A toxic workplace?

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Where is the next generation of pastors going to come from? Part Three.

This is the third in a series of posts looking at some of the factors that are hindering the next generation from embracing the call to pastoral ministry. Part one and part two can be found here.

This one comes with a trigger warning as it relates to the abuse of power in ministry settings. Note that I’m focusing here only on where congregational dynamics can be the source of the problem; see my earlier article on where pastors can abuse their power.

Comments on this post are being moderated before appearing, to avoid specific situations or people being inappropriately shared/named on social media. Specific grievances and appeals should follow the process for the relevant organisation or denomination.

The (sometimes) toxic work environment of pastoral ministry

Judging by the array of comments on social media, the current leadership of the Australian men’s cricket team is a divisive topic. It appears to be divided partly along generational lines, albeit with plenty of exceptions—myself included.

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Robots in the desert

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Where is the next generation of pastors going to come from? Part Two.

This is the second in a series of posts looking at some of the factors that are hindering the next generation from embracing the call to pastoral ministry. (See part one here.)

The changing demands of pastoral ministry: where have the volunteers gone?

More than a decade ago, futurist Paul Saffo[1] said that the most important invention in the future would be robots that can make other robots that that make solar panels in the desert. Why? Because the best place for solar panels is where there’s the most sun. But it’s inhospitable for humans to work there. We could make the panels elsewhere, but the transportation cost to get them to the desert would be high. So robot-labour would solve that. But still, who makes the robots—and transports them to the desert? So we need another layer: robots out in the desert making more solar-panel-building robots. It would be the cheapest way to roll out renewable energy at scale.

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The great pastor drought

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Where is the next generation of pastors going to come from? Part One.

The ongoing pastor drought shows no sign of breaking.

The prevailing El Niño conditions have been observed for quite some time. Even before the pandemic, Eternity News reported on the looming shortage—across all denominations—in which the number of people studying for pastoral ministry was less than those who were retiring, observing, “there’s a growing drought of ‘theologs,’ people studying full-time degree courses with the aim of paid ministry.” This is being experienced across the Western world, with even the most prestigious seminaries experiencing declining enrolments. And in the US, of those who enrol, more than 80 per cent are not intending to enter pastoral ministry in a local church. Meanwhile, in my own denomination—in which we have committed to growing to a thousand healthy churches in a generation—there are currently around thirty known pastoral vacancies. However you look at it, the next generation is not answering the call in sufficient numbers to lead our churches.

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Calling all shepherds

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The past few years have witnessed a steady stream of high-profile church leaders being removed from leadership as patterns of abuse, impropriety, and pride have been brought to light. And there are likely more to come, along with many others whose profiles are not prominent enough to gain attention. It’s not just the leaders themselves who are in the spotlight, but also the churches whose culture tolerated such behaviour as long as it brought “success.”

It’s enough to make a godly person think twice when considering a call to pastoral ministry. Why would I want to be a part of that? Is that how pastors—or at least, effective pastors—inevitably end up?

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As shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves

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Last week, I looked at Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and how it encouraged us to view opposition from and rejection by the wider world honourable in God’s eyes. This week, I thought I’d take a look at what else Jesus has to say about responding to hostility.

Expect opposition to happen

Multiple times throughout Matthew’s Gospel—which was written to a maligned and rejected minority group of Jesus-followers—we see Jesus stressing the inevitability of persecution[1] and hatred. Nowhere do we find this more strongly than in chapter 10:

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Blessed are you when people insult you

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Adapted from Tim MacBride, To Aliens and Exiles: Preaching the New Testament as Minority-Group Rhetoric in a Post-Christendom World (Cascade, 2020), 163-67. Used with publisher’s permission.

Matthew 5:11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.”

While Christians in the West can’t presently claim “persecution” in its narrow sense, there are plenty of times we’re insulted, misrepresented, and ostracised because of our faith. More so now than perhaps in recent generations. Yet as long as it is because of our faith—rather than because we’re being insensitive jerks—then Jesus says we’re “blessed.” More than that: he says our response should be to rejoice:

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Christian giving is a three-way street

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Patronage and Philippians 4:10-20

This video (and transcript below) illustrates the importance of cultural background in understanding the New Testament. For more, enrol in the Bible Overview subjects at Morling College, as part of an undergraduate or graduate certificate.

We’re looking at a short passage near the end of Philippians (4:10-20). It’s a passage that’s all about gift-giving and receiving – and the cultural expectations and obligations associated with it. All about who owes what.

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In (partial) defence of the monologue sermon

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This article originally appeared on the Morling College blog in July 2020.

The monologue sermon gets plenty of negative press in Christian circles these days; some of it deserved. Preachers routinely go longer than their congregation’s attention span, perhaps overestimating their ability to hold interest, or being too busy to invest the extra time it takes to be sharp and to the point. Further, our culture now expects more opportunity for comment and interaction, and rightly values a plurality of voices in any communication. And since COVID-19, several months of online sermons have, for some, highlighted dissatisfaction with the traditional model.

But before we consign the monologue sermon to the dustbin of history, I want to look at some of its strengths.

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Why am I so tired?

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This is an article I wrote for the students at Morling, at the start of semester 2, 2022. I’ve posted it here as I think it applies to far more than just study…

If at some point last semester you asked yourself, “why am I so tired?”, you’re not alone. Emerging from pandemic lockdowns, many people have found reengaging with the routines of in-person life to be more exhausting than before. Some of it may simply be that we became used to fewer interactions with others, and just need some time to build up our “social fitness” to its pre-pandemic levels. Or it may be due to unhelpful habits we developed during lockdown in areas like eating, drinking, and sleeping.

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