Ordained clergy seeking federal bail-out?
March 6, 2009 by churchless
Filed under Clergy, Featured
If George Barna’s predictions are true, many professional ministers may find themselves unemployed within the next ten to fifteen years as their congregations literally disappear into thin air. Research indicates that significant numbers of committed Christians are leaving institutional churches (IC) in favor of a less structured faith journey. Barna calls it a Revolution in his 2005 book by the same title; in fact, he describes it as “the biggest Revolution of our time.”
Obviously, the title of this article is a spoof reflecting on the dire consequences facing professional clergy; however, the current religious industry seems to be completely oblivious, as it churns out newly-minted “masters of divinity” left and right. Many ordained clergy will confess that they have no marketable skills outside their church vocations, having invested four years pursuing an undergraduate degree, three years getting their MDiv, and another two to six years completing either a Doctor of Ministry or a PhD. Others entered their ministerial career later in life, after significant experience in business or industry.
I’m wondering if anyone has really thought about the serious plight of these fellow believers, who simply got caught up in the IC system like so many others with sincere hearts, the purest of motives, and a desire to serve the Lord with their entire being. All my life the message was clear: “full-time ministry” or “full-time missionary service” was the very pinnacle of commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ and His church.
With the deconstruction or collapse of this gigantic religious industry, how will these families be cared for and ministered to? Will they be honored? Or will they be held in contempt like the Wall Street bankers who lined their pockets and then asked for the government to bail them out?
Having served as a full-time pastor and chaplain for 18 years in a large mainline denomination, I certainly can relate to your blog entry. I certainly found myself going to college and seminary to study for “the ministry” – and certainly my heart was in the right place. I wanted to serve Christ – and so I did – becoming captive to something that I never believe God intended for the church. During my last pastorate I began to question the “system” and the “machine” that we, as organizational beings, created. Like all human endeavors I found that the institutional church was not what I had envisioned when I first became a “man of the cloth”. This led to a lot of disillusionment – but not a loss of faith as much as a rediscovery of it.
As I stood in front of all the aging members of my church Sunday after Sunday, I would look into the gray-haired and blank eyes of well-intentioned persons wanting to “serve Christ”. A lot of angst was placed into “how we can reach the community?” or “what would bring people in to hear the good news?”, which, when really admitted to, is translated as “how can we get more people to come to our club and pay their dues?” Where was Christ in all this? We were feeding the machine – sought to self-perpetuate it.
So I left in 2005 and what did I find? At first I had to figure out “who I was” as so much of my identity was in my role as a pastor. Then I began to feel resentment as though I had been “short-changed” by the system. But now, after 4 years out of the pupit and in not attending any local church I find freedom to be who God wanted me to be without the artificial role that any system can place upon a believer. I’m free to serve Christ – which I do in my daily life and I couldn’t be more happy.
I didn’t seek a “bail out” – I had to find another career but I wanted meaning behind my paycheck – I still wanted to minister. I did happen to have a career that I had performed for 10 years while preparing for institutional ministry. I even went back to college and earned a 3rd master’s degree. Now I’m working as a healthcare provider, teaching in a university and freely doing what I believe God wanted me to do all along – serve him.
Yes, the world has changed and I’m grateful for the change. There is no going back as once you leave – one cannot tread the same water as the flow has already changed. I don’t hold any resentment toward the instititional church – I simply see it for what it is – irrelevant.
I started serving the Lord several years after believing Christ since the late 80’s, and at one stage close to becoming a “full time minister” but God forbidden, that did not happen, that was the mercy of the Lord. I had my job, same job I’m haiving today as an engineer in a construction firm. Over the years I was trained to teach sunday school, remember bible book by book (required and examplified by those that minister the pulpit in our church), and eventually regularly preaching on the pulpit, all these without receiving a single paycheck from the congregation, so that the people can hear the gosple FREE. This is what is taught is the Bible. The ministered are entitled to get paid and live on the gosple, as per Paul, but Paul did not use that entitlement, for the sake of the saints, neither did Jesus, he had a job as a carpenter while ministered to the people in his time while on earth. This must be the atitude of the ministers today, or else, a good intention will eventually be translated into a tool of evil by satan, who WILL enslave God’s minister into a poor donation seeker from the very people he/she is called to serve, mourish, and provide. ISN’T THIS ABSURD, absolutely yes, shame on those ministers that seek money (or beautify it to call it offering) first rather than His Kingdom, no wonder people leave church everyday, and the church loses it power. Can parents get respect by asking their children to pay and fee the parents and at the same time demanding the children to listen to their hypocritical “preaching” of love and giving?????? ABSURD, no more discussion. Let thruth shine, Shine Jesus Shine, let’s serve our Lord without getting paid, serve Him gladly, and freely, live on your self, let us make church donations for the ministry and to the poor ONLY, ministers, serve our Lord FREELY, without PAY, let your service be free, DON’T CHARGE THE POOR SHEEP THAT COME ASKING YOUR HELP, our service MUST BE FREE, TOTALLY FREE, like what we have received from Christ and the Farther, DI YOU PAY CHRIST??????