The pastor shortage has become a serious matter in the evangelical world. A friend just told me that in his region of his Bible-believing denomination, they will be losing one-third of their pastors within the next few months. One third!
As evangelicals, we haven’t mourned too much about the pastor shortage among the other varieties of Christians; after all, they’re wrong (to varying degrees) and deserve to have pastor shortages! But it shouldn’t be happening in our camp. And I agree. It shouldn’t. But it is. Perhaps wrestling with it will be good for us.
The following are twenty possible solutions. I confess that I’m brainstorming; I’m looking to spark your thinking and your prayers, and I’d love to get your feedback. There’s no detail here, but you can dig a little deeper by following the links at the end of the article.
- We can pray like crazy. Matthew 9:36–38 should become a regular part of our Sunday prayers (as well as our Monday through Saturday prayers).
- We can work and pray to see our churches become “Great Commission healthy.” The term means that we’re not just “getting along” in our churches; 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.
- We can encourage young people to offer up their lives to God for Christian ministry – as in Romans 12:1-2 – as God leads. We used to preach this often. What happened?
- 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, and I don’t think it’s God’s fault. 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.
- We can tell middle-aged pastors that they can’t retire until they find their own replacements. I’m being a bit facetious here, but most of us pastors have told valuable lay persons that they can’t retire from their ministries until they find their own replacements. Paul told Timothy to raise “reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (II Timothy 2:2).
- 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 feed his family, while co-vocational means that he has a second, chosen, occupation or calling.
- Here’s a model which I heard about recently from a Bible college leader: Mature, gifted, and godly laymen, 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 – as in #5 above – 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 pastors.
- We can stop despising smaller churches and their solo-pastor leadership positions. I’m thankful to God that an emerging movement is honoring and highly valuing small congregations and their gifted, multi-tasking pastors.
- We can match every teachable young pastor with an experienced coach, so they’re less likely to drop out in despair. Too many young pastors flame out quickly due to a lack of guidance, wisdom, and encouragement. In my observation, many retired or veteran pastors would love to take one or more younger pastors under their wing.
- We can train pastors more effectively, resulting in fewer pastoral failures. When I graduated from seminary, I discovered that I was unprepared to serve as a pastor. Young men graduating today feel the same way. At one point, I wrote about the need for “flight simulators” for pastors so they could face a variety of real-life situations without anyone getting hurt.
- We can start new pastors in residencies and internships instead of throwing them into the lion’s den of solo or senior pastorates. One- or two-year, no-fault, no-long-term-obligation internships/residencies might be a great alternative to one- or two-year associate or solo pastorates, which often end poorly for everyone.
- We can lure rested pastors out of retirement. Many sixty-five-year-old pastors need a year or two of rest, and then they’re “good to go” again, a little slower perhaps, but ready to be more powerful and wise and fruitful than they’ve ever been.
- We can be more open to multiple parishes. Serving more than one church (usually rural, but not necessarily) is tough, but serving a church part-time while working at Home Depot part-time isn’t easy either.
- We can be more open to cross-denominational pastorates. I’m not suggesting that our second-tier theological beliefs don’t matter. They do. What I am suggesting is that some of us might be mature, secure, careful, and gracious enough to – at least temporarily – serve as pastors of churches which are a bit different from our own chosen theological/denominational framework. (Interim pastors do it every day.)
- Tired pastors can share pastorates. I have seen this done. Issues surrounding who does what and, especially, who leads the church, must be worked out, of course, but this is not impossible.
- Longer, healthier pastorates will lessen the need. This is a big subject so I’m going to refer you to an excellent and thought-provoking book, Extended Stays, by Rich Brown.
- We can treat pastors better. A couple of beleaguered pastor friends wanted to make sure that I didn’t forget this one. Here’s the bottom line: A few churches treat their pastors exceptionally well. Many churches treat their pastors fairly well. More than a few churches treat their pastors very poorly.
- We can consider mergers, fostering and adoptions. All of these can be great solutions in some situations. See the links to the full-length posts for more details.
- We can rethink our theology of calling. Again, this is a big subject. All I’m asking here is that you join me in seeking the truth of the Scriptures on this subject. Here’s my concern: The theology that says that every congregational pastor, part-time or full-time, must be someone who received, at some point in time, a clear, dramatic and unmistakable lifetime call from God to be a pastor, is questionable Biblically and a hindrance to finding the gifted leaders (Ephesians 4:11-13) whom God has provided for our churches.
- Churches can become more willing to call pastors who don’t quite fit their wish list. Too many churches are remaining pastor-less year after year because their pastor profiles (their dreamy descriptions of their ideal pastoral candidate) are too long, too narrow or too detailed. Too many congregations are looking for a forty-year-old Jesus with a wife and children and twenty years of experience.
For more detail, see the following posts on www.helpingchurchesthrive.com:
