Multi-site pastors

I was intrigued by John Pehrson's piece in the e-news for today about "multi-site pastors," i.e. pastors who oversee the life and ministry of a local congregation but who leave the preaching to a video feed from a "tall steeple" (or more likely "megachurch") preacher. Like John, I don't know what to think about this phenomenon. My first reaction is that the best preaching is done by preachers who know the congregations they are preaching to. (I heard Tom Long say this at a workshop once) But there are many gifted pastors who are not gifted preachers, and their gifts might be put to better use if they were delivered from the burden of weekly preaching. I wonder if this model might be modified to something like this: a cluster of churches who are served by a group of Ministers of Word and Sacrament and Commissioned Lay Pastors, with one of the group designated as The Preacher, with his/her sermons shared via video from one of the congregations. Ideally, each congregation would take it in turn to host the preaching. This would preserve the personal contact. Obviously the technical aspects would have to be worked out, but the idea interests me.

Calvin Jubilee

Just back from the Calvin Jubilee at Montreat. If you want to read more about it (from the Presbyterian News Service's newest reporter), here's a link: http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09595.htm

Last Quotation from Urban Holmes

It is altogether remarkable that priests and pastors can become so inarticulate on the subject of the heart of their vocation: its relation to the spiritual life. I recall a woman who was the chairperson of a parish search committee telling me that her bishop suggested one question to ask prospective pastors: “Do you believe in God?” She was amazed at the advice, but followed it. I asked her what she found out and her reply was that, while all candidates said they did, she concluded that some in fact did not believe in God.
A nonnegotiable assumption in my judgment is not only that the ordained person believes in God, but that he or she seeks a relationship with God. Any other idea renders the notion of vocation absurd. The conversation begins with what it means to be on that quest. The pivotal point of this study's definition of spirituality is the broadened or heightened consciousness of the gift of our relationship with God. In one sense this is what is meant by knowing God: sharing his vision for creation. There is no methodology for guaranteeing that such a new consciousness will be forthcoming, but there are two thousand years of Christian teaching on how to become vulnerable to the possibility of such knowledge. - Urban T. Holmes, Spirituality for Ministry p.188, emphasis in the original

This is Cool if you like old books

The British Museum has put the complete text of Codex Sinaiticus, the world's oldest Christian Bible, online at http://codexsinaiticus.org/en/ Even if you can't read it, it's cool to look at.

What I'm Reading Today

People say they like these posts, so I'll keep making them...

Clergy are a guilty lot. We are torn between our fondness for the adventure of intuitive insight and the need to justify ourselves empirically. Frustration turns to anger and skepticism becomes cynicism. We fall into that hallowed American custom of solving our dilemma by working just that much harder, which is exacerbated by the expectation that we are an unceasing source of love, compassion, tenderness, and comfort. That which feeds the pastor is passed over, largely because we think we need to spend the time making evident our own value to the people who expect our ministry. We become burned out, bored, disillusioned, and guilty over our failure...
What is called for is spiritual companionship, in which in some configuration we are willing to be confronted at the point of our life of prayer. - Urban T. Holmes, Spirituality for Ministry p.177

More from Urban Holmes

Many a pastor is dashed against one of two sets of rocks. He or she comes to be a hired flunky, on the one hand, a functionary chaplain to the establishment, or, on the other hand, he or she assumes the role of a petulant adolescent, working out his or her hostility upon the unwitting congregation. We excuse the former on the grounds that we are pastors, and we argue for the latter by claiming to be prophets. The truth of the matter is often neither one nor the other, but that we are spiritually bankrupt.
The dangers of these alternative courses to disaster are relatively well known in ministry studies. The solutions found in continuing education, consultation, and career evaluation are valuable, but they can easily lack the one ingredient essential to the vocation: a growing awareness of God’s purpose for us. The intention to live as a symbol and symbol-bearer of that which transcends as well as incorporates our secular expertise. This cannot be accomplished unless we steer through the straits between these Scylla and Charybdis of ministry guided by a living relationship with the Lord we profess to serve. - Urban T. Holmes, Spirituality for Ministry, p.171, emphasis in the original

New Idea

This is a new idea to me (even though I had read this book before-must have missed this page), and I'm interested in anyone's comments:

Not infrequently clergy are caught up in the evil that threatens every congregation because they have no ability to discern what in fact is happening. Illustrations abound: adultery, greed, cowardice, and omnipotence. But the sin to which ordained persons are particularly given is envy. - Urban T. Holmes, Spirituality for Ministry, p.158