My own thoughts about how we got to this point will become apparent as I present some possible solutions. Some of my proposals will be more serious than others. Some of them will be long-term, others will be short-term. They’re listed here in no particular order.
My goal is to get some brainstorming underway. I want to get you thinking and praying with me. I’d love to hear what you think. Maybe one of my ideas can inspire you to come up with something better. Here we go:
(1) We can pray like crazy.
“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’” Matthew 9:36-38
Since Jesus told us to do this, this is the obvious place to begin. Instead of waiting until the problem hits our own congregation, maybe we should be entreating God, every week, that He would raise up more workers, both vocational and non-vocational, for the harvest.
(2) We can work and pray and see our churches become “Great Commission healthy.” That’s a great term that means that we’re not just “getting along” in our churches – which was always a very low standard for church health anyway. Great Commission healthy means that we’re getting along as we make disciples out of the raw material of lost people. More disciples in joyful churches will result in more people wanting to be church leaders.
(3) We can encourage young people to offer up their lives to God for Christian ministry, as God leads. We used to preach Romans 12:1-2 (about presenting your redeemed life as a living sacrifice to God) and similar passages We used to encourage our young people to aspire to “full-time Christian service” (and yes, we probably over-emphasized this in some circles). We used to encourage our kids to put eternally significant work (ministry) above the mere making of money and having a nice life.
What happened? It seems to me that in mainstream evangelicalism today we’ve become apathetic and worldly; almost as materialistic as our neighbors. Does anybody want to argue with this? We’ve come a long way from missionary Jim Elliot who said that, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Did anybody heed John Piper’s plea to not “waste your life”? Christian parents used to encourage their kids to attend Bible colleges and they were thrilled if their sons went “into the ministry.” Nowadays they’re more apt to be embarrassed if their kids want to be pastors or missionaries. Am I exaggerating? I don’t think so.
(4) We can start wrestling with the fact that this shortage is “Biblically unthinkable.” What I mean is that, in light of what we see in the New Testament, there is something wrong with the phenomenon of churches without leaders. This is a big subject, but briefly: the Apostles appointed elders – also known as overseers or shepherds – local, male, church leaders, to lead, feed and protect the churches they founded.
These men were spiritually gifted for this work, had a God-given desire to do this work, and were trained for this work, in the context of local church ministry. We’ve no indication that anyone moved away to a city with a seminary to become one of these leaders. Some of them were paid, and some of them were paid more than others. God hasn’t stopped giving these gifts to the church, has He? Something is wrong here, and I don’t think it’s on God’s part. See Acts 14:21-23, 20:7-38, Romans 15:14, Ephesians 4:11-16, I Tim. 3:1-7, 5:17-22, II Timothy 2:1-2, Titus 1:5-16.
(5) We can tell middle aged pastors that they can’t retire until they find their own replacements. Okay, I’m being a bit facetious here, but most of us pastors have told valuable lay persons that they can’t retire from their volunteer ministries until they find their own replacements. In light of Paul’s words to Timothy to raise up “reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (II Timothy 2:2), maybe this isn’t so unreasonable. Some of the best pastors I know received some schooling from colleges and seminaries and were also nurtured into the role, one-on-one, by their own pastors, some of them over the course of several years.
(6) We can learn how to function more effectively with bi-vocational and co-vocational pastors. (In today’s parlance, bi-vocational usually means that the pastor has a second part-time job which he needs to get by, while co-vocational means that he has a second, chosen, occupation or calling.) Many churches today simply can’t afford a full-time leader. In too many cases the pastor is trying to serve a pastor-dependent church full-time while holding down another job. In the best situations, the pastor is an equipper of others, and, in time, is surrounded by a team of other leaders who bear the load with him.
(7) Here’s a model – hinted at in #4 and #5 above – which I heard about recently from a Bible college leader: Mature, gifted and godly lay people, who have served and led in their churches in various capacities for years or even decades, are trained for pastoral leadership by their own pastors along with courses taken online from Bible schools. “We’ll help you train your people for ministry,” is what the school’s leaders say to church leaders.
That’s enough to think about for one week. Contact me at churchwhisperer@gmail.com with your feedback.
————————————————–
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
- Is your church praying Matthew 9:36-38 regularly?
- Is our church “Great Commission healthy,” joyfully making followers of Jesus out of lost people, helping them mature in the faith and equipping them for ministry?
- Is your church praying for and encouraging its young people to seriously consider Christian ministry? Is your church proud of its home-grown missionaries and “preacher boys” or is it more proud of its sons and daughters who “make good in the world” (make lots of money)?
- Who do we have in our congregation who might be a great candidate for future pastoral ministry?
