"Friends,
"I don’t know how things are where you are serving, but in the center of the country it is a rocky season for pastors. We have had several pastors with decades of experience come to a precipitous end of a call in the last few months. And, for those who are still hanging on, it is a rough row to hoe (how’s that for a Midwest analogy?) We have (as of today) 104 congregations. I cannot possibly get to the studies of each of our pastors to sit with him or her to let them tell me about how this is not what they expected their ministries to be like. So, I sent them the attached letter last week and I have heard from several of them that it came just at the right time. It is based on II Timothy. I share it with you just in case something like this might be of help to your pastors. [note: I haven't included the letter referred to here in RPK. Follow the above link to the article if you would like to read it.]
"Why is it so rough out there? I think there are several contributing factors. Most Presbyterians did not grow up in the Presbyterian church yet many of our churches continue to imagine that they do not really need to teach their new elders anything about Reformed theology and the polity that arises from it. We continue to act like they should just know it and pastors get cross-ways with their sessions. Second, with several of our congregations leaving us for other affiliations, it seems to have created an atmosphere where any authority that the presbytery might once have had is being diminished. We may go to a church and say our rules say “this” and they reply with an attitude of “make me.” Third, and most importantly, I think we have reached the tipping point in many of our churches. The people who are in our sanctuaries on Sunday morning look around and see that there are fewer and older people. They remember all of the things that used to happen at church that have gone by the wayside. They know in their guts that they need to change, but they do not want to do so. Then the pastor gets up on Sunday morning and sits in session meetings and tells them that they need to change. Again, they don’t want to. Instead of deciding that it is time to change themselves, they are deciding that the easiest way to stop having to think about change is to get rid of the person who is talking about change. So they fire their 63 ½ year old pastor who has been with them for 21 years and so on.
"Certainly an interesting time to be working in leadership in the church. I wish you well as you continue your ministry with your COM and help us to navigate these new waters."
Susan D. Krummel, General Presbyter and Stated Clerk, Presbytery of Great Rivers
Krummel makes three points: (1) Presbyterian local leaders no longer understand the system under which we operate; (2) the structures of the denomination are losing their authority; and (3) where pastors advocate change, the churches they serve resist it to the point of getting rid of the pastor. Krummel is right in her observation that the third is the most important of the three. She fails to mention a deeper factor, however, which is still more important. Most of our churches lack spiritual integrity and depth. They are not communities of prayer. We have ceded spirituality to the evangelical churches, which is a shame because they are not particularly good stewards of a full gospel spirituality. They are good at personal religion but deficient in working for social justice. In any event, these are troubled times for Presbyterian churches and their pastors. One can't help but wonder if it isn't the Spirit that is quietly causing the trouble (or, at least, piggy backing on it).
