Nov 1, 2020
By Nicholas J. Kersten
Director of Education and History
In 2017, the Barna Group, a Christian research company, released a study through a partnership with Pepperdine University called The State of Pastors. The study meant to evaluate “how today’s faith leaders are navigating life and leadership in an age of complexity.” The study noted that America’s pastors were growing older. One finding related to the median age for pastors. In 1992, the median age for American pastors was 44 years old. In 2017, it was 54. Over the 25 years between the dates, the average pastor got ten years older. America’s pastors, at least according to this Barna study, are getting older and churches aren’t finding and recruiting younger pastors to replace them. A simple survey of our Directory would show that our pastors and churches are also part of this same trend.
Our strategy as a Conference is to train leaders identified by the local church through the SDBU initiative in basic ministry skills. If you feel a calling to aid your local church in this season, but feel the need for training, please reach out to your local church and to us so we can start you in the SDBU classes! For more information on SDBU, you can visit our website: www.seventhdaybaptist.org/sdbu. But our strategy cannot only be to passively wait for leaders to identify themselves—there needs to be an on ramp to our leadership development. How do we find those God may be calling to lead? How will we know them when we see them? Are you one of the people God is calling to step up and lead in this season? How would you know?
Several years ago, I had the chance to sit at a symposium with a pastor who had overseen the successful turnaround of a big church in a college community. During a “Question and Answer” session, one of the attenders asked the pastor how he did it—how God used him to turn the church around. The pastor’s short (and humble) answer was that he found three FAT people—Faithful, Available, Teachable—and then he discipled them for 5 years. By the end, he asserted “they were a different church.”
As we think about who God is calling to lead in our churches, it is important for us to remember that the qualifications for Christian leadership are more about character than they are about any competency, skills or gifts. In other words, God needs FAT people more than he needs gifted or talented people. As you seek leaders in your local church, there are simple questions congregations can ask that should point you in the direction of your next leaders:
• Who is faithful?
Who can be counted on when they say they will do a thing?
• Who is available?
Who has or makes time to spend in the work of doing and supporting the ministry of the church?
• Who is teachable?
Who wants to grow in their faith by the application of one life to another as they follow Jesus Christ?
This may lead to a different list of candidates than you might be thinking. If the list you can generate includes candidates that seem unlikely to you, don’t worry. Many people thought (and still think) Jesus’ disciples a highly questionable group of candidates to build the church upon! As we actively advance God’s kingdom, we do it best through the people who have already committed to the work of the church, even if they do not match worldly reasons to pick leaders. The kingdom advances corporately through people Jesus is advancing in personally. If you need help identifying your next leaders, we invite you to contact us to talk about where God is already working in your church!
