How part-time ministry can make a congregation feel more empowered – Transcript

Jim Latimer
Welcome to Coaching for Interims. We are about empowerment for interim ministers: best practices and quick help from interims for interims – wisdom from the field. My name is Reverend Jim Latimer. I’m your host today and I have the pleasure of having with me, the Reverend Quentin Chin. Quentin is a long experienced interim minister. And he’s done a lot of part-time interim ministry too, and has developed a lot of wisdom around bi-vocational ministry and all kinds of things. And in this segment, we’re going to continue the conversation around part time ministry. And so Quentin, what would you like to speak to us about in this segment?

Quentin Chin
Well, thanks, Jim. What I’d like to talk about is what happens with part-time ministry, particularly as churches are moving from full-time to part-time. This is becoming more and more commonplace. And it’s not just for interims. This is even for pastors in settled ministry. It’s a sort of an identity thing, right? It’s like, “Oh, my gosh, we can’t support a full-time minister. We’re going down the tubes. We’re going to die. We’re dying! Dying! And I want to say, “No. No. You’re not dying.” Well, at least not yet. But really, there’s a lot of life left. We should be thinking about part-time ministry as – ironic as this sounds – as empowering our congregations.

Jim Latimer
Part-time ministry as actually empowering the congregation? Is that what you said?

Quentin Chin
Yep! Precisely. Because, when we think about full-time ministry, it’s like, “This pastor is doing all this stuff for us. And now, the pastor can’t.” And then the question becomes, “What’s going to happen to us?” And instead of thinking of it as dying, thinking of it as opportunities for laity. Let’s just take, for instance, preaching: four out of four Sundays, for full-time ministry. Going from full-time to three-quarter time, I would urge congregations and clergy to do three out of four Sundays of preaching for the pastor, not four out of four. And in that week that they (the pastor) doesn’t do it (preach), they’re doing something else. That’s another one of the recordings we did before, right? So what happens then is, who will fill in the pulpit there? What if laity did it? Imagine a lay person who will probably feel that it’s daunting to do, and I don’t question that. But imagine how a lay person would feel, in doing that, and learning about scripture on a very different level; to learn about worship on a different level, and understand the components of how worship all comes together.

Another one is pastoral care. So why can’t people in the congregation be intentional about pastoral care? We have a fabulous program on pastoral care which is, Called to Care. It’s a seven week program. If you have a parishioner who has been in a nursing home for a long time, say a year or two years. Let’s face it, every day in a nursing home is kind of dull, right? And to get a visit is just – even if it’s a short 15 to 20 minute visit – completely transforms their day. And a part-time pastor is not going to be able to get there as frequently as that person needs. So what if the congregation did this? I’m not saying that people have to be trained, but being trained for this makes people feel more confident and comfortable – walking into situations that could be a little tough. First of all, imagine someone who’s in a nursing home, who’s been there for a couple of years, and every couple of weeks, someone from the congregation is coming to visit. How good will that person feel? And some people may be reluctant to visit because, “Oh my gosh, I heard Mrs. Smith had just gotten sick and I don’t know what to say or what to do!” Right? Well, this is where Called to Care comes in. Because Called to Care can teach you and coach you in how to be present for the person. And that’s really key, right?

Jim Latimer
So what I’m hearing you say here, Quentin, is that having a “part-time” minister creates space. There are many components of ministry, as you’ve mentioned. And they’re still there. And a part-time pastorate creates space for laity to grow, to develop their own skills and talents and awareness of God, and learning about scripture and things. And so I think what you’re suggesting too, is that for laity to pick an area where there’s now some space because the minister isn’t doing that because she or he is part-time. So pick something that you really want to do – something that you can lean into your edge or something.

Quentin Chin
That’s precisely it. Yeah. Yeah. Look, our reformed tradition – one of the reformed traditions – comes from Luther, the priesthood of all believers. When I was on the writing team for the new UCC Manual on Ministry, one of the things we were talking about in our conversations was the idea that everyone in the United Church of Christ has a ministry. We need to encourage that. And I think if we look at part-time ministry not as, “Oh, my gosh, we’re dying!” but, “Oh, this is where I can lean into my passion – what I feel called to do in my service as a disciple of Jesus Christ!” I would argue that it would strengthen one’s own commitment to the faith.

Jim Latimer
That is a beautiful proposition. And in your experience – and in my experience, as pastors – we’ve actually seen that. But for laity that haven’t experienced that yet, that’s the challenge. And that’s the beauty. And that’s, that’s, that’s. I don’t want to say any more because what you just said is a perfect place to end this, because it’s such a rich comment about making part-time ministry an opportunity to make the priesthood of all believers a reality. In a way that having a full-time pastor may not.

Quentin Chin
That’s precisely it. Not to take anything away from full-time ministry, but it does. Because without being intentional about it, we can also disempower our congregations.

Jim Latimer
Yes, and we want to empower them. That’s beautiful. That’s a great place to stop here, Quentin. Thank you very much for this. And, gosh, we’ve got three segments that we’ve done now on bi-vocational part-time ministry. Thank you so much.

Quentin Chin
You’re welcome.

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