How Conference Bureaucrats Killed What You Probably Think of as Leadership Development in my Tribe

I'm a geezer.   I began my career as a parish priest in 1976.  I've seen many changes in American Christianity,  nearly all of them for the worse, as the decline of American Christianity today makes indisputable.

Among the most destructive changes is the decline of the involvement in ministry of people who are not ordained or licensed.

Here's the most important way that happened in my Conference of my tribe:

Back in the day, when the time came for a change in, uh, pastors in a ministry where two or more congregations were yoked together, i.e., sharing the same clergyman,  they would meet with the Commission on Church and Pastoral Guidance  (now Church and Pastor) and the Commission would say to the leaders of one or more of the congregations,  "We have some good news for you.   We've been studying your statistical reports and do you realize that your church can support your own full-time minister,  just like the biggest churches in the Conference?"

Invariably,  those small church people would puff out their chests and say, "Really?!?"  And, at least one new opening for a full-time pastor in the Conference would created.

The dark side of that reality is that important ministries that had been performed, usually very well,  by members of the congregation were professionalized and men and women who had been participants, even leaders, in ministry became passive consumers of religious products and services provided by a professional clergyman.

And, now, 30, 40, 50 years later, we have declining/dying congregations filled with pew sitters and leadership development is the fad of the day.

One lesson from this for the moment is to take stock of how a theologically corrupt policy practiced by well intentioned people can--HAS--created a serious problem where there was once no problem at all.

Sadly,  most of American Christianity still operates on the same values that created this serious need for leadership development today.

We must repent and we must begin on this level of theologically corrupt actions by leaders and church Bureaucrats.

And soon,  before it's too late.