Elders and the Table -- the uniqueness of Disciple experience

I asked the question -- who may preside at the Table --and noted the Disciple experience.  Unlike most other traditions, the Disciples have been known for having lay elders pray at the table and that these prayers are normally of their own composition.  Disciples have worship aids, but no official book of worship.  Due to a shortage of clergy in other traditions, questions are being asked there about how to provide the Eucharist in congregations without regular clergy -- and some of them are trying things that look a lot like what Disciples are doing.   So who are these Elders that share leadership a the Table?  They are not, as in the Presbyterian Church, a board of oversight with no place at the table nor are they clergy like the Methodists.  No they are quite different. 

As a way of helping us understand this situation I'm offering a quotation from Keith Watkins' book Celebrate with Thanksgiving (Chalice Press, 1991).

The typical patter of leadership in Disciples congregations today resembles this ancient system.   Ordinarily congregations are led by one or more ministers, who are theologically educated. occupationally full-time and salaried by the church.  Serving with the minister or ministers are the elders of the congregation, who are men and women from the congregation.  The elders serve on a volunteer basis, giving limited amounts of time, and ordinarily do not have special theological training for their work.  Disciples came to this pattern in three stages.  The early ecclesiology of Alexander Campbell called for the election of ministers from the membership of the congregation.  He used biblical terms -- elder or bishop.  One of these persons would be elected president of the eldership on the basis of superior gifts for the work.  This person would serve full time and be compensated while the other elders would serve part-time without compensation.  (p. 45).

In the next generation, congregations began to call upon young college graduates, presumably from outside the church, to serve with these congregational elders, and in the midst of this questions began to arise about the nature of this ministry -- was "he" an elder or an employee of the church under the supervision of the elders.  Over time, it became established that congregations would be served by pastors who were employed by the church and a board of elders.  The role of these elders was generally limited to praying at the table and gathering to discuss the congregation's spiritual well being.  Early on elders were ordained, for they were considered the ministers of the church, but by the mid-20th century the practice had generally disappeared.  Keith writes:  "Since elders were no longer regarded as ministers, there seemed to be little reason for them to be ordained" (p. 46).

Keith offers an alternative understanding, one that reaches back to the early days of the Disciples movement, but with revisions, that may make better sense as elders take their place at the table.  He writes:

Pastors and elders together are them ministry of the congregation.  The pastor and assistant pastors work to see that the gospel is proclaimed and the people equipped to do the work of Jesus Christ.  The justification for a praying eldership is that these men and women are united with the pastors to be the corporate spiritual leadership of the congregation.  A well-ordered congregation has one ministry -- elders and pastors acting as one body with varied responsibilities assigned to the several members.  (p. 46).

We need to break this down more, but such an understanding makes sense ecumenically, but it would assume that elders ought to be ordained and that they take very seriously their calling. 

An Anniversary Reflection on Ordination to Representative Ministry

June 9, 1985, Ordination participants

It was twenty-five years ago today that hands were laid upon me in a service of ordination at Temple City Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) [June 9, 1985]. Among those participating in that service were members of the Temple City church, it’s interim pastor, Tom Toler, the Regional Minister Charles Mallotte, a local Lutheran pastor, Margaret Duttera, and Ed Linberg, who offered the sermon. Ed had started out as supervisor of my internship, but was called part way through to another ministry. Tom finished out the year (though John Hull and I carried for a few months a lions share of the load – both of us serving as Assistant Pastors). This action of ordination took place a day after I received my M.Div. from Fuller Theological Seminary. It was an important event in my life, perhaps more important than I realized at the time. Twenty-five years ago I had in mind a ministry in the academic world – teaching church history – not serving as the pastor of a local congregation. Yet, for the past twelve years I have served as the pastor of three local congregations.

As I consider my ordination on this anniversary day, I thought I might reflect a bit upon what it means for me and for the church at large. For, if as I believe, we are all, as baptized Christians, all priests of God called to engage in the ministry of God, with Jesus as our high priest, then pastoral ministry might best be defined as representative ministry. The pastor could be seen as the bearer of the call to ministry that all Christians participate in. Standing in the pulpit or at the table, the pastor is not only a representative of God (as one who inspired by the Spirit speaks for God) but also as the representative of the people, sharing a message in word and sacrament that emerges from within the community itself.

By thinking of pastoral ministry as representative ministry, we start with the premise that all ministry is important. No Christian is by virtue of their office holier than any other. There maybe a difference in roles and even charism, but not importance to the health of the body. The calling of the pastoral leadership is not to do ministry for God’s people but to equip and encourage the congregation in its ministries (Eph. 4:11-13). The goal of pastoral ministry is to help God’s people reach maturity in Spirit, and that maturity leads to acts of service – the good works prepared for us by God.

Our ordination to ministry occurs in our baptisms, an act of grace that sets us apart for service to Jesus Christ. Ordination, on the other hand, orders the lives of some for specific areas of service. It is the public recognition that some from among the body are called to representative ministry of preaching, teaching, sacrament, and pastoral care. Although God calls people to this ministry, the church has the responsibility to affirm this call and publicly confer on this person the authority of this office.

In ordaining a candidate the church also promises to hold the ordinand accountable to this calling. Although there are no double standards in Christian ministry, the church should expect that the ones upon whom they confer this title of pastor will hold themselves to the highest standards of behavior, that they will seek to understand the faith in such a way that they may might teach and equip others (making it imperative that those called to ordained ministry pursue some form of education/training such as the traditional M.Div. programs). Having had hands laid upon them, ordained pastors (my preferred title) stand as representatives of the church they serve and lead By extending the hands of ordination on candidates, the church declares to the broader church and the community at large, that this woman or man has been found to have the requisite gifts and calling to serve the church at large as pastors and teachers.

Though many clergy claim to have felt God's leading, God's call on their lives, without the discerning affirmation of the church that sense of calling may be little more than a delusion. The church is charged with discerning both gifts and calling, and then supporting those called and gifted to fulfill this calling. I stand here today the product of a community of communities who saw in me gifts and encouraged their development and usage. Thanks be to God!

Supply and Demand of Professional Ministers -- Sightings

It was a quarter century ago that I walked across the podium and received that diploma cover that carried the words (or something close) -- as soon as all fees are paid and grades recorded you will have earned the M.Div. from Fuller Seminary.  A day later, Temple City Christian Church and the Pacific Southwest Region of the Christian Church took it by faith that I had completed the necessary requirements and laid hands on me.  I did not, as some of my fellow graduates, head off to pastorates.  No, I headed off for more schooling at the University of Oregon, because I didn't intend to be a pastor.  I hoped to be Professor Bob not Pastor Bob.  Over the next few weeks, however, other men and women will walk across podiums and receive the same diploma cover and congregations and denominations will ordain them to professional ministry.  Considering that there are a growing number of churches that can't afford to call a full time professional, prospects for a call can be daunting.  But there's always hope.  Such is the issue that Martin Marty mulls over today in his weekly column.

************************************


Sightings 5/24/10

Supply and Demand of Professional Ministers

-- Martin E. Marty

Public prayer, the kind Americans fight over a good deal, was not on the favorite “to-do” list of the Jesus of the Gospels. Just the opposite. He is heard saying: Don’t call attention to your praying in public. Go home and shut the door. Public action and teaching were a different matter. The King James Version of the Bible on which we teethed when young ran italicized summary capsules atop the pages. I was always stirred by one: “Here Jesus beginneth his public ministry.” He did not desert temple or synagogue or congregating, but ministry was for him a public affair, in marketplace, field, or wedding party.

It still is. I am not sure that “the public” is always aware of the public roles of the hundreds of thousands of men and women called to and being professionals in exercises of ministry. Most are in congregational service, but chaplaincies and agencies, attractive to so many, would not thrive or even exist were it not for the sustaining role of parishes and congregations. In all cases, the graduating seminarians of this season could merit the caption: “Here beginneth the public ministry of…” When ministry goes well, much else goes well, and when it suffers or causes suffering, much else goes ill.

This year national and local papers alike have been discussing the supply and demand of professional ministers. The general word is that – some sectors of evangelicalism aside – most graduates have to scramble and hope and wait for positions in church and synagogue alike. (The exception is Roman Catholicism, which experiences an almost catastrophic shortage of priests, but that is a different story.) As I write, I head off to speak at a Lutheran synodical assembly in downstate Illinois and a commencement at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary. There I will get close-up and personal impressions of how things are going with placement of long-term ministers and newcomers.

Don’t envy seminary leaders and placement people who have to calibrate and calculate and monitor supply and demand. The subtle word gets out that there’s a shortage, as there sometimes is, and by the time the fresh candidates graduate, there is an oversupply. And vice versa. To anticipate this month and this column, I have kept on file last Fall’s Colloquy, published by The Association of Theological Schools. It leads off with frank language which almost summarizes the current situation:

“Current prospects for theological school graduates are defined by several trends. * The job openings available to graduates have been steadily declining in number for the past four years. * Increasing numbers of MDiv graduates are undecided about full-time positions expected after graduation. * Those expecting parish ministry positions have declined. * In response to the economic depression, many retirement age pastors are choosing to postpone retirement. * The annual income required for servicing educational debt may limit job options for new graduates. * Placement and vocational counseling services consistently rank low among measures of student satisfaction.” There it is.

Many factors play their part. Plenty of young and mid-career people who seek meaning and are ready to serve are out there, finding their own way this side of professional ministry. Demography, geography, dual careers of married clergy, graduate school debt, declining rural and often inner-city churches, scandal that hits and hurts religious institutions, are all part of the mixture. Such institutions, such communities, are going through “a period of adjustment,” whose outcome is still uncertain. Seminary leaders and placement people, needless to say, are themselves scrambling and hoping.

Reference:

Colloquy and other ATS resources are online at http://www.ats.edu/Resources/Publications/Pages/Colloquy.aspx



Martin E. Marty's biography, current projects, publications, and contact information can be found at http://www.illuminos.com./


----------

On April 6, 2010 Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, spoke at the University of Chicago Divinity School in an event sponsored by the university’s Theology Workshop. This month’s Religion and Culture Web Forum brings audio from Land’s discussion, titled “Christians, Public Policy, and Church and State Separation,” and offers reflections on the event in an introduction by David Newheiser, Ph.D. student and coordinator of the Theology Workshop at the University of Chicago. http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/publications/webforum/index.shtml

----------

Sightings comes from the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School