EmergingSpirit
Michael Kooiman: A New Generation of Leaders Wanted
Posted on: 12/07/2009 14:03
Sally hasn't gone to church much since she started university. Away from home, Sunday morning is more about sleeping than attending a church near campus. She still attends when she goes home-maybe once a month-but doesn't find the service "upstairs" very engaging. She is a veteran of every aspect of children's programming: nursery, church school, junior youth, youth group and even a year or two as one of the youth leaders. The one thing she has little experience with is worship: particularly everything after "Children's Time."
University is an exciting time for Sally. She began in a general arts program, a student in search of a major. At the mid-point in her four-year program, she has declared sociology her major, though she is equally interested in religious studies and history. Her extra-curricular activities include raising money for breast cancer research and playing ultimate frisbee. Recently she has inquired about starting a Right to Play group on campus.
Sally's life took a sudden and unexpected turn recently when she went to career day on campus. Recruiters from major Canadian corporations were on hand to explain who they are and what they do. Over in the far corner, away from the big displays, was a youngish looking woman sitting beneath a banner with the United Church crest. Taken aback, Sally met a member of the United Church Vocations Initiative, a new effort to promote ministry in the church.
The youngish minister explained to Sally that the traditional recruitment strategy-waiting for people to figure it out for themselves-had failed to produce the hundreds of new ministers the church would need in the future. She explained that in the 1990's the consensus was that churches would close at the same pace that vocations declined, and so no particular effort was needed to boost the number of new ministers. In addition, the rise in early-retired people seeking commissioning and ordination meant that the focus and preference in new vocations turned to older adults with generous amounts of life experience. The fact that most of these new ministers would only be able to serve for 10 to 15 years seemed lost on the church.
Sally explained to the recruiter that she didn't feel "called" to be a minister. No one had ever suggested it to her, and she wasn't even a regular attendee anymore. Then the minister-recruiter asked her a series of questions: Do you pray? Do you think it is important to help vulnerable people? Do you think the church does important work in communities? Do you think about the implications of buying something before you open your wallet? Do you enjoy thinking about religious ideas? Do you recall your time in church fondly? Do you see yourself back in church after graduation? When Sally answered ‘yes' to every question, her recruiter said, "sounds like a call to me!"
All of this, of course, is fiction. There is no UCVI, although General Secretary Nora Sanders' recent accountability report did call for a new generation of leaders in the church. Instead, we continue to do it the old way, with no real recruitment effort and an institutional bias toward candidates over 50.
My imaginings are one way we could look at finding that new generation of leaders. The lure of the marketplace is strong, and I would suggest that most young people have no idea how people become ministers. Even basic knowledge is in short supply on the matter of vocations, and few people receive encouragement to consider the church as an option.
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Comments
Winnie
Posted on: 12/07/2009 23:17
Tell me more about the Vocations Initiative. I don't know about a calling but I know that the church is one of the best things in my life. I know that I want a career where I can feel that I am making the world a better place - that I am working toward some purpose greater than making a rich corporation richer.
franota
Posted on: 12/08/2009 20:01
The church has to begin to offer something more than the very tired and meaningless platitudes it has been, stop hiding behind formulas and words which mean nothing to ordinary people, and stimulate the people inside the churches to think about what they mean when they use the words of faith - and help people find a new language of faith which speaks to people who have no history of church.
Ministry isn't a "career" - it's a calling, and it needs people who are not afraid to speak what they think and believe, even if that causes themselves - and others - some grief. There are lots of "careers" where it's possible to make the world a better place, outside the church.
So what is it about the church which makes it one of the best things in your life?
paradox3
Posted on: 12/08/2009 22:20
Hi Franota,
Can you say more about the "tired and meaningless platitudes" you think the church has been offering? What words and formulas are we "hiding behind", would you say? I am not sure I get your meaning here.
sermonboy
Posted on: 12/09/2009 13:28
I don't usually respond to responses, but here goes:
Winnie: The "Vocations Initiative" is imaginary, but Nora Sander's call for "new young leaders" is real and refreshing. She is the first senior church person to make such a call in my 25+ years of involvement in the church. However it happens, it is time to begin planning for the leaders who will be active in 2025 and beyond. I would begin exploring your vocational ideas with your minister.
Paradox3: Good question!
Fran: Ministry is career and calling: a carling...or a careerling. I feel called to "serve" the church, but it is also my job, one that I take very seriously. As someone employed by the church, I worry about things like benefits, working conditions, and future employees who will continue the work I have done. It is a both/and situation, not an either/or. The moment it becomes purely calling and not career, is a dangerous moment. Either I will allow people to take advantage of me (like being asked to "volunteer" additional hours) or I will forget that part of my job is to win and keep the trust of my people (as any good employee will tell you). Too many of our colleagues claim they are only being effective when they are in trouble. Too much emphasis on turning over tables and not enough on "feed my sheep."
Winnie
Posted on: 12/09/2009 20:14
What I would like is a church that is more accessible. I can't tell you the number of times that women have joined our group apologizing for "not know that much about scripture" or "not thinking about their faith" and we very rarely see them again. I know what they're thinking. They think they 're not "religious" enough to be a part of our group. But church is not an exclusive club. I think we need to simplify it. Don't get me wrong - I love the old hymns. I love taking communion. But our world is so void of spiritual guidance. The church has something precious and unique to offer to people - comfort, support, fellowship. Some people may attend church and feel an epiphany - hear Gods words clearly and some will attend church and feel warmth and comfort and inspiration to do good in the world and isn't that OK too? If we wait for leaders who are "called" to ministry who will lead our church. Maybe it just isn't that hard.
RevCTM
Posted on: 12/10/2009 13:56
I wonder if our young people are engaged with Jesus and not merely a generic spirituality? A call to the church has to be a call to love and serve Jesus Christ who is the Lord and Head of the church -- after all the church is the community of the Risen Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit to be compassionate lovers of others. Biblical words, I know, but important. If we are engaged in a relationship with Jesus Christ, then just maybe a call to be a 'minister' to serve Christ's church will make sense.
Faerenach
Posted on: 06/26/2010 18:42
RevCTM, as a 'young person' myself, I totally get where you're coming from about the whole generic spirituality corner. I know a lot of people my age that struggle with God and Jesus as more than concepts, as spirits within an institution. We're a bunch of rock and roll rebels that don't really love The Man, and for too many of us, that's what church reminds us of.
But I was lucky to grow up in a church that is like my second family, that is a community beyond a social club. That mustard seed of community and place of real (not virtual) social networking is exactly what I think a lot of us are looking for but haven't found. If the United Church looked more like a rebel than a pushover (Jesus the table-overturner as opposed to the love-in leader), I bet a lot more of us would relate to it.
Large corporations and recruiting firms across North America have started changing their view to go after our generation - maybe it's time the UCC started thinking further down the road and start studying the next generation. I sometimes wonder if ours haven't already given up on the church at the moment.