The June 2011 article in the UC Observer about recruiting new ministers provides interesting food for thought. Many pulpits are officially “vacant”. Particularly in rural pastoral charges, finding a new minister when a much-loved and long-term minister leaves is a very difficult challenge. Having served several times on Joint Needs Assessment Committees, I find the process less than optimal.

Educational requirements are a huge barrier to people considering entry into full time ministry. Especially when the candidate for ministry is a “mature” person entering into ministry later in life, the time it takes to meet these educational requirements for ordered, diaconal, or designated lay ministry in the United Church puts a real strain on our ability to fill vacant pulpits.

 I also find this emphasis on “credentialling” our paid accountable staff to be  theologically unsound. No one told the apostles they needed a university degree to go out and spread the gospel. All Christian believers are called to discipleship. All are given the “great commission” to go out and “make disciples of all nations.”

As a member of our local congregation asked me recently, “When did 'proselytize’ become a dirty word in the United Church?”

We need to get our heads around the fact that, in the foreseeable future, many pulpits will remain vacant, and it will fall to the elders in each congregation to step up and fill the organizational roles that need to be filled.  That includes worship leadership, pastoral care, and outreach: three areas often deemed to be “the minister’s job”.

We also need to come to terms with the misapprehension that the church is an organization. It’s not, it’s us - the Body of Christ. In the words of the old song I learned in Sunday School “I am the Church, you are the Church, we are the Church together. All of God’s children, all around the world; Yes, we’re the Church together!”

As a member of the Body of Christ, each and every Christian has both the right and the authority to baptise in the name of Christ and to preside at the Lord’s Supper. It’s only human authority that insists that it is necessary to get a university degree and wear your collar on backwards in order to do these things. Nonsense! Show me where, in the Bible, it says these things are required.

In fact, education was not a requirement. Acts 4:13 states: “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”

What gave the apostles the ability to speak out with boldness and courage in the service of the gospel was not education, was not any human authority. It was a God-given authority from Jesus himself through the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

When the United Church was formed, the courts of our denomination were set up so that each congregation had a Board of Trustees responsible for the proper administration of the real assets of the congregation, a Council of Stewards responsible for the staff and the operating funds, and a Council of Elders who were responsible for worship, Christian education, pastoral care and outreach.

In the 1980’s, a trend began towards having a single unified Church Board. This was due to a shortage of manpower. In many congregations, people were serving as both Stewards and Elders. Why have two meetings every month? The same people were showing up at both meetings anyway.

However, there was a flaw in this thinking. The flaw lies in the fact that the primary job of the Trustees and the Council of Stewards is to prevent the temporal affairs of the church organization from interfering with the real work of the congregation - the work of the Council of Elders. Because the work of the Stewards tends to be short-term and urgent (we have to raise enough funds to fix the leaky roof and pay the minister’s salary!), it has often overshadowed the work of the Elders - work that tends to be long-term and important.

Over time, I have observed that, in many (particularly small rural) congregations, we have people in positions of leadership who know how to be good Stewards but have not had the opportunity to learn how to be an Elder. Elders were once appointed for life because the role requires both spiritual maturity and a long-term view. The Elders have an important role to play in the spiritual life of the congregation. When I was a boy growing up in the United Church, the minister visited, and the Elders also visited. It was an expected part of an Elder’s role to be active in pastoral care.  It was the Elders who assisted in the serving of communion, and who had a visible role during baptisms and confirmations. The Elders were active in Christian eduction, and it was the Elders who looked for young people who had the gift of ministry.

If we are to solve the problem of recruiting new ministers (and keeping the ones we already have), we need to re-examine the role of the Elders. I do not believe that ordination should be a requirement before you can bless and serve communion, or baptise or confirm. In the absence of a minister (whether due to a vacant pulpit or because the minister is temporarily away), the Elders should have both the right and the authority to conduct these sacraments. In conjunction with this, we should be offering discipleship training to our Elders. Eldership is a calling. We should not be treating it as simply a slot to be filled on a board or a committee. Many congregations could function well without  a minister if the Elders were there to fulfill their role. In addition, when a minister is called, experienced Elders can act as both volunteer support and spiritual mentors.

People in our congregation get upset when I make the statement that the unified Board structure has cost us our Elders.

“We have Elders. Every member of the Board is an Elder,” is the usual response.

But tacking the label of “Elder” on someone just because they are on the Church Board does not make someone capable of fulfilling the role of an Elder. At the same time, we do not want to create yet another set of barriers-to-entry into the roles of church leadership. We need to grow our leadership from the ground up, and that may mean a willingness to let people make mistakes as they begin to explore a new role. It also means that, as congregations, we should be investing in education and training for all of our church leadership: Sunday School teachers, church secretaries and treasurers, Trustees, Stewards and Elders.

If we hope to find new people to enter into full time ministry, what better way than to grow them locally from the grassroots up? If we actively recruit our young people into leadership roles in our local congregations, will that not likely translate into more young people (and some not-so-young people) considering a career in church leadership - finding a “calling” to ministry?

In the end, I think that it’s all really about discipleship. Who is a disciple? If you are a Christian, the answer should be, “Me!”