Reflections on the Leadership Landscape of the CRCNA: The Problem of Less Commitment

The Problem of Less Commitment

Let’s talk about one of the big cultural issues that people are seeing–that people seem less willing to step into the big commitment of seminary. Some of us remember a day when people took a call to ministry (or any vocation) while they were still very young, and when they entered it they knew they would stay for life. They took the pre-seminary track in college and jumped right into seminary. Our world is different now, and it’s much less common for people to go straight to seminary from college. Debt is on their minds and they are more likely to take smaller steps to test their call and get their feet wet in ministry before jumping into a full-fledged seminary program.

So how do we respond to that cultural shift? We could pine for the good old days when younger people committed to ministry sooner in life, but if we do that we might miss the incredible gift that God has given us of candidates with more life experience, whose character and leadership have been formed through previous careers. So here are some other ideas of how we might proceed.

1. Make Them Aware of Financial Support!

If debt is on their minds, let’s make sure they know about the amazing financial support that’s available to them through classis and church budgets. It’s an incredible thing you all do in providing forgivable loans and in some cases, even grants–and emerging leaders sometimes aren’t aware of these amazing resources . On top of this local funding, our seminary has lots of grant opportunities. And we have classis teams (we call them CMLT’s) who can support people and connect them to these resources. So let’s make sure to broadcast all these amazing gifts widely in our churches so that anyone who feels a sense of call won’t be stopped by the prospect of debt

2. Develop clear pathways 

Secondly, if people are nervous about jumping into big commitments, let’s work on providing clear training pathways for those who want to take it one step at a time. According to our survey data, this is an area where we could grow. Our research showed that 78% of our classes don’t have any clear, consistent training programs in place for those who want to serve as elders, deacons, licensed preachers and commissioned pastors

22% of our classes, however, have gotten strategic and creative in their own training efforts: Like Classis Arizona– starting a Wednesday breakfast group for emerging pastors and church planters. Or like Classis Georgetown, taking the learning plan template we offered and added customized components, using multiple classis pastors as mentors of different subjects to provide a deeply connective learning experience for commissioned pastors. And of course, there are some classes who have invested deeply in future leaders by developing their own leadership development networks or other organized training programs. These organized efforts have made a significant impact on the leadership landscape of the CRCNA over the years, and we celebrate those who have invested so deeply in future leaders!

I realize that most of us hear about that and think, “Yikes, my classis doesn’t have the manpower or energy to pull something like that off!”. The good news is that the resources available to us now make training easier than ever before! Some classes have enlisted the support of outside training programs– like Luke 10 for Spanish-speakers, Coram Deo, CLI and others. They’ve contextualized them by combining them with local mentoring and it’s working well! Thrive now offers Thriving Essentials training for leaders, and they are developing trainings specifically for deacons and elders as well. And our seminary has some new programs that could be game-changers for classes. Maybe you read in their report about their new competency-based program called Empower that can come alongside your classis’ commissioned pastor training pathways to provide educational support and help people start building seminary-level credit as they go. They piloted the program with 16 students from Classis Southeast and 9 students from Grand Valley State University, and now it’s been opened up for others. It’s now possible to take your seminary training one small chunk at a time at CTS–as they offer certificate programs that stack into a masters degree, and even into an MDiv for those who want to continue on! Also, Dr. Tijerina-Pike has developed some incredibly affordable Spanish-language masters degrees–also stackable!

The pathways have been built for us. All we have to do is make the small shift of finding out about these programs and resources and helping emerging leaders connect with them. 

And as we explore these training pathways, we should prioritize options that bridge easily from one stage of training to the next, so that continuing your education can be seamless instead of redundant or disjointed. Wouldn’t it be great if someone who trained as a commissioned pastor wouldn’t have to start a whole new educational journey if, someday down the road, they felt called to a role of Min of the Word? What if their commissioned pastor training could place them part way there already? 

The way it stands now, most commissioned pastors don’t continue their theological education journey. As a result of that, they aren’t as mobile or as connected to the wider denomination as they could be – they might not be considered for positions that come up, they don’t contribute to the wider discussions as much as they could. Because they aren’t as versed in our church order methods of expressing your voice, their voices tend to get buried. 

This is especially tragic when you consider that the commissioned pastor pathway has successfully given entrance to many ethnic minority leaders, and since we don’t encourage and support these leaders to continue on to become ministers of the Word, we lose out on their voice. They aren’t represented here at synod as much as they should be, as we need them to be part of our discussions and decision making. I truly believe that our motivations for providing an easier path towards ordination for those who might struggle with the dominant culture are usually very good and empowering. But let’s be alert to the fact that lowered expectations can also be a very subtle form of racism. And let’s recognize that our ethnic minority leaders often value education just as much or even more than the majority culture does, and they aspire to learn and achieve degrees. So I believe it’s our responsibility to empower them in every way possible and so that they can serve to their fullest potential.