Minister Shortage?

A Response to the Challenge Facing the Churches of Christ

Most readers familiar with Mission Alive know that we have a connection with the Churches of Christ. While our vision to develop innovative communities of faith focused on transforming marginalized communities is broader, we work and partner with people and organizations affiliated with the Churches of Christ. So we share the concern addressed recently by the Christian Chronicle regarding the challenge of vocational ministry facing the Churches of Christ.

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The challenge facing the Churches of Christ is the growing number of congregations seeking a minister and the decline of ministers available to serve. Those who serve vocationally as ministers among the Churches of Christ, as I do, have seen this problem take shape for some time. The number of students pursuing degrees in theology and ministry has been in decline among universities and schools affiliated with the Churches of Christ. In the past, congregations could count on receiving numerous resumes from ministers willing to consider the opportunity, but now some of these churches don’t receive any resumes.

In part of the Christian Chronicle series, different reasons were identified as reasons for the minister shortage. Some of these reasons include a lack of money (churches are too small to provide for a minister financially), lack of faith (too many Christians no longer value the Lord’s work), and lack of unity (the growing doctrinal/theological diversity among 12,000 autonomous congregations) “But,” as Bobby Ross Jr. reports, “perhaps the biggest factor — and the saddest — relates to the lack of respect afforded preachers in our fellowship. We don’t honor them or hold them in high regard.”

There are likely a myriad of reasons for this problem of a minister shortage, but if you’re concerned, then you should read that last reason again. If you haven’t served vocationally as a full-time minister among Churches of Christ, you need to listen rather than judge. Every minister understands that serving will be difficult at times, but many ministers I know, including myself, have stories of being mistreated. This mistreatment includes being fired for reasons that have nothing to do with illegal, immoral, or unethical conduct on the part of the minister. Such terminations are unjust and often cause far more harm (emotional, financial, etc…) to the minister and the minister’s family than people will ever understand unless they have lived on the wrong end of that mistreatment. Then there are the moments when ministers must endure harassment, unwarranted criticism, and manipulation, all because someone didn’t agree with something the preacher said in a sermon or because the other church leaders (often elders) refuse to confront immature members.

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I can remember as though it was yesterday when one church member stood over me shouting, pointing his finger, and telling me how incompetent I was. This man was treating me like this because he could, and nobody else was willing to stand up to him. When I did and said something to him and then to other church leaders, he doubled down without a word from anyone else telling him that he was wrong. So I get it when the Christian Chronicle reports about the lack of respect for ministers. That said, I would like to add further comments about the reasons for the shortage of ministers among the Churches of Christ.

One reason that has yet to be addressed has to do with calling those who are gifted by the Spirit to serve as ministers. The Christian Chronicle series has one post titled Seeking the Gifted: Ministers suggest ideas for inspiring and training more preachers. Unfortunately, though, the way many congregations read the Bible prevents them from even considering that God may be gifting women for vocational ministry—preaching ministry included. The real shortage among Churches of Christ may be in our ecclesiology, which lacks appreciation for the outpouring of the Spirit upon all flesh.

The failure to recognize the work of the Spirit isn’t limited to just gender. I know some churches that won’t really consider any minister over the age of 50. So even if the Spirit has gifted an older person, age discrimination prevents some churches from receiving a minister that God may be trying to send to their church. Beyond gender and age, I wonder how many predominantly White congregations (which accounts for most Churches of Christ) would give serious consideration to inviting a person of color to come to serve as a minister with their church?

In another conversation I recently had with another minister, I was reminded of how many congregations have a list of peripheral doctrines. The expectation is that any potential minister must agree with all of these peripheral doctrines; if they don’t, they are excluded from consideration. I understand that congregations need ministers who will fit well with their congregation. However, when seeking a minister becomes a zero-sum game in which there must be an unequivocal agreement with every peripheral doctrine of the congregation, the congregation may miss the minister God is trying to send as a minister.

I’m not entirely sure what the answer is to this problem. I know that it is the responsibility of churches to teach and identify those whom God might be calling to serve in vocational ministry. When such people are identified, we need ways of providing them with theological education and ministry training in order to prepare them to serve as ministers. However, the Churches of Christ must look beyond simply trying to find ministers to serve with existing congregations and must seriously commit to planting new churches and new campus ministries. Participation in the mission of God is not about merely trying to preserve a declining fellowship of congregations. Instead, participation in the mission of God must include recognizing those men and women whom God is calling into ministry, supporting them to receive the necessary theological and ministry training, and then supporting them as they are sent out to serve. For some ministers, this sending will be to serve with an existing congregation, but for some ministers, this sending must be to establish new communities of faith—planting churches and campus ministries.

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K. Rex Butts, D.Min, serves as the lead minister/pastor with the Newark Church of Christ in Newark, DE, and is the author of Gospel Portraits: Reading Scripture as Participants in the Mission of God. Rex holds a Doctor of Ministry in Contextual Theology from Northern Seminary in Lisle, IL, and a Master of Divinity from Harding School of Theology in Memphis, TN. He is married to Laura, and together they have three children.

1. Bobby Ross, Jr., ed., “Special Project: Sacred Calling: Challenges — and opportunities — facing ministry as a vocation in Churches of Christ,” Christian Chronicle, January 2023, available at: https://christianchronicle.org/special-project-sacred-calling/ (last accessed February 6, 2023). This link provides links to the entire and ongoing series.

2. I am aware that there are times when ministers have engaged in illegal, immoral, and unethical conduct, including spiritually abusive leadership practices, that have caused harm to churches.