches who might pay you, then your incentive is not to be open and honest, but just pleasing. It’s a question of ethics within a closed system; even though the system is flawed, you must work within it, play the game.
That said, I’m staying very open to the process. If God can work through a flawed person like me, God can certainly work through a PIF and CIF (that’s the Church Information Form). I’m envisioning the PIF as just the very first part of a much larger conversation, the opening of a door so I and a Pastor Nominating Committees can get to know each other more fully and without the encumbrance of internet forms and checkboxes.
Speaking of which, I’m wondering what other bloggers have done with their blogs during a public job search process. Should I make a link here to my PIF, anticipating churches may find their way here? Or just carry on and let the PIF/CIF process happen outside the bounds of A Wee Blether? Thoughts?
image by Renaude Hatsedakis
PC(USA) Next Steps
On Tuesday (in Presbyterian Church (USA)) lingo, I was finally assessed by the Presbytery of Florida Committee on the Preparation of Ministry (CPM) and certified able to circulate my Personal Information Form (PIF)–”ready to receive a call.” Basically that mouthful just means I’m officially able to begin looking for my first call.
After leading worship and preaching a sermon, I was examined for a little over an hour. It was great. After talking a bit about Scotland and my sense of call, the committee asked practical, worthwhile, and challenging questions in each of the ordination exam categories (Bible, Worship and Sacraments, Polity, Theology). The questions were sometimes tough, but not out to get me.
I’d always wondered what types of questions a CPM might ask, so here’s a few I got, and a few I anticipated.
Questions from CPM/COM:
- After explaining the “priority of Mark” to a Bible study class, how do you respond to a class member who asks, “But is the Bible true?”
- What does it mean to you to affirm the authority of scripture?
- I preached a recent sermon on Jacob, and a member of the congregation came up to me afterwards and related it to predestination. What does predestination have to do with the Old Testament?
- I’ve noticed a recent trent in Old Testament scholarship to discuss Jesus more often, how do you read the OT messiah prophesies in the light of Jesus?
- Why does the PC(USA) recognize only two sacraments?
- Does the Holy Spirit work outside the church? If so, how do we know?
- A small group comes to you and wants to start a new worship service. How do you proceed?
I stumbled a bit when pressed how predestination relates specifically to Christology (I said some stuff on point, but should have brought in Barth). I also made several judgement calls to shut-up rather than pressing unnecessary points. (Probably should have done that more, but oh well.)
My mantra was a both/and. When answering, I wanted to communicate that I knew the history and theology of the Reformed tradition and that the tradition lives on in exciting and challenging ways today. I felt like I was able to accomplish both–affirming my roots in the reformed tradition and claiming my particular understanding of Christ’s call in ways critical and contemporary.
My next step in the ordination process is to find some lovely folks silly and desperate enough to call me, and then be examined by the calling committee’s Committee on Ministry and then on the floor of the Presbytery.
I plan to keep pretty quiet on the blog about such things, as it’s important to see the process through and who knows who else is applying for calls, or how many I’m speaking to at the same time, etc. I think personal communications in such matters is safer and smarter. That said, I’d love to hear any comments from folks who know the process, or any other tips for CPM or COM examinations.
What are other questions to watch for? What was your approach? If you were on the committee and could ask a candidate any question, what would you ask?
[image by saavem]
Presbyterian Church Gay Ordination (for dummies edition)
So the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) just completed this morning in San Jose, California. By most accounts, the assembly in all its big meetingness, Robert’s Rules, and sub-sub committee fun went well enough in terms of practicalities. And there’s hundreds of fantastic and important steps the assembly took to forward Christ’s mission in the world. I hope, in the future, to blog more. But this post is simply to alert folks–in non churchy non Presbyterian language–of the PC(USA)’s move towards full inclusion of God’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and queer children.
Ok, so for as long as I can remember the PC(USA) has been fighting over whether or not glbtq folk in same sex relationships can be ordained as elders or ministers. So we’re not alone there. The Episcopal Church is having huge issues with itself at the moment over an American relationshiped gay bishop and what the means, and other mainline denominations as well. Interestingly, while some denominations tend to approach glbtq questions first with an eye towards whether or not ministers can conduct weddings or civil union services, the PC(USA) has tended to focus on the question of ordination first (which is sort of backwards, I think, but oh well). So while some US denoms, like the United Church of Christ are more open, the PC(USA) has been more conservative. We’ve said, basically: you can be gay, you just can’t live our your relationship with a committed partner of the same sex. (The constitution puts it, we require “fidelity within marriage or chastity within singleness” and since we don’t allow gay marriage, if you’re gay you either have to hide it from the church or not fully live out God’s intentions for you and your partner.)
So here’s what the 2008 assembly did….
Effective immediately:
- We changed the old case law that informs our courts so glbtq candidates can move forward
The PC(USA) has a church court system for dealing with church discipline, just like the state has a court system for enforcing state laws. Presbyterian courts rely on the Bible, sure, but also our constitution and case histories from previous similar cases. Well, cases regarding glbtq ordination used to be informed by an old ruling (1979, I think) which was has some pretty offensive language towards gays. Then there’s more recent history (like a few months ago, which I won’t go into but it’s there). One assembly can’t change the constitution, but it can change the “Authoritative Interpretation” of the constitution that courts use for guidance. This assembly did so, effective immediately. So a glbtq candidate for ordination may declare she’s cool with Jesus, Presbyterianism, and all that, but happens to be gay and living faithfully in a same-gender relationship and governing bodies, as of this new action, may allow candidates to be ordained. (The official language is that they “scruple” with one specific aspect of the constitution–has been done since way back). Whew.
Effective in one year, God willing:
- Passed first step towards the process of opening glbtq ordination
To change our presbyterian constitution you need (1) a majority vote of one national assembly, (2) a majority vote by the presbyteries (our regional governing bodies of which they’re 173) (3) another majority vote of the national assembly. [Andy has corrected this statement in the comments. My apologies. Clearly I've been away too long:) ] This assembly voted by 54% to start that two step process. You can read the Presbyterian Outlook article here.
Noteworthy: they did not vote to change the definition of marriage from “a man and a women” to “two people”
So that’s what happened. Conservatives are rather perturbed. Liberals are cautiously optimistic. We’re all a bit unsure about the future of the denomination, as some uber-conservative churches have or do threaten to leave. The trick moving forward will be to discuss the proposed changes in presbyteries kindly, faithfully, and humbly. Unity in the midst of our diversity is one of the denomination’s best qualities, but it ain’t easy.
May God stay with us as we discern Spirit’s future guidance.
image by Lioness65
Jumping Johosophat, We did it!
Bruce Reyes Chow, frequent commenter on this blog, friend from way back, San Fransisco pastor, blogger extraordinaire, was elected moderator of the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) last night.
I didn’t wake up at 5am to watch the election from Scotland, but Bruce must have been darn convincing–the Spirit must have been working clearly–to be elected on only the second ballot, and to receive 48% on the first.
I’ll place links to news stories as I find them, but here’s a start:
- General Assembly News Story, “Reyes-Chow elected moderator of 218th GA“
- Adam Walker Cleaveland’s (actually at GA) blog here
- GA Junkie
- Jan Edmiston
…Random: on an unrelated note, but not worth its own post, I just made it in the Daily Kos, Faith and Politics blogroll. Cool stuff. You should definitely read the blog, by the way. It’s hearty and hilarious.
Connect Online
