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I recall when I started in ministry, my mentors were fond of saying “There is no such thing as part time ministry.” They assumed most pastors would and should work full time in one church back in the ancient days when phones were still attached to walls and had not yet learned how to be cameras.
How things have changed. As a pastor, and now as a Conference Minister, I see the shift to part time ministry speeding up. As churches get smaller, so do resources. Part time ministry is nothing new, but I know it feels new to the churches and clergy that are moving into it.
In the worst cases, clergy hours are cut but church expectations remain the same. The “dispensable hours” never seem to fall on Sundays when pastors are still expected to show up to preach in an ever-shortening work week that assumes a serious sermon will still sprout straight from the head of Zeus or, God help us, from an A.I. chat bot. Obviously that is not the ideal and we can do better.
This is why I am so excited to bring the nation’s leading expert on part time ministry to the Michigan Conference for a special event on September 30.
Spoiler alert: If you want to turn back the clock and protect the church’s past from the future, this event may not be for you. If you are depressed about the state of the church and you want to stay that way, you will find no commiserating or complaining here. But if you are ready to be constructively challenged and inspired, sign up with a team of lay and clergy, because ever since the Reformation that has been the winning combination in church history.
A part-time UCC pastor himself, author Jeffrey MacDonald is unapologetically excited about the new thing God is doing in the church right now. He will bring best practices and real stories of creativity to inspire you.
Week after week, as I visit congregations in the Michigan Conference, I am already inspired! I see so many cases where part time ministry has invigorated the congregation and clergy. I see lay leaders stepping up to preach, volunteering to pray at meetings, visiting the sick and sharing their gifts. I see pastors setting boundaries, not because they planned to, but because their other job compels them to. This ends up being healthy and even freeing. I see people considering a vocation to ministry without having to give up the calling they may already have in another career.
But the best examples are still found in the Bible. When Jesus called the first disciples to drop their nets and follow him, he didn’t tell them to stop by Human Resources on the way out to make their resignations official. There’s a reason so many of Jesus’ sermons and miracles took place at sea and on boats. These people were still working their day jobs!
Was the apostle Paul a tentmaker on the side? Or was the tentmaker Paul an apostle on the side? I reject the whole question. I don’t believe the Holy Spirit does anything in our lives on the side.
Thank you for the real time ministry you all do in the Michigan Conference.
I pray this event on September 30 will be a blessing to you.
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