Malaise in ministry

Vic Janzen

The malaise was exemplified a year or so ago when there were ten pastoral vacancies in my ecclesiastical neighbourhood, most of them for senior pastors. Associates and youth pastors seem less vulnerable, although a former local youth man tried to sell me a cell phone package a while ago. He seems to have changed careers. Judging from the frequent advertisements in the MB Herald, the rest of Canada isn't immune from the problem either.

Doubtless some of the movement is because of illness, incompetence, further study and sexual misconduct. These do not account for so many men being on the move at the same time. I was personally acquainted with several of these men and knew them to be men of integrity, intellligence and competence. So, why is this happening?

One reason is obviously the "wicked and stiffnecked people" syndrome. Nothing much has changed since Isaiah said, "Woe unto me for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips" (Isaiah 6:5). Gossip and backroom character destruction take their toll on the clergy. A palace revolution happens from time to time as well. But mostly our congregations mean well by their pastors.

Professionalism itself has had a destructive influence on us. We often bring a business management mentality to our expectations of the pastor. We expect vision and profits (increased attendance) from him. Even if the demographics of a particular community guarantee a shrinking membership, the pastor can be held responsible for "not being an evangelist".

When this business approach is grafted onto the holy matter of "calling a pastor", it produces some fascinating double-talk.

I have been intimately involved in three or four pastoral searches involving many candidates (I can't provide the New Testament reference for "candidate"). Typically, something like this happens. The church prays that God will call the person of His choice to be our pastor. We cursorily look first within the congregation and swiftly move to advertising in the MB Herald and to putting the word out to the old boy network, seminaries and conference offices. When God "calls" someone through this process, we invite him or her to candidate. Meanwhile, we carefully peruse his resume and references. We phone or e-mail his most recent moderator, board chair and chief elder and perhaps a seminary professor or two. Granted, we are praying the whole time for God to bless this process. Protocol demands that we entertain one candidate at a time, and the candidate is to entertain only one church at a time. (Here we diverge from the business model.) After much careful scrutiny and prayer, we finally "call" this pastor. The job description we have written requires a cross between Jesus and Billy Graham. We hammer out a contract. He is hired. Eventually we fire him or lay him off--unless God beats us to the punch and "calls" him elsewhere. The pastor is probably good for five years with us before this happens.

I have a strong suspicion that the very concept of a professional clergy is faulty in the first place. I believe in the church as a local, God-blessed spiritual community. I believe that God has given all the gifts needed in that local church--pastors included. We have substituted for God's giftedness the current trend of professionalism. Our people are too busy to exercise their gifts for many reasons; mostly they are too busy maintaining lifestyle. We would rather pay for clerical services than do them ourselves.

I realize there are drawbacks to the old system of volunteer clergy, and abolishing professionalism is not universally possible. We've gone too far. Times have changed. However, I conclude with a statement by Paul Stevens from his book Liberating the Laity: "Since the laity spends an enormous amount of time working inside or outside the home, their church time must be only a fraction of their life for God. Unless we equip the laity to live all of life for God, Christianity will degenerate into mere religion." Vic Janzen is a member of Sardis Community Church in Chilliwack, B.C. He divides his time between raising beef cattle and teaching senior high school communications.

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