The Pastor-Less Church
One of the priorities that drives our work at the Centre for Lifelong Learning is empowering and building the confidence of lay leaders. To that end, we have been working for some time on developing resources and learning modules specifically for those who are feeling called, either by circumstance or personal discernment, to leading worship and preaching in the local congregation. We are a small team at Ministry Forum so such work takes time but I’m hopeful that within the next month or so we will be launching our first offering to support courageous lay leaders in the Church Today. I explore this a little more below…
Love to hear your thoughts on this. Reply with a comment below.
Just before Christmas, a Ministry Forum community member shared this article with me about Freshwater United Church in Newfoundland.
I read the article and also listened to the podcast episode from CBC’s Atlantic Voice (I’d recommend that you do the same):
Read the Article: When this church lost its minister, these ordinary churchgoers stepped up to save it
Listen to the Podcast Episode: Freshwater, United - Atlantic Voice with Lindsay Bird: Dec. 17, 2023
It highlights a reality that many of us are becoming much more experienced in. The quasi-good news that intersects with our mission at Ministry Forum is that we are not alone!
The mainline church today across North America is being supported by and ‘staffed’ by lay people. In the PCC, hundreds of churches will never call another full-time clergyperson and many are led from Sunday to Sunday by a combination of lay led services and Sunday supply coordinated by a diminishing number of Interim Moderators - some of whom are now carrying not only their own congregational responsibilities but those of two or three or even more Interim Moderatorships.
This reality is leading to the intensification of burnout among clergy and in some circumstances, a lack of creativity on the part of Presbyteries to consider what a‘pastor-less’ church might look like for them, if we were to allow some of the traditional trappings to fade away.
I really appreciate the way Catherine Neelly Burton reflects on this issue as she encounters it within our sibling denomination, PC(USA).
“A church doesn’t need to have a pastor to be a church. A church without a pastor is a viable church… Once we embrace this idea instead of trying hard to fix it, churches can go about their work of being Christ’s body.”
- Catherine Neelly Burton
I’ll leave it to you to read on and consider how the insights of the author and the PC(USA) might speak into our situation in Canada.
Read the Article Online:
The future of the PC(USA) is pastor-less, and that’s OK
Download/Print the PDF:
The future of the PC(USE) is pastor-less, and that’s OK
Ministry Forum will continue to be a dialogue partner around this issue. And as we are able will seek ways of building up the confidence and capacity of our amazing lay leaders. Look for more from us in the coming months. If you’d like to talk more about the ‘pastor-less’ church, feel free to reach out to me directly. You are not alone as you seek to respond to this reality in your context.
