Note: This blog is based on a doctoral Dissertation-In-Practice completed by Deacon Dr. Diane Schwiger-Alexander in March 2024.

 

Introduction
Myth: The way things are is the way they are going to be.

 

Sometimes, we don’t state the obvious. Why? I think it’s because we have decided that the way things are is the way things are going to be. Change occurs when we state the obvious and then ask good questions.

 

Let me state the obvious.

• Pastoral leaders serving in congregational settings are experiencing challenges, volatility, uncertainty, and anxiety.
• Congregations are experiencing declining church attendance.
• There is an increase in the number of people unaffiliated with congregational ministry.
• The church is struggling to be seen as relevant.
• There is a decline in financial resources.
• There is a decline in volunteerism.¹

 

Therefore, as leaders, what do we do?

• Certain leadership skills are required to address the chaos and ambiguity of the world.
• The current context requires the development of leadership skills that address the chaos and ambiguity while providing for the development of team ministry.
• Team ministry requires putting aside self-interests and engaging in collaborative/shared ministry with lay leaders in the congregation.
• Shared ministry means teams of congregational members are engaged, trained, and equipped to share in the ministry of the congregation.²

 

This is why the Southern Ohio Synod is focusing on collaborative and distributive principles for leadership development. To do so, we are using the doctoral work of Deacon Dr. Diane Schwiger-Alexander. 

 

In this blog, I want to look at myths that get in the way of adopting and using collaborative and distributive principles in leadership of congregations.

 

Myth
Volunteering means serving on a committee of the church.

 

Father Ed Henley recently stated at the synodical event “Leadership in Anxious Times,” that Jesus can be thought of as the Great Reframer. I think this notion of reframing is found in one of my favorite rhetorical tools of Jesus, when he says, “You have heard it said…, but I tell you…” 

 

Let me apply that line of Jesus to volunteerism in the church. You have heard it said, volunteering in a church means to serve on a committee, but I tell you, volunteering can be time and task specific. 

 

The model of ministry that has been in place for decades in congregations is based upon a committee structure. If a person has an interest in a certain ministry, they will be invited to serve on a committee. Unfortunately, the committee structure of congregations has led to “death by meeting”³; the assumption that participation on a committee is a lifetime commitment; and that the only way off of a committee is by death.

 

I want you to consider a different approach to volunteerism in congregations. I call it the Time and Task Specific Approach to Volunteering. This approach means that people are invited to serve in a specific way, at a specific time, and perform a specific task. These events could be a Saturday helping with a Habitat for Humanity house, delivering gifts to homebound members, being a lector on a particular Sunday, preparing food for a youth lock-in, or spreading mulch on the church property. Some opportunities to serve might be recurring, such as serving as a lector or counting the Sunday offer. Others may be once and done.

 

In an August 2024 article on the website of IVolunteer International, it is noted that volunteering in our country “is at an all-time low.”⁴ The article states, that volunteering “has long been a cornerstone of American civic life, contributing to social cohesion, community well-being, and the economy.”⁵ I think it is important to make note of this trend for the following reasons:

• We can stop blaming pastors and elected congregational leaders for there being fewer volunteers.
• We can see the trend of less volunteers in a larger context.
• We can then learn from other organizations that depend on volunteering how they are addressing the challenge.
• We can consider different models of volunteering like a time and task specific approach to volunteering.
• We can give proper attention to a collaborative model of leadership which addresses not only the obstacles to shared leadership and volunteering, but also steps forward in building positive partnerships in ministry.

 

Myth
Pastors only work one day a week—Sundays—for about 4 hours.

 

For many years, I taught confirmation ministry. Inevitably, a confirmand would ask me, “Pastor, what is your real job? The one you do the rest of the week.” At first, I was caught off guard, but over the years, I developed a list of the tasks I performed. Students were amazed at how much needs to happen each week in a congregation. 

 

There is an urban legend that a certain pastor wanted his congregation to know how much he worked. So, after dinner each night, he would go to the church, turn the lights on in his office, then go home. A few hours later, he would go back to the office and turn off the lights. He loved hearing people talk about how many hours he put in. “Even late into the night!” they said. 

 

This gets at a vicious cycle in congregations. People don’t know what pastors do, and pastors want to convince their parishioners how hard they work. It is a mutual defensiveness. This defensiveness leads to animosity among pastor, the pastor’s supporters, and the pastor’s detractors. 

 

For the collaborative model to succeed, this cycle needs to be broken. Pastors work hard. Parishioners let their pastors do too much. 

 

It’s time to acknowledge that the pastor is not the sole doer of ministry in a congregation.

 

According to Deacon Dr. Diane Schwiger-Alexander, the to-do lists of pastors are daunting. The roles include “being the spiritual leader, counselor, business consultant, developer, program director, staff supervisor, and often office manager while caring for members’ spiritual lives through teaching and preaching.”⁶

 

If the pastor is not the sole doer of ministry in the congregation, then we can look at the to-do list above and begin to think about which roles can be shared within the congregation.

 

Myth
Recruiting volunteers only requires a sign-up sheet on a bulletin board.

 

I remember hearing about a congregation that hired a part-time volunteer coordinator. They were convinced that this new position would solve the shortage of volunteers in their congregation. Six months later, there was no change in the number of volunteers. In fact, there were fewer volunteers because everyone else stopped recruiting since they “had staff for that now.” What happened, though, was that the volunteer coordinator would post a sign-up sheet on the bulletin board and wait for people to sign up. It didn’t work. There were less volunteers after the coordinator started the job. As a result, members of the congregation started resenting each other because they thought they were the only ones doing the work of the church.

 

I invite you to consider the following when it comes to volunteer recruitment:

• Plan Time and Task Specific Opportunities to serve.
• Personally invite others to serve.
• Use a spiritual gift inventory in the congregation that identifies the broad areas of how people prefer to serve. These broad areas could be Care of Others, Administrative, Education, Hands-on Tasks, Spiritual Acts, and Sharing Faith. Once having these broad categories, when a person is needed to serve in a certain way, you can refer to the broad list of spiritual gifts. For example, you want someone to write prayers for weekly worship. You would go to the list of those whose spiritual gifts are Spiritual Acts.
• Use the language of call, for in the church, we believe that those who serve in any capacity in a church are called to do so by God through the church.
• Remember that we serve God by serving through the congregation. 
• Equip and train volunteers and check-in with them regularly–monitoring how they are doing.
• Affirm and encourage those who are serving.
• Use various means of signing up—especially online platforms that make it easy for a person to volunteer from their phone.
• Make it a practice to measure engagement of the members of your congregation, knowing how much each person is engaged in the spiritual disciplines of worship, serving, giving, learning, fellowship, and witnessing.

 

Myth
A person should have the ability to perform a task or fill or role before they are asked.

 

Serving begins with a call, exploring one’s interests, and developing skills based on those interests.

 

In the church, we talk about being a call as having 2 aspects. There is an internal call and an external call.

 

The internal call is a person’s desire to fill a particular position and serve in a certain way. The external call comes from others. I can remember people from the congregation in which I was raised saying to me, “You should become a pastor.” A call happens when the internal and external call are consistent. For example, when I feel called to be a pastor and the church says that I am called, I became a pastor. 

 

It’s important to understand call when discerning how one should serve. When discerning how to serve, one considers their own desires and listens to what others are saying to them. Sometimes a person will know their call before others will. At other times, a person will only consider their internal call because someone else spoke of their call.

 

In addition to an internal call affirmed by an external call, a person can consider their interests and skills when determining how to serve.

 

Many times, we speak of gifts—meaning that a person has an intrinsic ability to perform a role or task. I think the language of interests and skills can also be helpful. Most people have interests—in music, food, vacation spots, hobbies. They act upon those interests. Part of acting upon those interests is to gain experience and skills based on those interests. 

 

When determining how to serve, a person can consider more than whether they have the gifts to do so or not. They can ask themselves, “Do I have an interest in serving in a certain way?” If the interest is there and the person believes that they are called to do so, the person can develop skills in those areas.

 

For example, a person identifies an interest in being a firefighter. Being a firefighter requires more than an interest. It requires a person to develop the skills to do so. The skills are gained in an initial training program. The acquisition of skills also continues as the person gains experience in the position. 

 

I think any desire to serve is shaped by more than a notion of “This is what I am supposed to be.” That thought may come later in the call. The starting point for determining how to serve comes from understanding call and identifying interests and areas in which a person is willing to gain skills.

 

I want to offer a charge to leaders of congregations. It is important that you use the framework of call when asking people in congregations to serve. Invest time and energy discerning the interests and skills of those in your congregations. Develop descriptions of roles similar to how one develops job descriptions. Craft opportunities to serve that are consistent with a person’s interest and skills. And provide ways that people with interest in a certain ministry can grow in the skills for the ministry.

 

There is one more aspect of considering interests and skills that is obvious but should be stated. There will be differences in where people will want to serve. Some will find themselves called to up front leadership positions. Others will find themselves called to behind the scenes work. Some will be called to tasks that require hands-on skills. Others will be called to tasks that require writing or speaking.

 

Myth
The pastor is hired to do the work of the congregation.
And, pastors learn every skill they need, including management skills, in seminary.

 

I don’t think that using the language of hiring is helpful in describing the process of acquiring a pastor in a congregation. 

 

Pastors are called to a congregation, and they serve God in that setting. There is more at play than just a personnel decision. It is through the work of the Holy Spirit that a pastor and congregation come together for the sake of the pastor serving God by being the spiritual leader of a congregation. 

 

As a spiritual leader, the pastor is responsible for the spiritual lives of the people of the congregation. Sometimes this spiritual care requires speaking truth lovingly and challenging people. If the pastor is understood to be hired, those not liking the truth and challenge will want to “fire” the pastor.

 

The pastor is not set above anyone in the congregation. Instead, pastors are set apart for the ministry of Word and Sacrament. They are specifically called to see that God is revealed in the proclamation of God’s Word and in the administration of the sacraments. 

 

There are some who will want to say, “Well, the pastor takes care of the spiritual things, and we take care of the business end.” That is not accurate. As the spiritual leader of the congregation, the pastor understands that the business part of the congregation is overseen by people. All people trend toward self-interest. If that self-interest guides the business decisions of the congregation, then the congregation is not doing God’s work. As spiritual leader, the pastor tends to the business part of the parish from the role of spiritual leader making sure that the business practices of the congregation are faithful and serve God.

 

This means that good business practices are to be followed in the life of the church. Unfortunately, we cannot assume that a pastor brings a sound business mind to the spiritual care of the congregation. This is not a moral, but practical failure in the preparation of pastors. Deacon Dr. Schwiger-Alexander writes, “Shared leadership begins with educational institutions teaching collaborative leadership and enhanced management skills.”⁷

 

If a congregation thrives when collaborative and distributive principles are followed, then it is important that the preparation of pastors includes training and equipping for that purpose. It means that those being raised up as pastors must, for the well-being of their congregations, study and learn sound business practices. The ongoing training and continuing education of pastors should also include attention to and training in the principles of collaborative leadership and good business practices.

 

Myth
Pastors will quickly and easily give up some of their tasks and trust congregational members to do the job, and congregational members will quickly and easily change their mindset and join in collaborative ministry.

 

For all people—even Christians, ego and self-interest play a significant role in what is decided or done. Oh, were it easy to say, “Yes, my self-interest is influencing me right now.” Instead, understand this rule of thumb. We will keep doing what we are doing as long as it serves our purposes. 

 

It is for this reason that adopting collaborative and distributive principles in the leadership of a congregation are not readily and easily adopted. 

 

Since it is important to adopt a collaborative and distributive model of leadership in a congregation, then:

• We must reframe how we talk about ministry.
• We must teach the model.
• We must continually turn to Scripture and prayer letting the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus.
• We must be reminded the end game for ministry isn’t how we feel or look, but that God’s will be done.

 

Conclusion

In the upcoming months, a task force of rostered and lay leaders from the Southern Ohio Synod will gather to reflect upon the collaborative and distributive model of leadership, develop a model for teaching and training leaders in the that model, and identify action steps to implement that training program. I am thankful that Deacon Dr. Diane Schwiger—Alexander will be working with the synod in this important project.

 

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Endnotes:

¹ Schwiger-Alexander, page 1.
² Ibid.
³ From the book of the same title, “Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable,” by Patrick Lencioni, published by Jossey-Bass in March 2004.
⁴ Ivint.org, In the U.S., Volunteering Is at an All-Time Low, August 18, 2024.
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ Schwiger-Alexander, page 5.
⁷ Ibid.