A Small Congregation Wonders About Clergy

I had a great visit recently with the UU Fellowship in Billings, MT, to help them reflect on the benefits and challenges of having professional clergy serving with them.  We did that Saturday, then had  worship together on Sunday. (Not to mention the road trip and excellent dinner on Saturday evening) What a great group of people, and what an energetic fellowship!

It got me thinking in a more general way about the question of whether or not to have professional clergy in these small, relatively isolated communities of the West.

Some of the items are of the sort that can be listed and weighed against each other, but some are not. The folks in Billings -- not just this congregation, but others I know -- are typical of small congregations in that they think of the minister's job in terms of the Sunday service.  "Will we be bored with hearing the same point of view so often over such a long time?" "Will it assure us of high quality services?"  And indeed, the church growth books tell us the pastor of a small congregation can expect to be a chaplain, in charge of worship and pastoral care and not invited to get involved in leadership.

At the same time, the small congregation could benefit from leadership that includes professional clergy, if they can manage to let it happen.  Clergy have training and experience in church meetings and church politics.  They can sometimes have insight into tangled situations and power struggles. They may have helpful ideas about how to deal with difficult people.  Governance can more easily develop the kind of tone and practice that reflects our Principles when there's a professional clergy person involved.  The minister can be the public face of the fellowship, speaking up on social issues, answering questions from public and press.

The big question is, can the congregation's leadership make room for a minister who is more than a chaplain?  Or is the chaplain role all they can imagine?  That making room takes a surprising amount of internal adjustment. People who have been doing it all, and successfully, are invited to share with this credentialed stranger. How does that work?  Not smoothly.  It needs both the sponsorship of the "pillars" of the congregation and their flexibility in making a place for ministerial leadership.

Surely the new minister can't be one of the authoritarian types.  But assertiveness is necessary. Changes need to begin at once, or they will settle in to being as they always have been, with the minister assigned to leading worship, caring for the sick and elderly, and conducting rites of passage. In our fellowships, it is likely that a minister so assigned will seem an expensive luxury.  "Why are we spending all this money?" people will say.

Existing leadership is key. They need to work hard on making space for professional leadership as they prepare to bring someone in.  And there is no one to tell them how to do that.  It is one of the small miracles of our movement that sometimes an established fellowship manages this shift.

from an anonymous website not in our tradition...these people
signed up to be ushers.. or is one of them the minister?