How do you support a church without a pastor?

This was a question raised by Tim Wilson, pastor of Wheelock Heath Baptist church on Twitter.

For context, Tim is involved with the Rural Project which is about supporting churches, plants and revitalisations in rural contexts, so similar to the kind of work I’m involved with in urban contexts.  Here are my thoughts.  I’m assuming that the question was aimed at churches acting corporately rather than individuals.

I think that we can rush to offer preachers.  There are two dangers with this.  First, we are presuming what the need is, secondly we are at risk of in effect, doing something because it will benefit us, an opportunity for some people to get preaching experience who we can’t include so much in our own preaching programme.  I’m not saying that there isn’t a place for this, both the specific example of supplying preachers and the general point of receiving benefit back, but we need to be wary of rushing to the automatic and obvious answer.

If we are not going to rush to give the obvious answers then I think we need to start with two things.  First, we need to build up a relationship with the church.  There was some discussion on Twitter about what responsibilities we have to other churches.  The answer is that on one level, we don’t have an automatic responsibility, we are responsible for our own congregations.  On another level we do have a responsibility as partners in the Gospel but that should arise out of a relationship that enables us to have honest conversations.

Secondly, we need to be working on a case by case basis and that means that we start by asking questions.  The first, obvious question to ask is whether the church is without a paid pastor out of choice or necessity.  Some churches have made a theological decision that there shouldn’t be paid clergy, this was the view of the Brethren for many years but is not limited to them.  Others, choose, not from theological principle but believing that this is the most effective way to reach a community. Other churches are without pastors through necessity.  It is possible that they cannot afford a pastor because of size and/or financial situation (a large church in a deprived area may be financial worse off than a smaller church in a more affluent area). It is also possible that they have tried to recruit a pastor but have been unable to find one because people are reluctant to go and serve there. 

Now, because a church is without a pastor through choice does not mean that they don’t need help, however our focus here is probably on the question of necessity.  So, the next question is to ask whether or not they would like a pastor and if the specific help they are looking for from us is to help them get one.  There may be other help needed first but it is helpful to be alert to the possibility that this is the help needed.   If so, then this will lead to other questions.  You would want to find out a bit more information about why they are without a pastor.  I’d be looking at things like

  1. Timing in the life-cycle of the church.  Is this a young church that hasn’t quite reaches the stage where it can employ a full time worker? Or is this an older church that used to be able to support a pastor but has experienced decline?
  2. Have they actively looked for a pastor and what response did they receive?
  3. If they had a pastor previously, then how and why did they leave?

This is likely to lead into other conversations.  If the church is essentially healthy, a young church plant that is growing, then the sorts of things they might need support with would include external financial support and perhaps assistance in the recruitment process.  It may be that a potential candidate is available from within the plant but they may need some support in training and development. It may be that you are able to help them find an external candidate, possibly from your own congregation. Whilst they are recruiting, they may look to you for support in other ways. Ideally, as much as possible, I’d encourage you not to simply provide the bulk of the manpower for preaching, pastoral visits etc but rather to be looking at how you help support and equip potential elders in the congregation.

However, your conversations may identify other factors about why they are struggling to recruit and/or support a pastor.  It may be that there are issues within the church which would make most potential pastors deeply reluctant to bring their families to them.  It may be that the reason for a church’s decline is to do with such challenges.  This may be a good time to help them work through a church health check looking at doctrine, culture and practice.  In such a case, your support is beginning to look like support for a revitalisation. 

In a further article I will talk a bit more about what revitalisation support might look like and I will also write more about supporting a church that is seeking to recruit a pastor.