The crazy balance of your mind
I share this in hopes of gaining more insight from this collective wisdom. This morning Carol Howard Merritt, alumni from APTS, discussed the financial disparity that exists out there in ChurchWorldLand. She says, “I wish that each pastor had a set amount, based on cost of living, housing, experience, and education. A set salary, where certain things don’t matter—things like ethnicity, age, gender. And certain things do matter, like how much you had to go into debt to get your seminary education.” Carol I am with you. It hurts deeply to imagine a world full of debt and suffering in a place that is supposedly home to most of the world’s wealth.
I will be the first person to admit that even our lowest standard of living is higher than many countries average daily income levels. We are not the worst. We are also sitting atop a volatile mountain of debt, spending, and imaginary power cells. What the fuck are we living for? Where is the service to Christ? Where is the transformation? We are dying as a church in the west and people say they care but they are not supporting it.
I wrote this in response to Carol’s post. I am not a pastor, but a seminarian on the verge of graduation. I am terrified to go into ministry. All of the fears you spoke of add to my anxiety. What shall I do to ensure I can afford to raise a family or even serve a congregation? I heard far too much, “trust God! It is a matter of faith.” I agree trusting God is the beginning. Where is the practice of trust when it comes to financial support from the congregations? Folks will complain, but they will not support.
We are all to blame in the decline. We are part of the problem. This stance of “trust God and if you do not then you have no faith” removes the responsibility from congregations, the Body, and all have in supporting the church. We do not train pastors for free. Is it fair and good stewardship to expect these individuals to shoulder the cost of training that is required?
We have to pay 80 dollars per ordination exam — that is 400 dollars if you can pass these antiquated monsters in the first shot. Not many do! Then there are the psychological evaluations, anywhere from 600 to 2500 dollars. Then the cost of seminary itself, from 10,000 to 15,000 per year for tuition and an additional 10,000 or so to live each year. That is about 60,000 to 75,000 in debt to begin your service with. We need to be smarter with this. If we say we are concerned with the death of the church then we need to step up and support.
The day of the full time pastor maybe behind us. I for one think it is. We must seek sustainable ways to minister in the context to which we find ourselves. Does this mean we have to do away with seminaries and the education they provide? No, the seminary education is foundational to service in the reformed tradition. We must change our lives to live responsibly and centered on Christ.
I used to joke that I wanted to open the First Presbyterian Church of Holy Rollers Bowling Alley. I am no longer joking. Is a coffee house, pub, bowling alley, or restaurant the answer? It is sustainable and attracts folks. In some areas it would respond to the desire and need of a distanced population. It would provide a place for community, care, warmth, outreach, and financial resistance. We just need folks to grasp the idea. Like one of my favorite groups would said, “Rage full on!”
In conjunction with a new way we can inventory our stuff and ask: Do we need the ipod? The newest phone? The cable TV? The two cars? The this or the that? All of this stuff is nice. What does it say about what you live your life for and for whom you live for? I am a f’king hypocrite right along with many of us. I crave the technologies! The Apple computers. The name brand running shoes, the jeans, the shirts, the designer vitamins and food. I love to eat out and am overweight and a burden to this world. I do not practice all that I preach. I need grace, forgiveness, and courage to be what I have witnessed in this world. To stand against the tyranny of consumerism and stereotypes, and hopelessness.
There is a better way. Please pray about it and pray that we can find the way to the cross and sit at the feet of Jesus. The rebel rousing Jesus that roundhouse kicks the money lenders out of a house of Prayer. WTFWJD?
Comment by Neal Locke on 7 December 2007:
Great post, brother. Start your 1st Pres. Bowling Alley — I’ll be with you…just down the street, starting “2nd Presbyterian Monastic Microbrewery and Pub.”
And I’m hoping Carol’s vision comes to pass, too — since I haven’t even started seminary yet and am already thousands of dollars in debt just from obscenely ridiculous medical and insurance bills, aka “having children in a hospital.”
WTFWJD, indeed.
Comment by Drew Ludwig on 8 December 2007:
Starting a bowling ally or a pub is great. Just not a coffeehouse. Every church in the world wants a coffee house, most do a crappy job, and are completely unnecessary.
And I have no fears at all about the church dieing. Church buildings? Lots of those will have to be closed. Plenty of congregations will go with them. The PC(USA) will go sometime (my guess is within my lifetime–I’m almost 30), and the American church, could go, too.
But the church won’t die. I have no fear of that happening at all.
Comment by ryan pappan on 8 December 2007:
Neal,
It would be grand to be able to offer seminarians a debt-free existence entering parish ministry.
I want to attend your church! Please brew a pale ale for the likes of me.
Drew,
I am proposing a coffee house be a church. A place for a gathering. Not a church owned coffee house that hipsters can go and get the brew to bring into worship.
I agree with your statement,”I have no fears at all about the church dieing. Church buildings? Lots of those will have to be closed. Plenty of congregations will go with them. The PC(USA) will go sometime (my guess is within my lifetime–I’m almost 30), and the American church, could go, too.”
My point is that “The Church” needs people not buildings. It will be difficult to get folks to understand the notion that buildings do not equal church. Why can’t we focus on home churches, small groups, or religious cells (not the terror type).
Comment by Russell Duren on 8 December 2007:
Ryan-
Great post, great thoughts. Thanks for your honesty. I’m starting seminary at Dubuque, and I struggle with a lot of the same thoughts. So far, I’m taking one distance class a semester, but I know I won’t be immune to debt when I go residential.
I really resonate with your thought of, if the church cares so much about ensuring its viability, why are seminarians getting so financially screwed? Geez, I had no idea that the ords were so pricey, so that’s one more worry. I’m not excited about the financial side of doing my CPE, that’s for sure.
Anyway, thanks for sharing.
Grace. Peace.
-RPD
P.S. Neal, brew me an amber!
Comment by ryan pappan on 9 December 2007:
RPD, I pray you are blessed with a winning lottery ticket. I bet that is how Jesus is going to work.
The ords, psychological evaluation and the other hoops you must jump through are like a bad hazing accident. You got to pay to play. No wonder we do not mission well to the poor and oppressed, we cannot get them to pay the dues.
Neal I think that beer is needed. I would rather give my dollars to you to make a tasty brew than to navigate the sort of new and sort of inclusive boys club.
Comment by David Williams on 10 December 2007:
Tentmaking was the only way I could see out of it. Seminary took me seven years, because with a wife, kids, and a mortgage, the best option seemed to be to do it part-time. A combination of my part-time income, my wife’s full-time income, grants, and family support made it possible to come out of the grinder without a crushing debt load. There were losses, of course. I didn’t get to immerse myself in the seminary experience. Because so much of my life was off campus, it was hard to establish friendships…my life was just too fragmented. Whichever way you slice it, it isn’t easy. Honestly, though, neither is ministry.
———
Make mine an IPA. For any of y’all in the DC area…I’m going to be brewing up my next batch at the local collective brewpub sometime in January.
Comment by ryan pappan on 10 December 2007:
We got to get the brew and stew club rolling. I vote Neal as first chair,David as second chair and the whole lot of us get a chair. It would be neat to get a gathering of folks together. Perhaps we should follow the EV model of cohorts and get groups together. I know that APTS has the College of Pastoral Leaders ad the ability for granting of grants to get groups together for support and stuff.
I wonder if this site and/or a gathering of folks over a few pints would count.
Comment by Neal Locke on 17 December 2007:
Ryan: If you’re in Austin between Christmas and New Years (as I’ll be) we’ll make that brew happen real soon.
To all: I’m tossing around the idea of a blog post on the parallels between the brewing industry and the church. Something along the lines of:
-Major Breweries = Mega churches. Bland, weak, consistency is highest value. Everyone wants to be like them, but no one actually likes them.
-Microbreweries = Emerging/local/innovative churches. Encourage diversity and experimentation, risk taking, and community interaction.
-Homebreweries = Home churches. Endless diversity. Rabid fanatical evangelistic devotion and sharing of resources.
And I was serious about the Monastic Microbrewery & Pub. It’s where I want to minister and belong. It will happen…
Oh, and my fav? Chimay Blue (from a true Monastic Brewery). And for domestic, 1554 (from New Belgium brewing in CO, which has great environmental & philanthropic practices).
Comment by ryan pappan on 17 December 2007:
I am sad…I love Shinner. Neal I will be around the 29th to the 31st. Let us get together! I will send you my number.
Comment by Neal Locke on 21 December 2007:
Ok Ryan, David & Russell… Here’s the Beer Church post I’ve been working on. Let me know what you think.