A couple of years ago one of our Australian State Baptist Unions asked me to summarize what I’d learned in 30 years talking to pastors and ex-pastors. Here’s an excerpt from my introduction to the manual they commissioned me to write [1].

Today it’s both easier and harder to be a pastor. Easier, because we have more resources to help us – like the World Wide Web for sermon-material (ever used Google as a concordance?), more support-groups to encourage and pray for us, better access to the world’s practical theology experts, and a higher standard of living, on average, than pastors have ever enjoyed.

But it’s also harder. Many of us can identify with the apostle Paul who said, ‘Who is equal to such a task?’ about his own call to pastoral ministry. These days the expectations of our people are higher – and more likely to be expressed vigorously. Up-front leaders and speakers compete with dynamic personalities on television. There are more ‘religious’ people not attending churches (in the West) than ever before in history. Our people are likely to be better-educated – and differently-educated than we are. ‘One size fits all’ doesn’t work anymore: people are more mobile, and brand-loyalty doesn’t work for Generation X’ers (those born since 1965) – or even Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964).

The role of the clergy is not as clear as it was. Nor is there clear public affirmation of their role in many instances. And there’s a lack of confidence in institutions.

In the past 40 years I’ve preached in about 700 churches in Australia, and they’re becoming more varied each decade. The single most common question in our ‘Marks of a Healthy Church’ seminars: how can we cater for old and young with their different tastes in one worship service, particularly in smaller churches? This centres particularly on the issue of modern vs. older music. But then, we’ve argued about music before: some churches in 17th century England and Scotland forbade all singing, others said we should only sing Psalms. When new hymn-books are produced, there are mixed reactions. (In 1691 when the first Baptist hymn book appeared, many Baptists refused to use it!).

Back to TV: most church-attenders have watched almost 20 hours of television the previous week. Not only is the medium the message, but if communication in church isn’t dynamic/interesting (and cognizant of an assumed 45-second attention span), the music excellent, and the themes life-related, people will go elsewhere – even back to the TV. [2] In a consumer culture choices/freedoms dominate one’s lifestyle.

Baby Boomers and younger folks don’t share at all the ‘brand loyalty’ of their parents: indeed they scoff at it – hence the decline of denominations that have ‘expected loyalty but neglected needs’. Baby Boomers and GenX’ers see the church they’re in as a ‘way-station’ for their ongoing spiritual journey rather than the final destination. (This is partly because they’re open to upward job mobility, which may require changing location). They’re more likely to be loyal to a pastor than to a church or denomination. They’re also more tolerant of change, and more comfortable with diversity and ambiguity.

So an important question at this point is: should we surrender to the ‘I/me/myself’ selfishness of the consumer culture? Two excellent books on this are Philip Yancey’s Church: Why Bother? and Eugene Peterson’s The Wisdom of Each Other: A Conversation Between Spiritual Friends. The point these two books make: ‘Church is essentially in rebellion against selfishness and is committed to diversity’.

An Indian pastor was excited about his up-coming marriage. A Western missionary asked a few questions about the bride-to-be and it soon became evident that the young fellow had not yet even met the woman to whom he was betrothed. It was an arranged marriage. With as much cultural sensitivity as possible, the missionary asked how did they know if they loved each other? The Indian pastor’s response: ‘We will learn to love each other.’

The Church, whether we like it or not, is like an arranged marriage! We don’t determine who is or is not part of the Church, God does. We won’t get on with everyone.

Back to pastors: please note that we are not here judging the effectiveness of a pastor’s work simply in terms of cleverness or measurable success. I know many faithful ‘Jeremiahs’ whose congregations have dwindled; there were often factors at work beyond their control. Generally, however, well-led and healthy churches grow, spiritually and numerically. There’s a climate of love and expectancy and competence and relevance in them which encourages people to come back again! So I’d prefer words like ‘effective’ and ‘faithful’ rather than ‘successful’.

In summary: if we are to face these challenges we will need:

* A strong faith and a clear ‘call’

* The help of others in dealing with our ‘baggage’ – especially loose ends from our family-of-origin experiences

* Teachability and flexibility: tradition is a good servant, but a very bad master.

* A shared ministry with the whole church (so I’d discourage the use of the word ‘minister’ in the singular) [3]

By Rowland Croucher (John Mark Ministries).

June 2011

****

[1] You can access the whole thing at http://jmm.org.au/articles/8658.htm et seq)

[2] See Tony Campolo, 1995, chapter 4 ‘The Television Challenge’ in Can Mainline Denominations Make a Comeback?

[3] ‘Ministry as Empowerment’ – http://jmm.org.au/articles/8109.htm

[4] More Stress and Burnout resources here: http://jmm.org.au/articles/20804.htm

****

See also  www.thescrapheap.wordpress.com - interesting thoughts on burnout from a pastor.