Clergy Shortage
A while back, some friends and I were talking about the shortage of clergy in the mainline churches. We talked about the candidacy process, and the ways that it discourages some people from seeking ordination.
Well, I left the conversation, and the question remained in the back of my mind, just sort of gnawing away. I noticed that a couple of days a week I was coming home grumpy -- complaining about this or that aspect of my job.
And then, as I was distributing communion on Sunday morning, it hit me -- I love my job! I am doing the one thing I would rather do than anything else in the world. I get to live my dream.
That's what's missing. How many pastors talk this way about the ministry? Most of us spend our time talking about the demands placed on us, about the hassles, about the lack of privacy, about the petty church conflicts. And we wonder why people don't feel drawn to the ministry! We talk about it cynically, as if any other job would be better.
But we all started this life for a reason. It's not perfect, and certainly the life of a pastor is filled with its share of frustrations and problems. But I still would rather be doing this than anything else.
So that is my stand, my part for helping to solve the clergy shortage (and make my life generally happier). I resolve to remind myself -- everyday -- that I love my job, that I am lucky to have such a deeply fulfilling life. And when I have a bad day -- when there is conflict, or problems, or complaints -- I will remind myself even more.
I love my job.
4 comments:
Funny, my wife and I were just having a conversation along these lines. Sure, there are days when being a pastor is a horrible experience of life, and then there are days when when the joy is overwhelming.
What I find myself doing when people express a potential calling is to invite people to shadow me for a couple of days. Come see what I do, and we can talk after that. I am amazed at how many people have no idea what we do on a day to day basis. Being involved in a team ministry, as I am in my current context, there is a huge amount of administrative and supervisory work to be done, something many people do not anticipate. It is odd how many folks think we spend hours a day in reflection on scripture and sermon prep.
As far as a shortage goes, though, I don't think it helps that seminary has become so expensive by comparison to just a generation ago. Big student loan bills combined with low pay and a job that is often not family friendly...I am not sure we could "recruit" well with that being known.
In July I was reading the book Power Surge. I never got to blogging about it. It talks about the goal of the church being "making disciples" not "making members." Skipping a couple of steps here......Basically it says that if a pastor is in the traditional do everything model, he/she will eventually "fail" to live up to expectations. This can be hard on a pastor who is a servant by nature or a people pleaser.
But I wonder how many pastors in the field can roll-model a better way to new pastors/seminarians. And what exactly is being taught in sems as to what is a good pastor?
We've had pastors in our local church being criticized for not doing certain things. LP's comments fit in with this: how much does the pastor communicate with at least the church council as to what he/she does all week?
Since no one person can have all talents, how much a pastor says, "This isn't my area of talent. I need to delegate this task," can make a big difference within a church (as compared to certain tasks being ignored.)
PS - I think you bring up a good point. The fatal flaw I encountered at the Lutheran sem is that it seemed like people were really trained to pastor churches that were smaller. I understand that this includes a goodly number of ELCA parishes, but when I accepted a call at a large parish, I had to quickly learn skills that were not natural gifts. I've even found myself as of late looking at graduate education programs in organizational leadership.
Concerning folks not really knowing what we do, I think it is impossible to commnicate that to most people. Our executive committee seem to have a pretty good grip on it because we work closely on issues of finance and administration, but what even the inner circle doesn't really see are things like phone calls in the middle night, the stress that may accompany some counseling situations etc. It is hard to communicate that without feeling like you are complaining.
At one time we submited a monthly report to council, which chronicled number of hospital visits, counseling sessions, classes taught, sermons preached, etc. About two years ago the council decided that they thought that was overkill, and did away with that process.
I need to shift this to its own post, as I think what is inherent in this conversation is the fact that pastors are really among the last generalists in a society in which everyone is highly specialized.
LP -
Thanks for your comments. I am going to put a link in to your excellent follow-up post on Pastors as the last generalists.
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