Long ago, the Rt. Rev. C. FitzSimons Allison was a bishop in good standing in the Episcopal Church.
A year ago, however, he resigned — at the age of 95 — to serve in the Anglican Church in North America, which is an ecclesiastical body that is recognized as valid by many Anglican bishops in Africa, Asia and the Global South, but not by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Needless to say, he has witnessed more than his share of Anglican debates about the future of the Anglican Communion, a communion in which national churches are in rapid decline in rich, powerful lands like the United States, Canada and England, but exploding with growth in the Global South.
During one global meeting, Allison watched a symbolic collision between these two worlds. Bishops from North America and their allies were talking about moving forward, making doctrinal changes in order to embrace the cultural revolutions in their lands. They were sure that Anglicans needed to evolve, or die.
Finally, a frustrated African bishop asked three questions: “Where are your children? Where are your converts? Where are your priests?” These questions are highly relevant, amid stark demographic changes in First World churches.
I thought of this Anglican parable when reading a Frank Lockwood feature in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette that ran with this double-decker headline: “Churches of Christ grappling with preacher shortage.” I don’t want to critique this story for two obvious reasons: (1) Lockwood has been a friend of mine for several decades and (2) one of the major voices in the story is veteran GetReligionista Bobby Ross, Jr.
But the trends noted in this report are serious and proof that it’s simplistic to say that these kinds of problems exist in doctrinally “progressive” denominations, and that’s that. Thus, I think this is a story that many journalists and religion-beat readers need to see. Here’s the overture:
Churches of Christ have a supply and demand problem — thousands of houses of worship and not enough preachers to fill the pulpits.
During Harding University's 100th annual Lectureship in Searcy …, roughly 100 people gathered for a session titled "Minister Shortages in Today's Church."
The shortfall has already had real-life consequences -- not only for the congregations but for the Church of Christ-affiliated university. The Memphis-based Harding School of Theology announced Aug. 5 that it would be moving its operations back to Searcy after more than six decades in Tennessee, citing what it called "an epidemic shortage of ministers," Christian Chronicle Editor-in-Chief Bobby Ross Jr. said . …
The school of theology also said that it would be slashing its tuition for master's degree and Certificate in Spiritual Leadership candidates, dropping it from $740 to $100 per credit hour.
The September issue of Ross' publication, which provides in-depth, global coverage of the Churches of Christ, included a story on the development. It also included a bumper crop of help-wanted ads, with job openings listed for pulpit or preaching ministers in Colorado, California, Texas, South Dakota, Illinois, West Virginia, Georgia, Maryland and Missouri among others.
What’s going on here? Well, for starters, lots of things that have been discussed here at GetReligion — such as falling rates of births and marriages, along with the unique challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.
But this quote from Chronicle opinion editor Jeremie Beller casts a wider net: “Fewer students and fewer people have a heart to enter ministry. Fewer families are encouraging children to do this. Fewer congregations are preparing kids in the youth group to do this. … The supply chain crisis has hit ministry."
What are some of the other factors? Beller added this (which sounded like an echo of the “technology shapes content” themes I heard long ago in graduate school at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign):
"Preachers are being fact-checked instantaneously in sermons," he said. "The authoritative voice in the pulpit ministry has kind of [been] changed by what's sometimes called 'the democratization of social media.' Everyone has equal access. Everyone knows Greek because they can find it on their phone. That's got some good things; that's got some challenging things, but the voice of authority of the pulpit ministry has been reduced as a result of this."
What else is happening online and, thus, in the pews?
"I listened to a minister say the other day, 'I would preach for five more years, if I didn't have to preach through an election,'" Beller said.
"Everything we say from the pulpit is being heard from a political lens and people are leaving the church, not because they understand Jesus and are more committed to Jesus but because they're more connected to their political party," Beller said.
Readers need to dig into all of this. But I will wrap up this read-it-all appeal by noting one other fascinating passage.
If you have read anything at GetReligion in recent years, you have probably noted the drumbeat references to the rising important of nondenominational Protestantism, especially among evangelical and Pentecostal flocks. In particular, note this Memo by religion-beat patriarch Richard Ostling: “After the Nones, there's no bigger religion-beat story these days than all those Nons.” Also, note this think piece from graph-master Ryan Burge: “That 'nondenominational' term? Well, it isn't going away.”
You see, the Churches of Christ were (this is the official history) nondenominational before it was hip.
The movement has no denominational headquarters or a doctrinal creed. Its music is non-instrumental, or a cappella.
Many Church of Christ ministers must fund their own retirements and pay for their own health insurance.
There's not a denominational infrastructure to mandate coverage or negotiate more competitive rates, to implement pensions or to ensure that retirees aren't left destitute. …
Beller described how his own health insurance costs had jumped $800 per month one year, leaving him with skyrocketing costs and poorer coverage. When his second child was born, he had to pay the expenses out of pocket because the pregnancy hadn't been covered.
Those political problems? The preachers can’t look for help from anyone with powers resembling those of “bishops.”
As a pastor in the independent Churches of Christ — yes, that’s a similar, related, movement — once told me when I was teaching at a liberal-arts college connected to all of this: “We don’t have bishops. We have editors.”
Again, read it all. These trends are in the air.
FIRST IMAGE: Uncredited illustration that ran with the Bobby Ross, Jr., feature: “Cats in purses and other funny pulpit moments.”