Solutions?

There is a joke that I have heard and, admittedly, said, many times within our denomination: “The primary qualification for any board position is saying yes.” It is certainly in jest, but often stems from the frequent frustration caused by the difficulties of finding candidates for our many board positions. 

Consider: we have a denominational board, six regional boards, 24 conference boards, plus boards for numerous campmeetings, retirement/skilled nursing facilities, and educational institutions. Putting that all together, we could come to a rough estimate of 45-50 boards, each with many positions that need to be filled. And this does not include the many committees and focus groups that we have ongoing as well.

Now consider this: we have somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 churches. That means there are about four churches for every board, and likely fewer churches than there are board positions. But some of these churches are already in need of pastors, and, according to an article by Justin Nash in the most recent issue of the Advent Christian Witness, 70% of our pastors are expected to retire within the next 10 years. Over the last 5-10 years similar statistics have been brought to our attention at various levels, with the situation becoming more dire each time I hear about it.

Compounding the problem, the attendance in our churches is, at the same time, shrinking, and the active participation in local church ministry is shrinking even faster than attendance. 

So then, we have struggling churches, in desperate need of pastoral leadership and active members, that are being called on to fill more positions than there are churches (based on my rough estimates). 

Great strides have been made over the last couple of years to begin addressing the impending pastoral leadership crisis, thanks to MTI and other endeavors. Yet, I do not foresee the current solutions meeting our overall leadership needs fast enough.

Let’s return to the initial joke for a moment. Most humor is funny because it has an element of truth to it. My example supports this. Why? Because when you serve on a nominating committee for many of these boards the biggest problem is finding someone who will say “yes” to another position that takes up more time. 

That is not to say that these positions are harmful. Rather, they are often very beneficial, helping to develop all sorts of good, God-glorifying ministries for our churches, members, and communities. But when we have so many positions, and so few people to fill those positions, then we have a major problem.

Is it ok if I compound the problem even further? Either way, I will. As Erik Reynolds has correctly addressed many times before, we also have a serious theological problem. We have no true doctrinal standards which results in us having crucial disagreements on matters of first importance, matters concerning the very nature of God and the foundations of the Gospel. These things matter, and as a result we are, rightly so, divided.

Putting this all together, we are in the midst of a serious crisis. We have too many positions, not enough people to fill them, and we stand divided. Biblical wisdom would indicate that we, here and now, have the responsibility to address these crucial issues in order that we might be good stewards of the Kingdom resources the Lord Jesus Christ has entrusted to us. It is time for us to begin consolidating and solidifying our ministry resources in order that we might use them wisely to build up and proclaim the Kingdom of God as we await the return of the King. 

Although I do not have the solution to these problems, allow me to make an initial proposal of some of what may need to happen:

1. Solidify our doctrinal standards regarding basic Gospel matters, requiring us to make the Advent Christian Statement of Faith binding on conferences, pastors, and churches. Along with this we would also need more uniform credentialing standards.
   Achieving this would provide a basic foundation of consistent, right belief to better unite ourselves with one another.

2. Redraw the conference boundaries so that instead of 24 smaller conferences we would have 12-16 larger conferences (a middle ground between our current regions and conferences).

3. Consolidate the two levels of region and conference into one new level of conference. The larger conferences would be a middle ground between our current two tiers of region and conference.
   Together, proposals 2 & 3 would serve to reduce the number of functioning boards and the financial overhead that we have now, and that is currently unsustainable. 

4. Eliminate the role of superintendent as it stands today, and in its place each conference would develop a new role, whether full-time, part-time, or volunteer based in order to best meet the ministerial, administrative, and other needs of their churches. Some conferences may, instead, choose to cooperate to employ one such position.
   Since regions currently employ superintendents, and some conferences simultaneously employ someone to fill a pastor-to-pastor, or similar, role, this would either maintain the current overhead, or reduce it, but would also tend to streamline the ministry among churches, making it more effective overall.

5. Each conference would then be allotted one representative to the ACGC executive council (currently, each region has two representatives).
   This final proposal would help to maintain the current level of representation to ACGC while potentially also giving greater voice to the conferences.

You may agree or disagree with the above proposals. And, in fact, I suspect our final solution will look quite different. But we need a starting point. We already have many strong and capable leaders in key positions. We have many others who can be strong and capable leaders. And we have many who need to speak and act in positions of support. 

Let’s begin now by facing our problems head on and working out the solutions.