Re-imagine full-time clergy
View #6: 36 views of the future of church
I have a hard time seeing a congregation of 35 as viable. Unless you are imagining a completely unpaid clergy force. Letting wardens be the “in charge” folks further entrenches the family size dynamic - clergy are just hired hands.
This is a comment on last week’s post, about small congregations and their gifts for the church.
I don’t see myself as ‘just a hired hand’, even though my congregation does indeed have about 35 members.
I see myself as serving in ministry alongside the lay leaders of the congregation.
It’s not a matter of who’s in charge - them or me. It’s about using our gifts for ministry to support each other in sharing the Good News of the Gospel.
I call myself their ‘clergy consultant’. If I have training, experience, or wisdom about church topics that they don’t have, I offer it in service to their ministry.
I don’t tell them what to do (nor do they tell me what to do).
But here is the secret: It’s not full-time work.
In fact, I think most churches don’t need a full-time minister. Nor can they afford it.
What’s not a secret:
Full-time ministry salaries and benefits are crushing congregations - and not just small ones.
Ministers putting in full-time work (and then some!) while making part-time pay (or less!) are burnt out, stressed out, and quitting ministry in droves.
The math just doesn’t add up, and it’s one of the biggest factors in church decline.
I also think it’s a classic chicken/egg dilemma:
Is church decline the cause of not being able to afford full-time ministry?
Or is traditional full-time ministry causing church decline?
For the rest of the year, I’ve decided to go full Hokusai - parroting his ‘36 Views of Mount Fuji’ - and just describing what I’m seeing.
36 views of the future of church.Where the ‘Good Stuff’ of church is, and how we can let go of the ‘stuff’ that no longer supports our ministry.
View #6: Free Range Priest
When I tell people I’m a Free Range Priest, they say, “Like the chicken?”
And I say, “Yes”.
Because still ministry, it’s just healthier. And it tastes better.
Why?
Because one of the primary missions of my work has been to find new ways to serve. Sustainable ways, for both congregations and clergy.
I serve full-time in ministry, but I don’t serve full-time in a congregation.
In fact, you could not pay me any amount of money to go back to traditional full-time ministry. Because being ‘Free Range’ is so much more fulfilling.
I serve two congregations:
One where I am the pastor - and I serve on task-based contract (they contract for specific services: leading worship, pastoral care, spiritual development, tech support).
One where I’m the ‘system administrator’ - helping them upgrade their digital administration and organization.
Plus…I consult with congregations and dioceses.
I coach clergy.
I run a Substack.
I’m developing a ‘gym for your soul’.
Being a Free Range Priest means having a thriving, full-time ministry of my own, and supporting small congregations and their ministry.
It's not my church
The wonderful church where I serve - St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Salisbury, NC - is 45 minutes from where I live. I’m there two Sundays a month. Some mornings I just get an early start, or the traffic’s really light (I live near Charlotte so you never know…), and I get there before anyone else has arrived. And since I’m of a ce…
Here’s what I see:
We can - and we need to - think beyond one full-time minister being ‘in charge’ of one community (with the community paying a full-time salary plus benefits).
‘Thinking beyond’ does not mean just cutting the same system in half (part-time minister/part-time salary). The same pressures are there - the clergy must ‘grow’ the congregation, so the congregation can afford to keep going (a lot of that is affording the ministers salary).
Today’s entrepreneurial and technological culture offer many ways for clergy (and lay ministers) to serve the church and the world full-time through multiple part-time jobs.
Focusing on what the ministry is - what is the task I’m called to do here? - and being clear about boundaries (not doing everything!), helps clergy create a cohesive ministry of their own.
This kind of re- imagination helps support congregations, too! Small churches can afford ministry (big churches, too), and there’s much more room for true lay ministry to develop.
All of this is why I call being a Free Range Priest ‘cage free’ ministry.
Because it re-imagines the system and structure of ministry that is not working, and frees both clergy and congregations to share the Gospel in sustainable, joy-filled ways.
The church I serve with is becoming the first Trexo ‘chapter’. This a ministry we’re undertaking together - ancient Christian practice for modern life.
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My parish is also around 35 people, split between two service times. We have a part-time priest who was just ordained this past February. Before that, we had supply clergy. The difference between supply and part-time is night and day—and I think sometimes people hear "part-time priest" and assume it's just a permanent supply situation. But that doesn’t work. If anything, our newly ordained priest was already doing everything except eucharist throughout her discernment and training, as a sort of "lay person in charge" alongside from the senior warden.
Our priest has two callings: one she’s followed for many years as a speech pathologist, and the other—a call to the priesthood—has been with her since second grade. She was 50 before the time was finally right. Honestly, it’s wonderful. We have a mature, wise priest with real-life experience, who’s committed to the area (which really matters in rural congregations).
Do the laity have to take on a bit more? Well, yeah—but small, priestless congregations already do. Is it too much sometimes? Yes. Holy Week is a nightmare for a part-time priest. But the rest of the time? As she puts it, “Where else would I be on Sunday, and pot luck day except church?”. I'm not remotely suggesting that's all she does, but it does help keep perspective on the comitment
And if we need to hire an administrator some of the time—well, that’s still cheaper than a full-time priest (especially with Episcopal health plans, but the less said about that, the better).
I love so much about this. And I also cringe at the idea of normalizing clergy work as involving the piecing together of an income from multiple part time jobs. For some, especially the entrepreneurial and the especially gifted, this is ideal. For many others, I fear it's unsustainable and irreconcilable with the stability (of income etc) required to sustain a family and decent livelihood. If this becomes the standard model for ordained ministry, I suspect that few would choose it.