Good thoughts on language

[A]n essential part of the ordination exam ought to be a passage from some recognized theological work set for translation into vulgar English--just like doing Latin prose. Failure on this exam should mean failure on the whole exam. It is absolutely disgraceful that we expect missionaries to the Bantus to learn Bantu but never ask whether our missionaries to the Americans or English can speak American or English. Any fool can write learned language. The vernacular is the real test.

~C. S. Lewis, 1958 letter to the editor of The Christian Century, Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, 3:1006-7

(HT: Dane)

Ordination floor exam advice

A friend of mine is standing for his ordination exams later this week.

If you don't know what that means, here's a summary: after finishing a long written exam (or several) on theology, church history, church government, and Bible content, and an oral exam by a committee on the same, he will now stand before a whole presbytery (which is all of the ordained pastors in that region, plus representative Elders from all of the churches in that region) and face an oral exam from them, wherein they can ask them any question they want.

Sound brutal? It is-- and very intimidating. It's also, by the way, one of the best things we do: the ministry of Word and Sacrament are nothing to be taken lightly, and I applaud the way that the PCA takes it seriously. It ought to be hard.

Here are five pieces of advice I gave him about Presbytery floor exams in an e-mail this morning:

1. Keep in mind that the floor exam is primarily about examining you about your fitness for ministry -- NOT your academic and intellectual development (The written and committee exams were for that). So they're looking for your ability to articulate that you have a "ministry sensibility" about you. This means that, often, the questions will be ones such as you aren't really able to prepare for, but simply must react to. That's okay. (I remember one of our classmates gettting asked what he would do to encourage and support the long-standing Pro-Life ministry of his new congregation, for example.)
2. Keep your answers as short as possible-- at all times, but ESPECIALLY when it comes to "views" questions. Answer briefly, though not in a brusk or abrupt manner. Far better for them to ask you follow-up questions (to which you also give brief answers!) than to over-answer and take the discussion in a direction it wasn't going in the first place.
3. Approach the entire process with humility. No one should come into this process with an air of entitlement or worthiness. We are all failures, and we are going to be failures in ministry, too. When you're asked a question, it won't hurt to thank him for the question, and then answer with confidence, but let your confidence be in the sure foundation of the Gospel and your knowledge of that, not in your own intelligence, academic achievement, or rhetorical ability.
4. On a related note, floor exams are not an opportunity to make a point, instruct the brothers in an area where they are weak, or an opportunity to air out theological dirty laundry. Therefore, your answers need not be defensive or aggressive, but should always reflect a proper deference to the brothers and a teachable spirit. This is never more true than when you have a confessional exception or a variation of views. If you believe that the larger bodies are in error (and we certainly are, probably in many ways), there will be plenty of opportunity to study that and present it AFTER you are ordained. Don't let an over-confidence about how "you're right and everyone who questions you is wrong" stand in the way of your ordination.
5. Finally, remember that everyone in the room with you loves Christ, and loves His Bride. All of them are approaching this process with a spirit of godliness, hope, and the desire for what is best for the Church and her members. They are for you and for your present and future ministry, and they want to see you succeed in both ordination and ministry. Their questions are not motivated out of fear, suspicion, or an unhealthy ambition, but are motivated out of a biblical view of what is good and right for an ordained minister to be and know. (Okay, the truth, very likely and quite sadly, is that for some of the people present, none of this will be true. Some people present at ordination examinations are, in fact, the antithesis of what I just described-- and it is possible that some of these will be at yours too. But here's another fact: all of the above OUGHT to be true of EVERY one of them. So you should go in expecting that of them, hoping that of them, believing that of them. Love them in that way, and you will start your ministry among them well.)

Bits and tidbits

A few articles, posts, and other such have come to my attention recently that those in transition (or considering it) may find interesting.

• How a Presbyterian Minister Should Resign. Good thoughts here on the way that a resignation is approached-- not in a strictly businesslike manner, but with care and consideration for one's responsibilities as a Pastor and Presbyter.



• PCA Ministerial Glut. Back in January, the "Warfield List" had a brief discussion (now fizzled out, alas) on how there are "too many" candidates for ministry and what to do about it. FWIW, I don't agree with most of the conclusions drawn, but my 3 or 4 readers will recognize a couple of themes that are burdens of my heart. (HT: Heidelblog)



• Finding a new job, when you're on the road. A good (brief) article from the NY Times "Shifting Careers" column. There are meta-themes here that working Pastors (and even seminary students) will be able to apply.



• The Unclutterer blog has been doing a good series on moving lately-- good advice. Catch their posts here, here, and here.



• The secret to success in ministry. A good little reflection from PastorHacks on why devotional life is important for Pastors (also has good application in seminary, BTW).



• Speed mentoring. Interesting concept-- wouldn't this be fascinating to see done at a General Assembly? (HT: 43Folders)



• The Business. Rands in Repose does it again-- this time discussing salary negotiations. As with all of his posts, this one is focused on the process in the context of the world of IT-- but there's a lot of application to be gleaned for the pastoral candidate. (I especially appreciate his advice on gauging your worth.)

Enjoy.

Approaching the final year, part 3: Know the hurdles

What stands between you and your first pastorate or ministry? If you think it is only graduation and candidacy, you may be in for a big surprise.

If you're affiliated with a denomination or other ecclesiastical affiliation-- or if you intend to serve in ministry in one-- there are probably additional requirements beyond the simple academic exercises. Most denominations have some sort of formalized process for ordination wherein a pastoral candidate is examined and tested in his readiness for ministry. Some denominations do a better job of shepherding ministerial candidates through the preparation for this than others. There may also be requirements that your seminary has beyond classroom study, such as field education.

My advice: make sure you understand the process before you, and know what your part in all of it is.

For example: in my denomination (the Presbyterian Church in America), ministerial candidates must go through a series of steps in order to be "ordainable"-- and in most cases the available ministry positions require (or at least prefer) ordainable candidates. Here's a summary of the steps between first sensing a call to ministry and final ordination in the PCA:

• Becoming a "candidate for gospel ministry" under the care of your presbytery: to do this, you must have met with the Session at your church and discussed your testimony of faith and sense of calling to the ministry. They must then write a letter to your presbytery (which is the regional affiliation of the churches and pastors in that geographic region) on your behalf, asking that you be placed "under care" of the presbytery as a "candidate for gospel ministry". The presbytery will also examine you (usually through a committee first) and hear your testimony of faith and of your call to ministry. Once you have been approved at this stage, you are officially under the care of a presbytery (which, in some presbyteries means almost nothing, unfortunately-- but others do a very good job with it). According to the PCA's Book of Church Order (BCO), you must have been a member of your PCA church for at least six months before you may come under care of a presbytery, you must apply to come under care at least one month before the next meeting of presbytery, and you must be under care to become an Intern of presbytery.



• Becoming an "intern of presbytery": the difference between a candidate and an intern is that, while a candidate is "under care" in the sense that the presbytery has assumed some level of responsibility for the development of the candidate for ministry, the intern is supervised in fulfilling specific tasks to gain experience for ministry. Every presbytery has a slightly different set of tasks and expectations, but all of them have the same goal: to give interns a comprehensive set of experiences that will expose them to all aspects of pastoral ministry. According to the PCA's BCO, an internship must be at least one year long; most interns will find that it will be difficult to fulfill every requirement within a year, and would prefer more time. Your internship will be done in conjunction with your local church; your pastor (or possibly a Ruling Elder) will oversee and supervise this stage of your training. (For more about this, see my former post here.)



• Candidacy. Typically (and minimally-- if you're looking for the least number of steps), the next step after completing your internship is to find a pastoral call. In the PCA, you cannot be ordained unless there is a specific local church who has called you to be a pastor. Thus, the next step is to find placement (and that's what this blog is all about!).



• Ordination Trials: After you have a call, the presbytery where the church that calls you is a member will begin the process of examining you for ordination. These will begin at a committee level, where you'll likely taken both written and oral exams on areas of knowledge including theology, Bible content, church history, PCA history, and the Book of Church Order. You'll also be required to preach before presbytery, and there will be oral exams before the entire presbytery as well. I won't spend a lot of time on these, though there's much to tell-- I've blogged about them before. (And here, and here.)



• The ordination service. After you're approved by your trials, the ordination service is the final step. A "commission" from presbytery (like a committee, but with acting authority) will fulfill this function, administering your vows, giving a charge to you and to the congregation, and laying hands on you to complete this momentous event. This event has a similar significance to a marriage, and will be a great time of celebration and worship.

So what? Why am I telling you all of this? Because it's important to know the hurdles.

A classmate of mine bumped up against this very problem about 4 months before graduation. I knew he was entering his last semester, and I asked him how his search was going. To my surprise, he reported that he had quit searching for now! It turns out that no one had ever told him about the required internship, and he knew that he was stuck until he completed that crucial step-- yet he had not even become a candidate under care of his presbytery! He was forced to take an additional year AFTER seminary to work through the lingering steps to be ready for ordination.

Don't let this happen to you. Make sure that you know the required steps to obtain the credentials and approval you will need to fulfill your calling in ministry.

ordination and you

I was examined by the Credentials Committee of Covenant Presbytery today, and they approved me for recommendation for ordination. This is huge, and it really feels great to get this step behind me. My friend Michael compares the completion of ordination to the struggle that consumes the movie Poseidon Adventure-- not a bad analogy.

Almost anyone emerging from seminary and entering ministry will be "ordained" in one way or another. Some will be ordained by the congregation that calls them, while others will be examined by a denomination. I am more convinced at this point in the process than ever: it is imperative that you view ordination, not graduation from seminary, as the completion of your training and preparation for ministry.

This was an idea that my good friend Richard once put before me, and I think he is spot-on with this. (Years of pouring that sort of practical wisdom and mentoring into me is one of many reasons why I've asked Richard to preach at my ordination service.) The truth is, you're not done studying just because you've graduated from seminary; in fact, you might find that you study more than you ever did during seminary!

Different denominations have different standards and requirements for ordination; even within denominations the requirements may change. In the PCA, for example, the general standards are set by the denomination-- but the actual requirements for fulfilling them are set by the individual presbyteries. In my presbytery, I was required to complete one written exam (it took me about 8 hours to complete, and had more than 100 questions), and face oral exams before a committee and the presbytery as a whole. Because I requested to complete ordination in two steps (I was "licensed" by presbytery to be a "stated pulpit supply" for my church beck in October), I face both the committee and the presbytery twice for orals.

Other presbyteries have more rigorous requirements: one that I know of has six individual written exams-- and each can day many hours to finish-- prior to committee and presbytery oral examination. Some presbyteries are more strenuous in certain areas, others more difficult on other areas.

What is true across the board in the PCA-- and, I'm sure, in any denomination or church-- is that there's a lot of work to do in preparing for ordination. Few, if any, seminary graduates are able to emerge from seminary and face this level of comprehensive examination successfully without any further preparation.

As Michael said: "We celebrated my graduation from Covenant Seminary in May. I am not sure why. For the last five months I have continued studying and taking ordination exams." He's right-- not that you shouldn't celebrate the accomplishment of completing seminary, but that you shouldn't see it as the end-- you're still studying and learning until you knock out ordination.

Blogging GA, day five: final thoughts

I came today from the PCA's General Assembly, riding home with the staff from Covenant Seminary who had gone to GA to work the exhibition booth. We had a safe trip home, stopping in Sikeston, MO at Lambert's Cafe for some "throwed rolls." The guys I rode with were great traveling companions, and I feel like I came away with new friends.

I was talking with one of my former classmates about the expense of General Assembly, and I realized what a bargain trip it had been for me:

Ride down with my Pastor: $0 (though I will give them something for gas)
Riding the bus to and from my housing (10 trips @$1.50 each): $15
Riding home with the seminary staff: $0
Housing at University of Memphis (4 nights @$32 per night): $135, including tax
Meals (minus three meals provided by others, and breakfasts-- I took granola bars with me): $70
Books and gifts: $40
Total cost of my GA Trip: $260

Riding with others and taking the bus saved me tons-- with gas at $3+ per gallon, and parking in downtown Memphis at $6-8 per day, I probably saved more than $100 on transportation. Housing was similar: the total cost of my housing was less than one night at the hotel adjoining the convention center.

What is more, all of these expenses are tax-deductible, since they are directly related to my job search. All of that is to say that it shouldn't be too hard for a seminarian to get to GA to make the connections they will need for candidacy.

One closing thought about General Assembly: on the last night, I was sitting toward the middle of the assembly for worship. As I stood there during one of the hymns, I stopped singing and listened: over 2000 people, almost all of whom are Ruling Elders, Teaching Elders, or their families, singing in worship together-- it was a moving sound.

Technorati Tags: Candidacy, PCA

Blogging GA, day three: making more connections

I continued today to find that General Assembly is a profitable venue for making connections toward candidacy. Without digging into too many details, here's a quick synopsis of Wednesday's productivity:

• My friends and former classmates continued to offer me help and tips in finding leads to new opportunities-- through them I met no less than five new people today, all of whom had opportunities to share with me (often including names and phone numbers of contacts).
• At least five friends asked me to call them in the next week, as they had information in their offices at home that was needed for pointing me toward new leads.
• I met my old Young Life leader from high school, who now is an Associate Pastor in a PCA church; he is helping me connect with his Senior Pastor on Thursday, as they are seeking a new staff member.
• I was told about the same church, and encouraged to contact them, by three different people at different times. Clearly, this is an opportunity I need to follow up with!
• I also connected to the Acquisitions Editors at three different publishing houses, and they are all interested in seeing a proposal for my book on transition from seminary into pastoral ministry.

One further thought here: All of these connections are ones that are served better by the fact that I am here, in person. Let me give two examples why:

One of the Acquisitions Editors told me that he was interested in my book, but probably wouldn't have looked at it seriously if it had simply come by e-mail as an unsolicited proposal. Because it was of a peculiar nature, he said, it would have been one that was eliminated through an early screening.

Similarly, my former Young Life leader told me at first that they were probably looking for someone with a bit more experience than me. After we spoke for a few minutes about what my experience actually was, however, he was willing to encourage his Senior Pastor to consider me more closely.

Of course, neither of these are sure-bets, but I wouldn't even have received their consideration if I had not been speaking with them face-to-face. This is still more evidence at the value and importance of networking.

More tomorrow on my last full day.

Technorati Tags: Candidacy, PCA

Blogging GA, day two: a day of "grip and grin"

After resting in relief of my near-miss and God's protection, I rose this morning and returned (by bus) to the Cook Convention Center. General Assembly (GA) doesn't officially begin until this evening, but there is a lot going on today, and I'll certainly be able to make connections and see people.

And see people I did. I had e-mailed or called a number of people I knew and asked them to find some time for me at GA, and nearly all had agreed.

Now, because of 7 years of youth ministry in the PCA (during which I regularly took students to large conferences), as well as knowing a lot of graduates from Covenant Seminary who were classmates, I know a substantial number of pastors and others in the PCA. This means that I can just hang out in the lobby area at GA and in a matter of minutes see someone that I know.

That said, I think that anyone-- regardless of their degree of "connection" within the PCA or another denomination-- would find the assembly of their denomination a worthwhile investment of time for the sake of connecting and networking. As I've emphasized a number of times before, the relational connections that a candidate has are among the most important aspects or factors for effective placement. In fact, I would say that this sort of "networking" is second only to a strong sense of calling in its importance to good placement.

As an example, here is a little summary of how fruitful my day at GA was today:

• I saw no less than 20 former classmates, all of whom were interested in where I was, what I was doing, and in praying for my search.
• I also saw a handful-- 3 or 4-- of the men that I regularly contact for prayer support and encouragement. All wanted to spend some time with me, encouraging me; those who weren't able to stop then and talk set up a time to visit with me.
• I met with four different people who had specific leads for me-- opportunities for me to follow up on that may be a good fit. All of these people offered to make an initial contact on my behalf, which means that I won't one more name in a sea of unknown names.
• I met with five people that mentioned other opportunities, each of whom invited me to use their name when I made initial contact with the opportunities.
• I made plans to meet with three people who had recently left positions, who were interested in helping me explore whether these opportunities would be good fits for me.
• In all, I came away with 15 new opportunities to pursue-- all in one day. By the way, many of these are not (yet) on any of the lists out there.

As you can see, attending General Assembly has been a profitable time for me so far. I'm looking forward to the rest of the week and continuing to make connections.

Technorati Tags: Candidacy, PCA

Blogging General Assembly, day one: A mighty Protector is He

I made arrangements to attend the Presbyterian Church in America's (PCA's) General Assembly this week. For you non-PCA folk, General Assembly is the annual meeting of the denomination for the business of the church as a denomination. And in the PCA, every church in the denomination may send delegates-- both Ruling Elders and Teaching Elders (Pastors)-- so there are a lot of PCA people here; over 1200 delegates, to be more specific. So it is a good time for networking and finding new leads for placement.

The General Assembly (aka "GA") is at the Cook Convention Center in Memphis, TN, which is downtown. I rode down to GA with my Pastor, and don't have a vehicle here.  I'm staying in the dorms at the University of Memphis, which is in the suburbs. Therefore, I'm riding the city bus to and from the Convention Center.

When we got to town (around 8pm), I asked my Pastor to drop me off at the Convention Center, since I knew there was a bus route that went right by the Convention Center and straight to the University of Memphis. It took little time to find a bus stop, but after waiting for about 15 minutes without seeing a bus, I decided to walk a bit down the way I would be going. There were bus stops about every block, so I figured I would catch one when it came.

When I was about 8 blocks from the Convention Center, I passed a mission and stopped at another bus stop for a while. Again I waited about 10 minutes, then moved on. I hadn't walked 50 yards when an apparently homeless guy started walking toward me, calling out. "Hey big man! Hey-- I need to talk to you."

"You don't need to talk to me," I told him, and kept walking. But he said, "Yeah I do-- I'm just trying to help you out. Stop and let me tell you something."

I Stopped, and he said, "You don't want to keep walking that way. If you go another block that way, the vice-lords will beat you up and take everything you have."

At this, some of the other men sitting around (also apparently homeless) said, "He's telling you the truth, man."

We talked for a while, and he told me that he tried to regularly catch guys who got impatient with the bus system-- after rush hour is over, they only come about once an hour-- and keep them from walking into trouble. He walked back to the bus stop with me, and we talked until I got on the bus 20 minutes later.

I'm so thankful for God sending this man to help me. He (God) clearly used this meek fellow to protect me from harm. It reminded me of a song I used to lead my youth group with, that sang, "Hallelujah, hallelujah! A mighty Protector is He!"

UPDATE: I wrote this on Monday, but due to erratic connections couldn't get it posted until today (Wednesday). Sorry about the delay!

Technorati Tags: Candidacy, PCA

Ordination humor points

Ordination is part of the transition process.  Period.

(Or transfer of ordination, if you are already ordained.)

This is something that many guys miss, and don't account for in their process.  But as I've blogged about before, if you fail to attend to the steps leading to it you can curtail your progress in candidacy.

As I've been thinking about issues over the last two days, a few anecdotes of how guys have dealt with tough questions during ordination have come to mind.

• One Pastor, already ordained, was transferring into a Presbytery that had faced division about Theonomy (more help here) in the past.  Thus, at one point in his already abnormally tense ordination exam, he was asked about his views on Theonomy.  He paused for a moment, then responded, "Isn't that an Italian dish?"  As the laughter subsided someone else asked a different question, and he managed to avoid discussing Theonomy altogether.
• Another Pastor, ordained in another denomination, was seeking ordination in the PCA.  This was in 2001, when Regis Philbin's Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? was at the height of popularity (it actually appeared five nights in a row, every week, for a while).  He, too, was asked a difficult question, and one that he wasn't sure of the answer to, so he said, "I'd like to use my 'Phone-a-Friend!'"  While he didn't get away without answering the question, he had softened his examiners to his uncertainty.
• One Presbytery had within it a seminary that provided the Presbytery with more than its share of Candidates, Interns, and Licentiates.  Thus, a Pastor I knew had been warned to keep his testimony of faith brief; they didn't need to hear a long life-story, they said.  When the time came, he stood and was asked for his testimony of faith and of calling to the ministry.  He responded, "I'm a sinner, I love jesus, and I want to serve Him."  That was a bit briefer than they had expected, and they were so flustered they just moved on.

In no way am I advocating that those being examined for ordination take difficult (or even easy) questions lightly, nor should they try to avoid them with humor.

On the other hand, one thing these tales illustrate is that a little humor, well-placed and coupled with a willingness to do more than be funny (e.g., actually answering the question), can ease tensions and make ordination much more brotherly.

[Note: this post is dedicated to my friend Jon, who stood for and passed his Presbytery floor exams for ordination last Saturday.  Congratulations, Jon!]

Technorati Tags: Ministry, PCA, Transition

Understanding Presbytery Internships

A friend and former classmate will be graduating in May.  He confessed to me today that he would not be prepared to transition into ministry at that time, however, because he hadn't completed his Presbytery Internship.

In the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), anyone who would be ordained for ministry must complete an Internship.  In most cases, it is difficult to get a call to a pastoral position unless a man has completed this step, because he would not be able to be ordained without it.

My friend misunderstood the difference between his field education, required by the seminary, and his Internship.  It may be worth taking the time to draw some distinctions here:

• You may be enrolled in seminary and still not be considered an Intern by Presbytery.
• You may have completed required field education and still not be considered an Intern by Presbytery.
• You may be a high-level volunteer leader in your church and still not be considered an Intern by Presbytery.
• You may be on your church's staff and still not be considered an Intern by Presbytery.
• You may even be an intern at your PCA church and still not be considered an Intern by Presbytery!

In short, the only way to be an Intern of your Presbytery is to become an Intern of your Presbytery.

To do this, you need to apply to Presbytery as an intern.  (If you are not already "under care" of your Presbytery as a Candidate for Gospel Ministry, now is a good time to do that, as well.)  To be an Intern, you must have been a member of your PCA church for six months.  You must also be sponsored by your church as a Candidate, which means that your church Session (the body of Elders) examined and approved you for ministry and recommended you to Presbytery.

You may not become a Candidate or Intern in a Presbytery other than that in which you are a member.  You may become a Candidate or Intern in a Presbytery in which you are an associate member-- for example, if you chose to maintain membership at your home church in another Presbytery but joined the local church as an associate member.  And you may work to arrange a "co-operative Internship" where the Presbytery where you are under care as a Candidate works with the local Presbytery to allow you to be overseen and shepherded locally, rather than trying to coordinate efforts long-distance.

If you wish to apply to be an Intern (or a Candidate, for that matter), be sure to get started early.  Agendas for Presbytery meetings are set weeks in advance, so that members may receive copies ahead of time.  Often, to be placed on the agenda as an incoming Intern you must first be approved by a committee, which might meet a month or more before the Presbytery meeting.  Thus, it may be that you must apply for a Presbytery Internship two months in advance of the Presbytery meeting.

Furthermore, an Internship ordinarily takes a year or more to complete.  While it is possible to meet the requirements in less time, doing so also requires a special vote of Presbytery to approve it (since the Book of Church Order requires that Internships normally be at least one year in length-- BCO 19.7.2).

Requirements for an Internship vary from one Presbytery to another, but the basics are fairly predictable:

• You need experience teaching and preaching (usually something like 12 sermons and 30 total teaching instances)
• You should have interacted with Elders/a Session
• You must have a grasp of how a church functions and operates (budgets, congregational meetings, etc.)
• You need to have some visitation experience
• You must work with leadership development is some way
• You probably will need exposure to officer training

The BCO says this about requirements: "The nature of the internship shall be determined by the Presbytery, but it should involve the candidate in full scope of the duties of any regular ministerial calling approved by the Presbytery.  It is to be both a time of practical instruction and testing by the Presbytery, and may be in any work which the Presbytery deems to be a suitable ministry to test the intern’s gifts."  (BCO 19.7.3)

Many of these requirements can be "grandfathered" from experience you already have, but the BCO specifically stipulates that an Internship is to represent experience gained during or after theological training.  Thus, even if you (like me) spent a number of years in ministry before beginning seminary, you won't be able to fulfill all of your requirements from that (though some Presbyteries will allow you to apply some of that to your requirements).  Most "grandfathering" is based on ministry you have done since beginning seminary.

I recommend that seminarians become Presbytery Interns as soon as possible.  Since there are sometimes financial advantages to being under care of a Presbytery as a Candidate, many seminarians take care of this before beginning seminary-- but you can become a Candidate and an Intern at the same time.  Starting this process as early in your training as possible will only help you.

One final word: once you have completed your Presbytery Internship, request from the Clerk of Presbytery a paper copy of the minutes from the Presbytery meeting where you were declared to have completed it.  This ensures that it was entered into Presbytery records, and provides you with verification should there ever be a questions.  (Thanks to Rev. Stephen Estock for this idea.)

Technorati Tags: Ministry, PCA, Transition

Salary data

There has been a lot of interest recently in what pastors get paid-- specifically, what are some averages of salaries for pastors in the PCA.

(I know this is a bit esoteric, but consider that the PCA is a growing evangelical denomination-- basically what conservative denominations WANT to be-- and so it therefore a "typical" example.)

The Administrative Committee of the PCA does a good job of tracking these stats on an annual basis, and they graciously provided me a copy of their data.  I'm happy to provide a brief summary of that here.

For All PCA churches in the USA-- Senior/Solo Pastorates:
The mean (average) total compensation for 2005: $79,062
Mean cash salary: $41,944
Mean housing allowance: $21,642
Mean benefits: $15,476

The median (mid-point) total compensation for 2005: $76,201
Median cash salary: $23,760
Median housing allowance: $30,000
Median benefits: $22,441

Highest total compensation: $189,609
Lowest total compensation: $24,840

For All PCA churches in the USA-- Assistant/Associate Pastorates:
The mean total compensation for 2005: $74,341
Mean cash salary: $38,093
Mean housing allowance: $21,470
Mean benefits: $14,778

The median total compensation for 2005: $72,126
Median cash salary: $35,427
Median housing allowance: $19,200
Median benefits: $17,499

Highest total compensation: $132,275
Lowest total compensation: $21,000

Other/Non-Ordained Staff:

Youth Leaders:
Mean total compensation: $50,921
Median: $50,434
Highest: $98,200
Lowest: $22,568

Directors of Christian Education:
Mean total compensation: $60,510
Median: $63,332
Highest: $90,019
Lowest: $24,000

Church Business Administrators:
Mean total compensation: $53,107
Median: $51,680
Highest: $119,398
Lowest: $23,060

Music Ministers:
Mean total compensation: $61,783
Median: $63,212
Highest: $121,324
Lowest: $20,200

Stated Supply Preachers:
Mean total compensation: $48,183
Median: $44,300
Highest: $91,632
Lowest: $20,400

Technorati Tags: Ministry, Pastoral, PCA

Transition no. 8 (last): Floor exams for ordination

The floor examination has a clear purpose: to test your readiness for ministry.

Notice: I didn't say, “test your knowledge” or “test your theological acuity.” This is a test of how ready you are for the day-to-day, hour-by-hour work of ministry.

A little background-- when a Candidate for Gospel Ministry pursues ordination in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), he will be examined orally at least twice: once by a committee of presbytery, and once on the floor of presbytery. The committee exam will be private and closed, generally speaking. No one else will be there but the committee and possibly a few other ordinands. This exam will also take longer than the other; the committee exams sometimes go for several hours.

The floor examination, in contrast, will be an open exam. Everyone in attendance who is a member of presbytery will be there, and any other visitors are welcome to attend. It is not uncommon, for example, for an ordinand's wife or parents to come and watch. In fact, visitors may even stay after the ordinand has been asked to leave so that the vote may be taken (although the presbyters do have the right to call for visitors to be excused as well).

The committee exam is essentially all about what you learned in seminary and in other preparation for ministry. They will grill you on church history, fine points of theology, your knowledge of the English Bible, your understanding of the sacraments, and so on. These questions can be as particular as, “what was the point of difference between Ratramnus and Radbertus?” or “explain the rationale for a supra-lapsarian position,” or “give a detailed outline of the books of 2 Chronicles, Nahum, and 2 Thessalonians.” They want to be sure that you have learned as much as you can learn.

The floor exam, on the other hand, is quite different. There will be a few obligatory questions from each major area, because the Book of Church Order of the PCA requires that the floor exam include them, but when the questioning is opened up to anyone at presbytery, most of the questions will not be so particular with regard to “book learnin'.”

Instead, most will be directly related to the kind of issue or question that your ministry will put you in the line of fire for. A recent floor exam I sat in on included a question about how the ordinand (who had a call to an upper-middle class suburban church) would encourage racial and ethnic diversity in his congregation, and another about how he would support and advance that church's already active pro-life ministry.

Many of the questions in a floor examination will touch on things that the ordinand may never have considered before, and he will be forced to articulate an answer on the spot. A friend of mine told me about a question he received at his floor exam: must a person believe that the Bible is the Word of God in order to be a Christian? His answer: “No, one need not believe that the Bible is the Word of God to be a Christian, but I believe that if you are a Christian, you will believe that the Bible is the Word of God.”

The best thing about this kind of examination is that it requires an ordinand to understand his Bible, his theology, his confession of faith, and even his church history in practical, tangible ways. How else should a man be examined, after all?

Recent graduates: I offer you my prayers and hopes that every letter of the Bible, every word of theology, and every moment of history that you were exposed to in seminary may become so real and useful, so life-changing and ministry-shaping, so Gospel-driven and Christ-centered that you will find your floor exams, and all of the ministry that follows, a delight and a welcome challenge. May God bless your transition and your new ministry.

“The system” and some solutions

The gist of the problem: grassroots organization in the PCA leads to no substantive leadership in the transition process for candidate-churches or candidate-pastors.

In the corporate world, a similar problem is solved by folks colloquially referred to as “headhunters”: someone who serves as an agent of sorts for potential employees, even offering advice on the job market and salary package fairness. Such a function serves to bring back the balance that I so often refer to, in a world where the big corporations otherwise hold all the cards.

How can we solve it in the church world? I think there are three levels of work to be done.

First, as a denomination the PCA needs to re-examine how good it is to be so thoroughly “grassroots.” In many ways, this plays out practically as not simply “grassroots” but “congregational” in governmental form. (I sometimes hear this as a complaint about the EPC--that they are too congregational; shouldn't we look at the log in our own eyes first?) Maybe there is a middle-ground between the top-down near-papacy that the PCA fathers feared and the reactionary grassroots emphasis that the PCA today embodies. How would that look? See number two for a suggestion...

Second, Presbyteries need to get involved. If the denomination would allow it at the Assembly level, then Presbyteries could play a more active role: one that is only advisory, but still one that is mandatory. (The nature of the role as “advisory” would provide the middle ground without forcing a compromise on the avoidance of authoritarianism that the founders of the PCA so wanted.) In other words, a Presbytery's approval of a “dissolution of call” (officially dissolving the relationship between a pastor and church) would automatically be accompanied by appointment of an individual or small committee who would work with that church and any candidates that they may seriously consider to advise and encourage them through the process. Churches could partially bypass this step (though not the part about the committee advising candidate-pastors) by attaching to the request for dissolution a notice of what consulting group they will be working with (and Presbytery would have the authority to advise against that particular consulting group if they knew of reasonable grounds to do so).

So third, churches and pastors would have help along the way-- and their part would be to accept that help. That's a taller order than many realize, because both Search Committees and pastors tend to struggle with pride and too much self-confidence, just like everyone else.

That is all working under the assumption that the pastors, churches, Presbyteries, and Assembly of the PCA would each take those steps to achieve middle ground. Until then, I think churches should, if at all possible, look for someone outside of their congregation to help. There are many excellent consultants who are doing this kind of work. Candidate-pastors ought to seek out advice, as well-- from friends and peers, from former seminary professors, from ministry mentors. Even from sources as humble as this blog.

And both candidate-churches and candidate-pastors could utilize loose organizations such as the network I work with: the Pastoral Ministry Placement Network. We occasionally work with churches and pastors in our denomination to help them toward finding a good “fit” in ministry placement. You could think of us as the “headhunters” of the PCA-- though it is not nearly so grand an enterprise as that. (See my sidebar for contact information.)

I think this problem can be overcome. It is up to those of us who are in the denomination to overcome it.

“The system” and its problems

A recent conversation forced me to reflect on why the current “system” of placement in my denomination works the way it does; specifically, why it often seems like pastors are just shuffling around from one position to another. Is most pastoral transition in the PCA the result of a “grass is always greener” mentality, as my friend suggested?

I don't know if I can answer that; maybe a few more years of researching transition will lend me more confidence to take on questions like this.

I can, however, speak to the reason (or reasons) why it seems like this: the PCA is organized specifically to be a grassroots denomination. This leads to ancillary factors which contribute to the problem.

When the PCA was formed in 1973, much of the impetus for its formation was the direction and leadership of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PC-US). The direction of the PC-US was objectionable because, over a number of years, they had moved further and further away from holding the Bible as authoritative, inerrant, infallible, and inspired by God, leading to increasing theological liberalism. The leadership-- a top-down, authoritative oligarchy-- was objectionable because the structure of that denomination did not (at least in the eyes of the dissenters) allow for fair dissent or dissolution. Thus, when the PCA formed out of the PC-US, they decided that the structure would be somewhat reactionary, and went with a grassroots organization.

The result of this is that the larger governing bodies of the PCA have little or nothing to do with the arrangement of a pastor's call. The General Assembly normally has no part in the process (though there have been a few occasions when a congregation wishing to dissolve a relationship with a pastor had to go all the way to the G.A. level!). The Presbyteries have some part, but that part is nearly too late to have any effective leadership role.

Presbytery involvement comes into play only after a call has been issued to a candidate-pastor-- so the whole system of the candidacy process can be completed (or nearly completed) without the knowledge or participation of Presbytery. The role of the Presbytery's involvement comes in just a few forms: approval by the receiving Presbytery of the candidate-pastor himself with regard to ordination (he must either be ordained by that Presbytery or his ordination must be approved to transfer from another Presbytery); approval by that Presbytery of the terms of call as given by the church issuing his call; and dismissal from the previous Presbytery (though this step is unnecessary for a new ordinand). Everything else is left to the local church.

What's missing (that my friend pointed out) is accountability for the pastor and guidance for the church:

• No one questions the pastor about why he is leaving his current call. Has he finished the work God brought him there for? Is a bad situation truly unreconcilable? Is he missing something that he should know?
• No one offers an objective assessment about what he is suited for. Has he considered (or reconsidered) his sense of calling thoroughly? Does he have a clear vision of what God is leading him to do?
• No one offers an objective assessment about where he might go. Is the church that extended him a call the best fit for him? Is he the best fit for that church?
• No one has given any leadership or guidance to the churches in their search. Have they consulted with anyone about who and what they are looking for? Do they know how to conduct a proper search? Have they considered the best candidate-pastors for the position?

These are significant problems. Without a “hub” of sorts to spin this system around, things can become quite arbitrary.

Soon I'll post my thoughts on some solutions.

Networking in the PCA

“It's like 'old home week' for you,” my friend Craig commented to me. We had only been at the Presbyterian Church in America's (PCA's) General Assembly for a few minutes, but I had already greeted a dozen people. What gives?

What gives is the very reason I went to General Assembly: what happens in the church is all about relationships, and Craig saw this starkly in only a few moments. If anything, my hypotheses about networking and the placement process were confirmed and strengthened by my brief time at G.A.

Since I've been in the PCA for a while, since I had a mentor early on who took the time to help me build relationships with PCA folk, and since I have attended the PCA seminary for four years, I am already fairly well-connected in the denomination. What Craig saw was the fruit of that. In spite of this, however, I would be presumptuous if I assumed that my relationship-building work was done.

Based on what I know about my own sense of calling, I set up meetings at General Assembly with key people from PCA presbyteries where we would like to move. For example, I met with the chairman of the Mission to North America Committee from one presbytery in Marcie's home state. We had a great conversation about my passions, burdens, and sense of calling for revitalization, and he indicated that he was encouraged that I would be interested in coming to his presbytery to minister in that capacity. He was not in a position to recommend a particular opportunity to me at that time, but simply having met him and gotten to know him-- even briefly-- seems like it will make a difference in the placement process.

More than ever, I'm convinced that networking and relationships are the key to placement.

Preparing for a new pastor, part three

The next step in preparing for a new pastor is to understand the pastor's work. That is, if we know with confidence that he is called to be a pastor, what does that mean that he is called to do, practically speaking?

Pastors, the Scripture tells us, are “Elders” and “Overseers” of the church. As such, they have duties distinct from other roles of leadership. For example, in Acts 6 we read of the apostles-- the original Teaching Elders-- appointing seven others (who we have come to call Deacons) to fulfill the role of ministering to the physical needs of the flock. This is because no one person, or even a group of people, can do all of the ministry of the church.

In my denomination, we further distinguish pastors as “Teaching Elders” which is an extension of the idea of Elder; we have other Elders (that we call Ruling Elders) in the church who share many of the functional duties that the pastor has, yet who are not called and trained to be pastors. Teaching Elders are full Elders, however, and therefore have all of the duties of the Ruling Elder, plus the additional roles they are charged with as Teaching Elders.

The duties of any Elder are:

• The oversight of the flock
• To give prudent example of godly living to the flock
• To govern the house and Kingdom of Christ
• The visitation of the flock
• To instruct, comfort, encourage, and nurture the children of God
• Prayer for and with the people of God
• To seek the fruit of the Word among the flock

As I already mentioned, all Elders have these duties. Pastors, as Teaching Elders, have further additional duties. As a Teaching Elder, a pastor must:

• Feed the flock by reading, expounding, and teaching Scripture
• Serve as an ambassador for Christ
• Function as an evangelist of the Gospel
• Steward the mysteries of God by dispensing grace and the ordinances

These are a lot of duties! In fact, it should not be hard to see that, even in the smallest church, no one pastor (or even a staff of pastors) can fulfill all of these adequately. This is one of the reasons why Ruling Elders and Deacons are so important: these men bear some of the pastoral burdens, sharing in the work of ministry with the pastor. So, an essential way that we can prepare for a new pastor is to realize the scope of his work, but in its extent (and therefore acknowledging the need for good, committed leadership alongside our pastor) and in its limit (and thereby not placing expectations on him that are not appropriate to his calling).

Reflecting further on Acts 6, it is important to recognize that some of the most significant pastoral duties are the teaching of the Word and prayer. Among other things, then, in preparing for a new pastor we should realize that these are important priorities, and help the pastor to protect the time and focus he needs to devote to them. Some will ask, why is preaching so significant? Why do pastors need to take so much time to prepare their sermons? The Westminster Larger Catechism identifies the preaching of the Word of God as, somehow, actually being the Word of God; given this, we must regard preaching as a high calling, indeed. To presume to fulfill this calling with only cursory attention given to the study and consideration of the content of Scripture is a severe mistake. Preparing a sermon takes time; give your pastor the time he needs.

[To that I might add this: any church that hires a new seminary graduate ought to give especially careful attention to this. I mentioned before that presbyteries will require a certain number of sermons to be preached for the fulfillment of the Internship requirements-- for example, 12 sermons in the presbytery where I am an Intern. It is quite possible (in fact, regularly the case) that these 12 sermons are the only sermons that graduate has prepared and preached-- ever. Though opportunities exist for preaching while in seminary, I have found that most of my classmates do not take advantage of these opportunities. While I plan to reflect on this more in another post, I will say this here, as it relates to preparing for a new pastor: reducing the amount of time required for preparation of sermons demands a depth of knowledge of the Word and experience in developing Word-knowledge into a sermon. It would be quite difficult for the average new graduate to prepare a sermon adequately in less than 10-15 hours. But too often, expectations, either directly or indirectly, are placed on them to get it done in much less time. These expectations may be one of the big reasons that plagiarism of sermons is so common in our day.]

The benefits of denominationalism...

...Or, at least, one benefit: the process is a lot cleaner. I was corresponding with the Real Live Preacher briefly about this, and he confessed that, being in a more independent church context, he had always found that, "there are as many ways to do this as there are churches, it seems. No rules, and a lot of mistakes."

I appreciate his honesty about it, and it causes me to recognize the great benefits of being a part of a denomination. A few that come to mind:

• Networking: to whatever extent you utilize the natural network that occurs in a denomination, it is a huge benefit for the candidacy process.
  
• Administrative functions: services such as the placement office at my denominational seminary and the Administrative Office of the denomination itself may the system run a bit smoother.
  
• Mentoring: operating in a Presbytery has the natural element of peer acountability, mentoring, and oversight as a requirement.
  
• Guidance for churches: while many don't pursue it as much as is actually available, there is good help for churches who need guidance through the search process.
  
• Known standards: in spite of what I said in an earlier post, there is a level of theological standardization that is all but taken for granted, but has a huge benefit to the process.
  

It is helpful to me to keep a healthy perspective on this question; I love my denomination, and I'm ready to take vows of commitment to the PCA. Thanks to Real Live Preacher for reminding me of that.

A little more on issues...

Working through this recent question about "hot topic" theological issues has made me aware of the level of discernment required for candidacy, and I must say I am surprised at this.

Since my denomination-- the Presbyterian Church in America-- holds to a fairly high confessional standard, I never would have guessed that theological discernment would be a major concern in the candidacy process. I always knew there would be issues of practical/logistical matters which would require careful discernment, such as ministry emphasis, worship style, approaches to evangelism, etc. (Please don't misread this sentence as a suggestion that I don't view the more abstract theological issues as practical-- I do.) But I didn't think I would be faced with a need for caution in the theological realm.

I guess I was wrong on that one...

On discernment, caution, and "issues"

We received some information from a church the other day that was striking. To begin with, Marcie and I were both quite surprised at the fundamentally high quality of the material; this was, by far, the most articulate and helpful information I have ever seen from a candidate-church. They provided a good introduction to the church, some basic demographics, and details about what the committee views as the distinctives of the church. The only thing missing was an explicit description of what they were seeking in a candidate-pastor (although some implications of this were peppered throughout the document). They also included a list of twenty questions (not a pun) that they wanted me to answer concerning various parts of my views on theology and ministry. Generally speaking, it was a great information packet.

However, a lot of what they said-- especially in the "distinctives" section-- was interesting in its ambiguity. Some of their descriptions were such that, taken at face value, they were simply informative about the true distinctions of the church; at the same time, much of what they put forth could easily be construed (or misconstrued) as "code" for, shall we say, some of the "minority" positions in our denomination. That is, if they hold to a peculiar theological position that is currently in debate as to its orthodoxy, they may have, in these distinctives, put forth a veiled plea for sympathizers to their views.

This puts me in a difficult position. At face value, I agree with all of their distinctives, and could easily minister in that context. In that case I would be quite interested in pursuing the position. On the other hand, if they venture further afield than their language suggests-- if it is an understatement, intentional or not, of a more controversial viewpoint-- then I am fairly confident that I disagree with quite a bit of what makes them distinctive. If this is the case then it would be a waste of my time, and theirs, to pursue it further.

This one instance causes me to consider the place of theological controversy and hot issues in the candidacy and placement process. There are a lot of issues that arise in the PCA... the direction of the denomination, confessional subscription, creation chronology, sonship, theonomy, the "new perspective on Paul," "Auburn Avenue" theology, paedocommunion, to name a few. How do these come into play in the candidacy process?

Normally, I am not much of an "issues" guy. I'm convinced that any of these (or any other) issues can become an obstacle to the Gospel: as a (future) pastor, once I become an activist for any cause-- no matter how noble-- I demonstrate that something other than the Gospel takes a higher priority in my life. What is more, at this point I would rather work on getting right the basic tools of biblical exegesis and fundamental theology. My friend Jon (http://www.barlowfarms.com) recently blogged some wise and helpful advice to this end that I wish all of my seminary classmates would read (see the last large paragraph from his 9/27/2004 post).

That said, I think that a careful candidate-pastor must take these issues into consideration when he is considering a church. Of course a church will present herself in the most favorable light possible-- it would be naive to expect anything else. But if that presentation makes a suspect or questionable position appear incontrovertible, caution and discernment are in order.

A large part of the solution seems to be in the diagnosis. Often, we can only see the symptoms; we see events or practices which may, or may not, indicate the presence of a questionable theology. The true problem-doctrine will rarely be presented, especially by a search committee. It is important to recognize that those apparent symptoms may simply be face-value distinctives-- harmless and unthreatening values that set one church apart from another. Said another way, it is not quite so important what a church is doing that looks suspicious as it is why they are doing it. There is sometimes a very fine line between an acceptable practice motivated by orthodoxy and a questionable practice driven by heresy. If I can get to the "why" answers, I'm doing good work in my discernment.

Follow-up on 11/26/2004:
I withdrew my name from consideration from the church mentioned above. In their distinctives, they listed as "further reading" several authors who are more upfront with their views on the controversial topics, and it is reasonable to infer that this church does hold to one of the "hot-topic" viewpoints, even though they themselves said nothing in their descriptions that was conclusive.

One of my professors surmised that this may be because they are not confident enough in their understanding to attempt a re-phrasing of the issue into their own words. If they mention the people they did, he said, they are telling me what they believe indirectly.

This brings to mind another concern altogether: a lot of people I know (especially seminary students) are quick to dismiss the perspectives of these authors simply because they know they disagree with them on a point or two. I've read a fair amount of some of the authors mentioned, and I know that some of what they say about different topics-- a lot, in some cases-- is helpful, orthodox in its content, an advancement of the progress of the issue, and genuinely beneficial to the Kingdom. I don't think they are right about everything, and I don't think they are right about the topic they are being cited on by this church. But then, nobody is right about everything; I'm certain that there are parts of my theological framework that I am wrong about (although I can't identify them at this point!), and I hope I'll be corrected in due time. More so, however, I hope I will not be quickly dismissed altogether because I am wrong here or there.