Rev Paige's Corner: "Yoked Churches"
The first Interim Pastorate I served was for a pair of Luthera farm churches in South Dakota. One was literally in the middle of a soy bean field. The other was in a tiny town that had declined in population over the years. (This is not uncommon for towns in that area where agribusiness has taken over and combined family farms. These two churches had partnered more than 20 years ago in order to share staff.
This concept of churches partnering was not new to me. The church where I was confirmed was a Methodist church that was "yoked" to another larger congregation. In Methodism, the concept of "circuit riding" pastors was an important part of church history where a group of churches was served by a pastor who rode the "circuit" on horseback. But there is more than one way that churches partners and arrangements vary.
The two churches that I served shared not only my time as pastor but also a youth worker and office worker. They each had their own buildings and leadership and made decisions and budgets independant of one another. Most Sundays, I would lead worship at one church at 9 am and then race out the door to drive the 1/2 hour to the other church where worship would begin at 10:30 am. Every other month, we would have a guest preacher in so I could stay and socialized with the church with the early service.
The churches had a joint confirmation class and a joint youth group - which worked really well in terms of having a core group of young people. They had a joint worship team and shared a bulletin with both services being similar most weeks. They shared office equipment and software as well. And they had a system around special worship services - alternating which had Christmas Eve worship and Christmas Day worship, for instance. Occassionally they did joint mission projects, but each congregation was unique in its personality and traditions.
As a pastor, this arrangement worked well. The salary package they were able to offer together was good. When budget time rolled around, I didn't have to fret about a pay cut. Because of the efficiencies that came in the shared arrangment, each got more than half time. The stability of the partnership meant that the pair of churches has been able to attact experienced pastors who often stayed longer than the 3-5 years that are typical for small church pastorates.
As the shortage of trained pastors continues to grow and more churches find themselves struggling, sharing staff is a creative "out of the box" approach to ministry that is making a comeback in the UCC and beyond. For some small churches, this is an approach that allows them to maintain a vibrant local ministry in beloved buildings.
Blessings & Peace!
Rev Paige Besse-Rankin
PS I am at Horton Center with Sr High Camp next week! I hope everyone has a great week.
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