February 22ndPastors: do we need them?
That was the provocative question in the title of a recent online discussion in Mennonite Church Manitoba’s MCM Mondays series.
Jessica Johnson, member of Douglas Mennonite Church (Winnipeg), had her interest piqued by the title of the session. “I know that pastors are starting to be ‘fewer and farther between,’ and people are starting to ask these types of questions,” she says. “Personally, this worries me as I feel that pastors are a central and necessary role within the church.”
A dozen people from half a dozen MCM congregations joined Jessica and Co-Director of Leadership Ministries Karen Schellenberg to discuss the role of pastors in their congregations. The conversation turned toward the decision-making authority of a pastor within a congregation.
“How much authority and power a pastor holds is not something that is typically openly spoken of by people in the congregation—there are only assumptions—and as long as everyone has the same assumptions all goes well,” says Karen. “However, assumptions and unspoken expectations can lead to misunderstandings. Those misunderstandings are sometimes hard to recover from.”
Session participants generally described the congregation or lay church leadership as being responsible to make most of the decisions regarding many things in the church, which should free up pastors to focus on giving spiritual and theological leadership and input into matters facing the congregation. However, this balance varies from congregation to congregation.
All agreed, though, that pastors—whether paid clergy or volunteer lay ministers—were needed in the church.
Looking to the future, Jessica says, “I think it will be important for the church to give serious thought as to how we build up and mentor the next generation of pastoral leadership.”
Karen agrees. “Good spiritual leadership—both clergy and lay—is vital to the health and wellbeing of our congregations,” she says. “Pastoral roles may look different going forward, but we will always need gifted pastors!”
Check out our MCM Mondays page to learn about upcoming sessions in the series. Let’s remember to pray for our pastors, and to pray for Karen Schellenberg and Jeff Friesen, our Co-Directors of Leadership Ministries, who support them. If you’d like to give to support this ministry, you can do so here.