Resources and Comments in Response to “A Question of Growth”
In “A Question of Growth” (the January 30, 2012 Alban Weekly, excerpted and adapted from Scattering Seeds: Cultivating Church Vitality), Stephen Chapin Garner and Jerry Thornell narrate how “the possibility and potential of the Holy Spirit” lead to unexpected results, even when congregations are seeking to build a particular model of ministry.
Drawing on their experience at UCC Norwell, where attempts to fashion a lay-led faith community resulted instead in seven church members entering seminary, the authors explain how they “unwittingly created a model of ministry that prompted people to choose to pursue pastoral ministry as a career.” As they put it, “In an attempt to create a clergy-free church, we wound up creating clergy that are now serving local churches in our area.”
Garner and Thornell conclude that the effort to grow, even when it is “misguided,” opens our minds, hearts, and wills to the Holy Spirit’s work. While we can try to grow in particular directions, it’s valuable to open ourselves to God’s guidance and avoid becoming too attached to our own preconceived or anticipated outcomes.
What resources might help us to open ourselves to such guidance? In addition to the items listed at the end of the article, please consider these items annotated in the Congregational Resource Guide: Heart, Mind, and Strength: Theory and Practice for Congregational Leadership; Liberating Hope!: Daring to Renew the Mainline Church; and Power Surge: Six Marks of Discipleship for a Changing Church.
What are your stories and thoughts on this topic? And what resources do you recommend? We look forward to hearing from you.
But surely Jesus calls us to be disciples and to disciple, He didn’t do everything Himself, He called 12 disciples and it then grew like yeast or any other cell for that matter. The church can’t grow if one person alone is being the church to the community, that’s like the captain of a ship doing all the work and everyone else on board being like passengers on a cruise liner, everyone has to work together. God gave us the Holy Spirit with gifts to build up the Body of Christ, why on earth would a body who was fit and healthy just rely on one toe or finger, or a nose to get around, that would be ridiculous. Jesus said ask the owner of the fields to send more workers, the harvest plentiful. I think we just see being a priest/ deacon/ minister/ pastor in a very limited way and we need to pray and ask to see through God’s eyes how to do this, to open our eyes to all the possibilities!
Yes, many pastors publish sermons online and someone can print them out and deliver them. But there is much more to creating a worship service, and much more to ministry than finding a sermon online to read in worship.
Some questions question for the author of this book/article:
-You are a pastor of a church. What do you do now that non-ordained people do everything (and better than ordained people possibly could)?
-Once the church has eliminated ministers and all churches are now fully lay-led, where will the lay people in your congregation who have gone to, and presumably graduated from, seminary serve?
- Where is the clergy shortage? I sure don’t see it in New England. And there are many young people attending seminary.
- a UCC pastor in Connecticut
Churches that are lay led are not lay led by choice but by necessity. If the pastors are out there, they aren’t hearing “the call” to small congregations. Our denomination has ignored smaller congregations and allowed them to go for many years without clergy. Small congregations know that they are pouring resources down the drain when paying an endless string of supplies. (One supply pastor gave the same sermon every time he visited!) The value in interim ministers seems to fill a managerial need to place pastors who do not want to relocate and serve long-term more than it serves congregations. Consequently, lay leadership is becoming an attractive alternative.
Yes, it is a wonderful gift to have a pastor delivering a consistent, thoughtful interpretation of scripture each week. Lacking that, lay members are doing the best job they can — and some are doing well in places the clergy don’t seem to want to touch. I am sure this is not always the case, but It is all some congregations have.
Wow! The same thing happened to our congregation and I see it happening in others. Full-time pastors just aren’t interested in our small church. Part-time pastors are expensive—a steady drain on resources with no growth.
We formed good long-term relationships with supply pastors and started to train lay talents. In 2007, a supply gave us less than 24-hour notice that he couldn’t help on Christmas Eve. That was the last straw! We stopped using supply pastors.
That Christmas Eve, we went online to find a sermon and our search (undoubtedly guided) led us to a pastor who publishes and catalogs all his sermons by lectionary year. He has a decade worth of sermons to choose from. We used one of his excellent sermons that night and wrote to him later and asked permission to continue using his work, which he granted. http://www.gerhardy.id.au/ We review them add some current and local illustrations. His consistent voice with love-based message was easy to embrace.
A strange thing happened. Perhaps because the words were second-hand, people felt more comfortable questioning the message. It is not unusual for someone to stop the sermon midway. “Can you read that part again? I’m not sure what he is saying.”
So our worship became lay-led and the laity developed skills they never imagined they had. Even the children began to take a leadership role. All members came to understand worship more intimately.
Surprise! The church grew!
But you didn’t mention how your denomination responded. Our denomination saw strong lay leadership and is doing everything they can to shut us down!