I could go on about the plight of many of our Town Parishes, but allow me in this blog to begin to explore what is needed and what could be done with these churches. Let’s start with what these churches need in ordained leadership. What do most Town Parishes need in the clergy who serve them? I would list the following as crucial:
1.
Like any
congregation, they need an ordained leader who communicates an enthusiastic and
hopeful vision of God’s Kingdom and the good news of Jesus Christ.
2.
An ordained person who is willing to stay 7 to
10 years in the same church
3.
A person who is willing to become connected to
community organizations and activities that are not directly related to church
work
4.
A person who functions as a generalist rather than
a specialist. (Think Family Practitioner
rather than Internist)
5.
A person who sees the congregation as made up of
families and not just individuals (even single people are from families and
often relate to others based on their families of origin.)
6.
A clergy person who is willing to spend 15 to
25% of their time with un-churched people.
7.
A person who can relate to at least 4 different
generations of people
8.
A clergy person who honors the elders and
mentors and teaches others
9.
A clergy person who will marry those needing
marriage, bury those who have died, baptize those who need baptizing and trusts
that such sacramental acts are opportunities to build relationships with
others, rather than a clergy person who will only perform such functions for
church members.
10.
A clergy leader who sees the development of lay
ministries as more important than their own preferences on the ways things
should be done.
11.
A clergy person who does not try to make
everyone happy, does not fear conflict, and is effective at facing and
resolving conflict and getting people to work harmoniously together.
12.
A clergy person who will give up her day off if
a parishioner is having emergency surgery
13.
A clergy person who can honor the pastors who
have served before them and leave their successor a healthier and more
functional parish than the one they found.
Where would be the best place to teach new and younger
clergy how to grow and develop a Town Parish?
In a mission training center
where those who have demonstrated an outstanding ability to do this in a Town
setting do the teaching and mentoring.
This does not mean using dearly beloved longer-tenured clergy who love
to tell anecdotal stories. It means
using effective ordained clergy who have learned how to develop such churches
demonstrated by their record.
In my next blog, I will discuss how we presently deal with
such churches and why this is not working!
