Recently, I shared my thoughts on this topic with some ministers and members in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, I thought I would also share them here as well.
“Regarding the recent discussion on pastoral ministry, after more than 35 years of ministry experience, these are some of my thoughts.
1. If God has called you to ministry, God is your boss. I have only one boss, and not two, God. I see myself as accountable to the Red River Presbytery and to following our CP Confession of Faith, which I think is true to the Bible. Perhaps I think this way partly because I was born, raised, and live west of the Mississippi River. I wouldn’t know.
2. If God has called you to pastoral ministry, you can do pastoral ministry whether or not you are the pastor of a church. This has nothing to do with Presbyterian polity. You are either exercising your pastoral gifts and ministry where you are or you are not, inside or outside of a congregation as a pastor or not.
3. If God has called you to ministry, God has gifted you for ministry, and God expects you to use your gifts for ministry wherever you find yourself, perhaps in a way that no one has ever thought of before.
4. With God’s direction and empowerment, you can use your pastoral gifts wherever you find yourself. You can, perhaps, reach more people with the gospel and your pastoral gifts outside of a congregation (wherever you find yourself) than inside a congregation as a pastor. It is certainly possible for one gifted and called to the pastoral ministry (whether or not his or her call has been affirmed in the traditional Presbyterian way) to minister to more people in a week than many pastors with a pulpit ministry minister to in a congregation of any size.
Of course these are all my opinions, but most of the time our thinking is too small or limited regarding what is pastoral ministry and how to do pastoral ministry. We may find ourselves in a very small church (I am the pastor of a very small church), but that does not mean that we must have a small ministry or a ministry that is limited only to those in our congregation or our denomination. We need to look for ways to reach people outside of the Church, outside of our denomination, outside of our congregation, using all the gifts that God has given us. If we are blessed and honored to be serving God outside of a local congregation, using our pastoral gifts outside of a congregation may be God’s way for us to have a more effective ministry than many pastors conduct who find themselves in a pulpit ministry each Sunday.
Personally, I could submit a list of a dozen pastoral ministry options for people to pray and think about conducting that have nothing to do with being the pastor of a church, or being called first to be a pastor of a church, or having presbytery affirm your call. Consider your natural talents. They are the gifts of God. Consider your spiritual gifts. They are the gifts of God. Pray and think. The Holy Spirit will show you how to use all of these gifts to serve Christ wherever you find yourself. If you do these things, if and when the time is right, you may or may not be called to the pulpit ministry, but you can always have a pastoral ministry. If you are not called to the pulpit ministry, I would almost bet that if you do these things, wherever you find yourself, your ministry will be more effective than many of us who preach each Sunday.
If we learn to pray and think outside the box, we will find ways to conduct pastoral ministry that other ministers, congregations, presbyteries, and church leaders have never thought about, and we will reach people for Christ as He leads and empowers.”
