According to this overture, there are currently about 300
ministers in the PCA (out of a total of about 4,400) without call. That means
that they have served a church (or in some other capacity requiring ordination)
in the past, but are not currently serving in a situation that requires
ordination. Frankly, I’m surprised the total is that low. Given that the PCA
has about 1,700 churches (including church plants) there must be a large number of
men serving as missionaries, RUM campus ministers, chaplains, etc. Ministers
can be without call for a number of reasons, but some men seem to be
perpetually without call. As the BCO currently reads, a presbytery needs
a two-thirds vote to divest a man who is without call for an extended period.
This overture seeks to change the BCO so that ministers without call
need to report to presbytery annually. If a man remains without call for three
years, the presbytery shall divest him of office, though it may, by majority
vote extend his “without call” status for another year.
This strikes me as an eminently sensible change. The fact
is, men who are without a call for an extended period, particularly if that
period extends past the three-year mark, are usually men that churches do not
find acceptable. I remember a few decades ago being in a presbytery with a man who
had been without call for about five years. After he finished seminary, he had
served briefly in a small church. It had not gone well, and within a year or
so, he found himself without call. Though he applied for as many ministerial
positions as he could, somehow he was never the right fit. Finally after more
than five years, the presbytery divested him without censure. It was hard on
him, but it was the right move. This overture makes such a change a little
easier. It also means that a man must keep his presbytery informed about his
activities.
As for the deacons and elders part, I have some sympathy
with the changes, which essentially mirror those of the minister. The elder or
deacon must report annually to his session. His official relation as officer in
the church may be dissolved by a majority vote of the congregation. However,
many churches in the PCA rotate elders and deacons, so a man may be inactive as
an elder or deacon for a larger number of reasons than simply that he has
become unacceptable to the church. A man may, for example, be a ruling elder in
one church from which he moves to another town. The church to which he moves
may have a full complement of elders, so he essentially becomes inactive, or at
most functions unofficially as an elder.
Ultimately, I wish that Tidewater Presbytery had divided
this into two overtures: one dealing with ministers and one dealing with ruling
elders and deacons. I’m interested to see how this overture will be dealt with
by GA.
2 comments:
Another reason REs resign from a Session is they can't conscientiously continue acting as set dressing for a staff-led, staff-run church. What is the point of requiring them to submit an annual report?
Normally I would agree that many TEs do need to leave the ministry but the number of TEs without a call as well as seminary graduates unable to find a call has long been a problem in the PCA. We have a number of seminaries that service the PCA and we produce more graduates than we can find positions.
I do think we need to think hard about encouraging more bivocational ministry positions. Churches that cannot afford a full time pastor should think seriously about calling a bivocational pastor. Churches that may want a staff or assistant could also use a bivocational pastor. Even a church planter could start off bivocational.
We need to be more creative in how we use men called to ministry.
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