Where are all the ministers?

Letter to the Editor, September 23, 2009

Last week Pastor Patty Smith from the United Methodist Church asked a pertinent question in her article that many of our churches are asking: Where are all the people? I have a similar question that comes to my mind when the ministers of this community gather for the Ministerial Association on the first Wednesday of each month. My question: Where are all the ministers?

In a community that lists 35 churches in the Church Directory the monthly gathering of the Ministerial Association usually numbers no more than 5 and sometimes as few as 2 or 3. The Ministerial Association distributes the funds gathered in the Red Kettles at Christmas and at our Community worship at Thanksgiving and Easter. Each month the responsibility of contact person overseeing these funds rotates to a different minister. At the present time only three ministers are available for this task and the three are getting weary in well-doing, often asking: Where are all the ministers?

To provide weekly devotions for Community Springs and chaplain service for the hospital, the Ministerial Association has had to invite the Gideons to work with us because there were not enough willing ministers available to provide these services. And the question comes up again: Where are all the ministers?
Some member ministers cannot be available because of health reasons. Others live out of town, making it physically impossible to participate in some of the responsibilities of the Association. Others are bi-vocational, but even so, some of our most dedicated members that fall into these categories, stay in touch through prayer and by phone and participate where they can. These are included in the 5 mentioned earlier. Also, a bi-vocational minister is one of the persons in the contact rotation. So we ask again: Where are all the ministers?

The Ministerial Association provides an opportunity for pastors to encourage one another, to develop trust across denominational line, and to pursue kingdom purposes together. I hope this letter makes you curious to know how your congregation and your minister are involved in the Ministerial Association.

Pastor Barbara Minton
First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)