In the postmodern era, the purpose of a sermon is to transform a life

First Steps

Many pastors who preach to postmodern people say that one of the greatest challenges is to earn the right to be heard and believed. We earn this right by being authentic, biblical, relevant and holistic.

Authenticity

People today crave authenticity. That's why Johnny Cash, the singer, had a great appeal among young people even in his elderly years. His video "Hurt" is linked to the right.

How can we be authentic communicators? For centuries it was taught that authentic speech entails three elements:

Logos = our words
Ethos = our character
Pathos = our conviction

In other words, authentic communication involves not just what we say, but who we are. If this was true for centuries in the past, it is especially true in the postmodern era.


Postmodern people respond best to those who are:

Transparent

People want to know who we are and what we do, not just what we say and believe. They want to know the difference the living God makes in our own lives.

Genuine

It is not enough just to read words from a manuscript. Do we have an honest passion as well?

Respectful

Postmodern people do not like to be controlled or manipulated. They do not respond to guilt or obligation. They do not want emotionalism for its own sake.

Focused on God

Our purpose is to change lives (2 Timothy 3:16-17). We are followers of God, not preaching machines. We teach people to be disciples, not trained listeners.



Being Biblical

Postmodern people are non-authoritarian. They view the world in a relational, connected way in which many people contribute to leadership and knowledge, not just a few. Postmodern people will listen to others, but they also want people to listen to them!

This is why many pastors have adopted a more conversational tone in their preaching to postmodern people. The idea is to be non-authoritarian, both by sounding less threatening and by reflecting in our sermons the thoughts and words of our listeners. We do not have to force things because we know the authority lies in the text, not in ourselves.

Because the authority lies in the text, our role as preachers is to provide an explanation of the text so that people can experience its authority in their lives.

When a sermon explains a text, we call it expository preaching. This can take many forms — logical presentation, narration, drama or role playing. Whatever form we use, the important thing is that we are explaining the text so it can develop authority in the lives of our listeners.

Many people detest expository preaching. Perhaps they heard an "expository sermon" that was little more than a dry, exegetical lecture full of background material. In the modernist era, preachers who preached like this sometimes excused themselves by quoting Isaiah 55:11: “My word . . . will not return to me empty.”

But expository preaching is not an exegetical lecture. It is explaining a text until it comes alive and relevant in the lives of people.

A chef on a cooking show explains things to us to help us understand. But the chef never elevates the explanation above the meal. The goal of the show is always clearly understood. In our preaching, our true purpose is not merely to inform people; it is to transform them. We clarify things, to clear the way for God to work.

In the modern era, expository sermons were often strong in explanation and short on application. They spoke to the mind — not the heart or the will. In the postmodern era, application has grown in importance. Explanation is still essential, but application may now take up half or more of a sermon. People are that broken. The human heart is complex and hard-wired to the core. In our explanation of a text, our goal is to help that scripture break through into the depths of a person's life. That takes hard work.

Being Relevant

So, how do we do application well?

There comes a point, in the explanation of a passage, when the logic of the text begins to catch fire in the hearts of people. When this happens, they begin sensing the implications for their own lives. God begins speaking to them. You can hear the room grow very still.

That’s when the expository sermon shifts from explanation into application. Having walked people into the text, we begin to walk the text into their daily lives.

We do this — not by telling them what to do — but by borrowing pages from the playbooks of their own lives. We paint pictures from their lives. There, before them, suddenly appear their workplace, their school and the people from their lives.

How does the Word speak to the minimum wage earner with a cash-flow problem? To the aging woman who lives far from her children? To the powerful business leader? To the high school girl who already stars in her own soap opera of a life? We create the scenarios and then walk people through them.

We mention the tough decisions they face. We remind them of moments of anguish we all encounter. We mention life’s weaknesses and struggles. They imagine themselves looking their colleague in the eye, or meeting their nemesis in the grocery store. But this time, they have the Word speaking to them. As we walk the Word through their lives, God touches their hearts. We borrow pages from the playbooks of their lives so God can re-write those pages.

Good application comes by being filled with God. We are pregnant with God’s words and seek to bear those words into this world. We succeed when we help people encounter the living God in their daily lives. Doing application well is a work of art. It is not the job for a hack. It takes a special touch. We are dealing with the human heart.

Doing good application is revealing God’s character to the world. It is not an exercise in legalism. There are things in the Bible that should not exist today. Who wants to see slavery re-born, or harems? Knowing God, we sense that such monsters from the past should not be allowed to live in the present. Our knowledge of what the living God is like keeps us from being ridiculous in our application.

Knowing God also safeguards us from preaching mere morality. We preach mortality, not morality. The Bible is not a book of ethics. Nor is it a how-to-manual. Rather, it is a book of redemption. It depicts our pride, our failure, our fate and our cry for mercy. Application is not about giving pointers to people for their self-improvement. It is about pointing people to grace.

That means we must be wary of setting behavioral goals for others in our preaching. We cannot tell the Holy Spirit what to do. We can just lead a person into the presence of God and leave the two of them to talk. Someone once observed that many sermons incorrectly conclude with one of four applications: “do more, pray more, give more or love more.” But such mantras are just new words from old Pharisees. They just lay obligations on hearts, instead of allowing God to speak grace.

Sermons are grace talks. We preach grace, and then gratitude. Application is of the right kind when it enables people to encounter the living God of grace and glory.

We must allow it to unfold naturally. It should not be rushed. Haddon Robinson remarks that people feel "preached at" when we launch into the application of our message too soon. We need to give people time to understand a passage and agree to its meaning. Only then do they become open to applying it to their lives. If the application comes too soon, it sounds wrong.

This is why postmodern sermons are not necessarily short. It takes time to do both explanation and application well. If we short-change the explanation, or relegate the application to the edges, the transformative power of our sermon will become diminished. What will hold people as they listen? It will be the transformation they feel is happening within them. People have all the time in the world for what is important for them.

In the modernist era, the purpose of many sermons was to inform the mind. This is why we were told to have a strong introduction — to capture the attention of our listeners. And we were encouraged to keep our sermons short, because "people have a short attention-span." The conclusion, or application, of a sermon was often no more than an after-thought.

In the postmodern era, the purpose of a sermon is to transform a life. Introductions are still important and we still need to be aware of our sermon's length. But when a sermon has caught fire, why should it end after 20 minutes? Once a sermon starts burning on its own, let it. Argue the case convincingly. Appeal to the mind. Speak to the emotions. Create the desire within people to respond. Give people what they need to have God change their lives.

In our preaching, we are arguing for God. As Paul wrote, "we are Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us" (2 Cor 5:20). If this is so, then we need to argue convincingly.

Some are saying we should not argue to convince. We should end our sermons in a postmodern way with something like, "Now, this is what I think. What do you think?" The idea is to show respect to everyone's opinions.

But would you hire a lawyer who argued your case for you like that before a jury? Wouldn't you hire the most convincing lawyer you could find? Paul writes, "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Cor 10:5).

The most effective preaching will be both convincing and respectful. To do both well, we need to conceive of a sermon as a two-directional form of communication. As someone has put it, it is like a dialogue in which we represent the voice of our people to God and have God speak to the people from the text.

Being Holistic

In the modern era, people often tried to understand something by breaking it down into its component parts. Postmodern people are different. They like to understand something in terms of its whole. This means that our preaching needs to be holistic. Here are several ways to help sermons to be more holistic:

Preaching a holistic discipleship
Many modernist sermons perpetuated a false dichotomy between social action and spirituality/evangelism. Postmodern people see no such dichotomy. For them, both are just different aspects of loving our neighbor as ourselves and loving God. Today, holistic preaching is not afraid to call people to draw closer to God in their hearts and to serve God in the thick of the world.

Preaching to create a people for God
The modernist era was highly individualistic. Many of the sermons were directed to an individual's need for salvation or to our personal struggles in our lives of discipleship.

But a closer study of the New Testament reveals three aspects to the Gospel: (1) individual salvation, (2) being formed into a people for God and (3) working together as the people of God to transform the world. Our preaching should reflect the same. We should bring people to Christ, create a people for God, and inspire the people of God to serve God in the world. Our emphases should be on redemption, reconciliation and world transformation.

This meshes with the needs of postmodern people. Many postmodern people keenly sense the need for community and the necessity to live out discipleship together as a people for God. This is especially true if someone comes from a broken life and needs personal healing.

When we preach with all three emphases — redemption, reconciliation and world transformation — we present people with the need to know and be known, to forgive and be forgiven and to love and be loved. Such preaching also contrasts the empty promises of this run-down world with the Gospel, so we will be grateful to know Christ, to be a part of God's people, and to be empowered to serve God in the world.

Preparing messages in community
Since the time of Descartes, modernists considered research to be "a thinking subject who observes an object." Many preachers still follow this modernist approach in how they prepare their sermons. They study their text and draw their conclusions about their audience at a distance.

One of the positive things about postmodernism is that it has reminded us of the value of preparing our sermons in community. When we observe and think apart, stuck in an office alone, we might conclude that we are the source of all truth. But when we prepare our sermons in community, we realize how our sermons can be shaped by the Holy Spirit working through that community.

Preparing messages in community begins with our own attitude. Is yours a "top-down ministry," in which all wisdom has to flow from you? Or are you receptive to the Spirit of God speaking from the people you serve?

Do you have a pastoral heart that is open to people and that opens people up? Do people feel free to talk with you? Or do they become cautious when you are around? Do you make it safe for them to be honest with you about their real doubts and struggles?

As pastors, do we honestly seek feedback from the people we serve? When I did some work for a magazine publisher, it struck me how eagerly the "mag team" sought feedback from their target audience. They did not mind if someone criticized their ideas — they wanted an effective product. Their jobs depended on a successful magazine. In a sense, they were creating their magazine in community with those who would read it.

I visited a postmodern church called H20, in Orlando, Florida. The topic that day was on lust. The pastor did a tremendous job on this difficult subject. He spoke forthrightly, but also with great pastoral sensitivity. It was because he and his pastoral team prepared the message in community with their congregation. The staff spent a lot of time with various individuals, interacting with them as people and understanding what they were thinking and struggling with.

There are other ways that help us to prepare messages in community. Some pastors go on a yearly retreat with a group to pray and think through future messages. Other pastors host a focus group on the next week's text. I have heard of one pastor who asks different individuals to compile clippings for future topics to be preached. Many pastors work with creative worship teams to integrate a whole worship experience around a theme. Often, pastors will make a point of visiting people at home or where they work. Other pastors actively encourage dialogue after a sermon. One of my friends places a card by every seat that reads, "Want to talk together about what you heard today? Let's have coffee this week."

When we prepare our sermons in community, it gives us a renewed respect for those we serve and a greater awareness of their struggles. We will serve as one of them rather than as a distant, isolated figure.

For Further Reading

A good beginning place for learning about relevant, expository preaching is Haddon Robinson’s Biblical Preaching and Bryan Chapell’s Christ-Centered Preaching.

Start with Robinson, then study Chapell, who goes deeper. No one should preach without reading Chapell's thoughts on redemptive sermons in chapters 10-11.

it would be wise to explore educational and training expectations and possibilities.

5 Elements of the Call to Ministry
Written by Ray Gilder

Here are some vital elements of the call of God to vocational ministry.

1. Receiving The Call

Most Bible students agree that the ministry is reserved for those who sense a call of God upon their lives for this work. The Bible gives the details of the specific call of many Old Testament prophets. (Moses Exodus. 3,4; Jeremiah Jeremiah. 1:5-10; Isaiah Isaiah 6; Amos Amos 7:14-15, and Jonah Jonah 1:1,2.)

In reference to the role of the Old Testament high priest, the writers of Hebrews made this statement, “and no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is call of God, as was Aaron.” Hebrews 5:4.

A New Testament example of this call is seen in the early church when God called Barnabas and Saul: “as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them out.” Acts 13:2,3.

2. Verifying The Call

Unless a man believes he is called of God, he will find it difficult to survive the stresses of the ministry. One who thinks that God may be calling him needs to concentrate on three specific areas.

• First, he needs to give himself to prayer. The call must come from God.
• Second, he should seek godly advice from proven ministers.
• Third, it would be wise to explore educational and training expectations and possibilities.


3. Announcing The Call

A major step for every young minister is to announce before the church that he is sensing a call of God to enter the ministry. Some call it “announcing your call to preach” others use the term “surrendering to the ministry.” This allows the church to know what God is doing in your life and encourages them to pray that you will follow His leadership.

4. Affirming The Call

As people become aware of your call to preach, you will be given opportunity to supply preach when pastors are away, bring devotions at various events and speak at nursing homes and jails. It is very important that you take advantage of each opportunity because some things can be learned only by practice. Nobody expects a new preacher to preach like Billy Graham. You will be tempted to give up and quit but if you work hard and stay faithful God will make you the preacher He wants you to be.

5. Solidifying The Call

After the church has had sufficient time to witness the evidence of your call, you will want to ask the church to license you to preach. This is done by an official vote of the church and is a statement of their approval of your preparation for the ministry. This is not the same as an ordination. That usually comes after you have been called to your first church.
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Ray Gilder is the Bivocational Ministries Specialist at the Tennesee Baptist Convention and is also a bivocational pastor. He has graciously shared the training he does for bivocational pastors in the following free articles:

God used amazing methods when most people could not read

Engaging the Matrix Generation
Joel Hunter Ministry Leadership - Preaching

A Pastor's Journey into Multisensory Preaching

Pastors face a generation accustomed to the vibrant sounds, sights and smells that characterize our multimedia culture. We can either provide our hearers with the traditional menu of 'three hymns and a sermon,' or we can actively engage their senses in an exploration of the reality of our endlessly creative God.

A recent Barna Research Group survey revealed that 93 percent of all adults own a VCR, including 94 percent of born-again Christians. Seventy-three percent of Americans subscribe to cable television, and 19 percent get their programming via satellite dish. One half of all households have access to the Internet, and one-third claim to have a home theater system.

We liven a media-saturated society, which is naturally disposed to communication methods that appeal to all the senses. Unfortunately, the typical Sunday-morning service offers little sensory stimulation apart from the pain in the backside many churchgoers experience after an hour sitting in a church pew listening to a sermon.

I'm an old dude. My favorite movie is still The Ten Commandments. So why would I want to make my sermons appeal to the "Matrix" Generation? Because, even though this group is unique in some ways, what will attract its members will also get the attention of every other generation sitting in worship.

Both The Ten Commandments and The Matrix used special effects to tell their stories. God did too--in the form of miracles. His pronouncements to Moses on the mountain and to Joseph and Mary in the house were spectacular. He engages us through our senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell.

God used amazing methods when most people could not read. He still uses them today, even in congregations where most people can read. The Word goes beyond words, and He loves using action to startle and evoke action from those who see.

Here are a few methods we have used in our church to tell His stories:

EMPHASIZE THE VISUAL. Like Israel, and the church in its beginning stages, we are a visually oriented society. Even Jesus "did not speak to them without a parable" (Matt. 13:34, NKJV). Parables are stories that evoke mental images.

Even if you don't have money for the latest technology, you can add visual appeal to your sermons. If you do use a screen in worship, the younger members of your congregation are preconditioned to relate to it.

We need to remind ourselves that Jesus didn't preach inside a building every week. When He used illustrations, such as sheep, lilies of the field and birds of the air, He could actually point to the visuals!

Likewise, when the church in the Middle Ages explained the gospel to illiterate masses, it did so with great paintings, sculptures and other forms of art. We need to reengage the arts, especially video, to effectively communicate the gospel.

One preacher that I know has a team that builds movie-type sets on the platform for many of his preaching series. We do not have to wait until Christmas or Easter to create a visual setting that enhances the sermon subject. Nor do we need to limit ourselves to mangers, crosses or banners with pictures.

USE MANY POINTS, QUICK MOVEMENT. When preaching from a manuscript, the tendency is to deliver two or three points and develop them extensively. This method may bore the "Matrix" Generation. Although I may still have only two or three points to deliver, I hit each point from many angles to develop depth (like an MRI instead of an X-ray).

Take a look at Jesus' Sermon on the Mount--many points, quick movement. Biblical research will uncover a lot of knowledge about a little passage.

Many popular books and magazines today are written in a proverb style of writing. The news is mostly "sound and video bites." Video games captivate the attention deficit of every generation.

Therefore, if I only have three points when I preach, I engage the listeners with many stories that don't simply repeat the same point. Additionally, sometimes I break up the sermon into parts, with worship between the parts, to build momentum and suspense.

FIGHT THE ADVERSARY. Many people in the previous generation were embarrassed to talk about the devil. They thought it was unscientific. But Jesus battled him (see Matt. 4:1-11). This generation is up for a fight against the evil one.

Many spend hours destroying virtual evil on their video games, but that is just a foreshadowing of the real fight. The presence of villains in popular movies reflects the reality of the battle against Satan that is a part of our lives.

Drama is helpful in reinforcing the concept of spiritual warfare. Our church has conducted presentations that have increased the tension before or after the sermon, instead of presenting a solution to problems or attempting to restate the sermon.

When the real problems of life, such as the tragedy of domestic violence or abuse, the devastation of addictions or the temptations of materialism are presented without nice-and-neat solutions, you have let the congregation know that we are in an ongoing battle.

EMBRACE THE MYSTICAL. If I thought that people's spiritual lives depended on my rational explanation of the Scriptures, I would quit preaching. I am not smart enough to explain God. This generation is not limited to rational ways of thinking.

They love what they can't fully explain because they know enough about life to know there is more to reality than they can grasp. A generation that grew up with the chaos theory of quantum mechanics won't get hung up on, "But how can a man be born again when he is old?"

Relating to the mystical element in our faith is largely a matter of setting the right environment. We have times when we use candles and incense because that evokes a more contemplative mood. There are times when the King James Version, with its majestic and poetic style, more effectively serves to intone the transcendence of God.

The Spirit cannot be captured by deduction in the sermon or emotion in the music. The things of the Spirit are subtle, like the moving of the wind. The Spirit is best sensed when reverence is the atmosphere.

EVOKE EXPERIENCE (be affective). Just as this generation is not confined to the rational, neither is it engaged by the predictable. Members of the "Matrix" Generation want to feel something. They want surprise, laughter, sadness and tension.

That's what movies take us through; that's what real life takes us through. Jesus said, "'Follow me.'" Then He proceeded to scare His disciples with storms, demoniacs and religious opposition.

One Sunday, I preached on the wedding in Cana. In order to allow the congregation to experience the celebration of a Jewish wedding, we ended the worship service with a conga line and a confetti cannon! While we offended some people, others were better able to experience the life in that Scripture.

Much of evoking experience depends on using your senses (see sidebar on this page). The Caucasian-European heritage of worship style calls for the congregation to sit still and only use their minds when they are listening, and their voices when they are singing. In the non-Western world, Christians use their bodies when they sing and their senses when they kneel, march, clap and dance.

REFER TO OTHER PARTS OF THE SERMON TEAM. This generation is not impressed with rugged individualism, but appreciates teamwork. The calling of the disciples is a theme that appeals to modern hearers. This is reflected in the frequency of teams of heroes often found in the movies, in contrast to one person who accomplishes all.

It is natural, then, that people want to know how others in the congregation, especially those on the worship team, contributed to the sermon.

Use stories about people in the congregation who taught you what was valuable for the sermon. I name positive examples of who on the worship team, or in church leadership, exemplifies the points I am trying to convey in the sermon.

I also use video or audio clips of children and/or adults responding to the topic of the sermon. Sometimes these are "man on the street" interviews with people we don't know and other times people in our congregation are the ones sharing their thoughts.

Including stories in your sermons that come from the life of the church (small groups, church picnics, youth groups and others) will connect God's subplots in your church with the Bible text that you are explaining.

Jesus used His observations of the widow giving the coins, the woman washing His feet with her tears and the commander telling Him that if He just pronounced his daughter "healed" she would be. All of them were parts of His sermon team.

REFER TO OTHER PARTS OF THE WORSHIP EXPERIENCE. Good movies, good lives and good sermons are a matrix of subplots. The songs we sing, the prayers we pray, the communion we take, can enrich worship as they are pointed out and appreciated in the sermon.

This helps people grasp what they have been taught all along. Like a good Sherlock Holmes story, part of the answer lies in what could be overlooked as routine.

Additionally, mentioning the spiritual formation that is taking place in the child-care and Sunday-school classes will broaden and deepen worship. Stories from greeters, ushers and others, who are serving during the worship hour, will include them in the worship experience.

GLOBALIZE YOUR SERMONS.

This is the "www" generation. Its members think globally. For them, "'Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations'" is not a far-fetched missionary mandate. It is a natural consideration.

They listen to world news every day. They are educated in a multicultural context. The movies they watch have international conspiracies. To prevent messages from becoming narrow and parochial, preachers will do well to use more examples of Christians and stories from other countries.

Hundreds of our people went on mission trips last year and took video and ordinary cameras. We edited and spliced the pictures they brought back for a number of powerful presentations in the worship time, combining them with sermons that had to do with worldwide themes.

The "Matrix" Generation is not excited about watching clips from mission trips, but it responds with enthusiasm when they are presented as subplots in a larger drama.

MAKE YOUR SERMONS 'ACTIONABLE.' In the battle of good and evil, people want to feel as though they can do something, like they can make a difference. One of the recurring themes of today's movies and songs is that of being called to change the status quo.

I always have an application point, so that people can act on what they believe. The Scripture is very clear about being "doers of the Word, and not hearers only" (James 1:22). This generation hates the hypocrisy and laziness of simply listening to more information about religious stuff.

Rather than a sermon outline, we give worshipers a sermon application tool--one for adults, one for students and one for children. It suggests ways the sermon may be applied throughout the week.

USE A LOT OF BASS IN WORSHIP BEFORE THE SERMON. I have no idea why, but I know that bass tones in music strike a responsive chord in this generation. From booming car systems to movie soundtracks, the dominant tone is bass.

Maybe it's because bass (like Jesus after the resurrection!) travels through walls, symbolizing the unlimited. Maybe it is reminiscent of the rolling thunder on Mount Sinai before God spoke through Moses (see Ex. 19:16). In any case, something about the bass tone draws us into the experience.

Using bass will draw complaints ("too loud!"). We have had people get up and walk out. We have had people come in angry. ("I can hear that bass all the way in the parking lot!") There is a dilemma here as the demands of what the older generation would like to hear clashes with what will engage the "Matrix" Generation.

REMEMBER THE ROMANCE. Our God is love. He is a relationship (Father, Son and Holy Spirit, yet One). In The Matrix, as in other movies of its genre, romance is a part of the creative tension and redemptive process. In other words, it is no accident that the Bible is a love story about God inviting humanity into a relationship with Him.

We love that way because He first loved His Bride (the church) that way. A main drive of every young person's life is to find the perfect relationship. Of course, that relationship is oneness with God, but faith resembles romance in many ways.

A theme that never gets old in sermons is lifelong affectionate love between a husband and a wife. In my sermons, I often refer to my wife in an appreciative way. I look for illustrations of self-sacrificing love, from my grandparents to literary figures such as Rochester and Jane Erye.

USE IMPERFECT HEROES. This generation revels in the imperfect. From hairstyles that look like they just rolled out of bed to MTV's reality stunt show Jackass, this generation does not relate to those who seem to have it all together.

They can't relate to a perfect God, but they can relate to the servant born in a stable. Therefore, use illustrations that make it clear that people--including the preacher--are not expected to be perfect or even great.

Humor is key here. When we can make fun of ourselves, we are ready to take God more seriously. It is important that we don't use our humor to demean others. It is just as important, though, that we recognize the divine comedy of human inadequacy.

In summary, make sure you are using all the senses and perspectives that are appropriate to a particular worship experience.

Remember, this generation doesn't like to just sit and listen in church any more than yours did. The difference is, their mammas aren't making them go to church like yours may have.

Many churches are enjoying the challenges of becoming profoundly engaging without becoming merely entertaining. Will yours be one of them?

ENGAGING THE SENSES

Sight: Utilize drama teams to perform skits that complement the sermon. Show film clips to illustrate biblical truths. Display slides with classical art relating to the sermon. Include multicultural art and international flags to encourage a global perspective.

Light candles to create reverent ambience. Arrange multiple screens to captivate attention. Build sets and arrange props to provide a backdrop for an illustrated sermon. Display banners to reinforce thematic truths.

Smell: Bake bread near the sanctuary before communion. Burn incense during high church worship services. Bring straw into the sanctuary at Christmas to create the feel of a stable. Hold worship services outside to encourage reflection on the wonders of creation.

Sounds: Utilize sound effects to complement facets of the sermon. Intersperse silence with music of diverse feels and rhythms. Introduce unusual instruments, such as shofars, bagpipes and others. Invite sentence prayers from members of the congregation.

Touch: Encourage greetings among the congregation. Allow for motion and hand clapping during songs. Advocate different prayer positions (kneeling, raising hands and more). Introduce small-group prayer. Rearrange the sanctuary for "in the round" worship. Invite congregants to the altar for prayer, commitment, laying on of hands and more.

Joel Hunter, D.Min., has served since 1985 as senior pastor of Northland: A Church Distributed, an innovative congregation in Longwood, Florida.

A full-time minister is becoming an out-of-reach luxury

Part-time pastors juggle jobs, ministry

By Tom Breen, The Associated Press
Saturday, June 30, 2007

Bob Shaw / AP The Rev. Danny Fleming has a full-time job with the Army and ministers at two churches some Sundays and three on others.

SALEM, W.Va. — For Danny Fleming, Sunday is no day of rest.

It starts before dawn, when the United Methodist pastor rises from slumber and gets ready for services. Some Sundays, he travels to two churches. On others, it's three. Every week, he spends 20 hours preparing his sermons and logs nearly 100 miles on his truck traveling to services.

And that's all before Monday morning, when he gets up for his full-time job with the U.S. Army in Clarksburg, where he supervises the maintenance and repairs of Army Reserve vehicles and equipment in northern West Virginia.

"I decided a long time ago you get out of it what you put into it," said the soft-spoken 58-year-old, after leading a small rural congregation in worship on a recent Sunday.

For many of the millions of Americans who depend on their pastors, ministers and spiritual leaders, a full-time minister is becoming an out-of-reach luxury. To keep small churches open — and to provide individual care at big churches — religious groups are increasingly relying on part-time, or bivocational pastors.

Worship is just one of the many expectations being placed on these part-timers. There are church council meetings, Bible studies, suppers and other gatherings, and — most important — being there for believers.

"A bivocational minister can be a lot of things, but he can't be lazy," said Ray Gilder, national coordinator of the Southern Baptist Bivocational Ministers Association.

When such a hectic schedule is added to the demands of work and family, the results can tax even the hardiest person.

"Sometimes it means I don't sleep," said the Rev. Alton Dillard, "but I make myself available."

Dillard, the married father of two teenagers, is the pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal Church's Allen Chapel in Charleston's east side. He also works 12-hour shifts at Columbia Gas Works, sometimes sandwiching Sunday worship and a brief nap in between. On top of that, he presides over Wednesday night Bible classes and always has his cell phone in case his congregants need him.

"It's not easy, but it works about 90 percent of the time," Dillard said.

A growing trend

One expert says about a third of the pastors serving large Protestant denominations are part time, with some — such as the Southern Baptist Convention — nearing 40 percent.

"It's a growing form of ministry, and I believe it's going to grow even faster and larger," said the Rev. Dennis Bickers, a former part-time pastor and now an area minister for the American Baptist Church in Indiana and Kentucky.

In many denominations, bivocational ministers were more common than full-timers up until the middle of the 20th century. Rising prosperity plus a push toward professionalism and seminary graduates meant more congregations employed full-time pastors, but that trend has crested.

The phenomenon also isn't limited to Christianity. Part-time rabbis are common, and a study by the Council on American-Islamic Relations reports that most American mosques have volunteer leaders with other jobs.

But the centrality of the pastor in most Christian traditions, and the financial support many congregations generally provide to their ministers, means that for many religious Americans, the resurgence of the part-timer requires some adjustments.

In the Roman Catholic Church, only a priest can perform the majority of the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist, the centerpiece of Catholic worship. But, as a shortage of ordained clergy strains priests' schedules, a corps of full-and part-time lay ministers has sprung up to lend assistance.

About 500 parishes in the United States don't have an assigned priest, but stay open through the efforts of lay ministers and occasional visits by priests for Mass, said Christopher Anderson, executive director of the National Association for Lay Ministry.

Parishioners also help

Even in parishes with one or two full-time priests it's common to see dozens of volunteers who oversee everything from religious education to marriage preparation, Anderson said.

"It's really a case of empowering people to keep the parishes open," he said.

In financial terms, part-time pastors may be the only way for some churches to stay open.

A 2006 study by the Southern Baptist Convention found that the pay and benefits package for a full-time minister in that denomination costs $59,995 a year. A part-time minister costs $17,385. For smaller churches with worshippers living on fixed incomes, the advantages of part-time pastors are obvious.

But financial concerns aren't the only considerations driving churches to decide that a part-time minister is better than no minister at all.

For the 80 or so people who attend the five churches that Fleming pastors, his presence is a blessing.

In one church, where 21 people gathered on a recent Sunday to hear him preach, some remember what it was like before Fleming arrived, when as few as nine people made it to a service.

By contrast, on this Sunday, as Fleming preaches his sermon, heads nod attentively and yellow pens highlight Bible passages he touches upon. When the service is over, the congregation — from children to grandparents — lines up to shake its pastor's hand.

Indonesian Boy Preacher

God is able to do great things, despite our unbelief.

God is able to use different people to serve Him, even if we do not believe He can.


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