One for the Team

Recently, anxiety has surfaced among colleagues on facebook about how few clergy are actively serving in congregations. Retirement, leaving the ministry early or shifting to different forms of ministry has resulted in a lot of vacancies. At the same time, aspects of congregational life requiring clergy have not lessened and ordained ministers are being stretched thin to meet the needs.

This Sunday is Ascension Sunday, when we commemorate the risen Christ being lifted up to heaven (however we want to picture or understand that) and the disciples being left behind looking up at the sky. Two angels appear who question their gaze and its futility. Jesus will return when He returns, but their fixation on where He went is like a watched kettle never boiling. And good thing they finally unglue themselves from cloud viewing because He still hasn’t come back nearly 2,000 years later.

The next part of Acts 1 tells a story that gets little air time. Because Judas Iscariot committed suicide they are down to eleven core disciples, and with twelve being so important to Jewish heritage (the twelve tribes of Israel, etc.) they realize they should add another to replace him. Peter takes charge and the 120 gathered put forward Barsabbas and Matthias as candidates. They pray and cast lots and Matthias is chosen.

As I read this story, I’m moved by the model here - first, recognizing the gap in leadership for this new faith movement in a new time; second, gathering the community to talk about it and pray and seek God’s leading; and third, ‘casting lots’ and depending on God to show the way to go. It makes me wonder how faithful we are in following this model for our own leadership crisis.

In my tradition, I’m a bit of a rarity - a theologically trained layperson qualified to preach but not able to baptize or officiate communion or weddings. However, I’m serving in my third congregation, Sunday by Sunday, over the course of the last six or so years. Throughout my life I’ve been involved in many leadership opportunities in the church, including parachurch ministries, where I gained confidence and had my gifts affirmed. I wonder how many equipped like me are still actually in church, having been welcomed and valued for what they offer, even if it didn’t come packaged in the expected way.

Peter realized the need to take action and fill the gap even before Pentecost came. The disciples had been told to wait for the Spirit to come in power, but Peter didn’t want to just twiddle his thumbs. He had been told to feed Jesus’ sheep and tend His lambs and was taking that directive seriously. We all have that directive in one way or another, lay and ordained. Are we actively doing it, or are we either looking at the sky of bygone days and past perceived ‘glory’ or content to cruise through this time, waiting for the Spirit to show up and inspire or save us?

Many of us have needed to be in cruise mode after the intensity of the last two years and the steep learning curve of virtual worship and ministry. However, the church for the most part has been lulled into a waiting period, a time of less activity, while clergy leave the profession out of exhaustion and frustration.

Where are the Peters among us? Quite possibly in unlikely places and waiting to be activated, to be invited into caring for and building the church and leading, despite perhaps lacking theological degrees or official stamps of approval from governing bodies. We need to be looking for Peters and Barsabbases and Matthiases (and Lydias and Dorcases and Priscillas for that matter) and challenging them to live into their calling with holy discernment and prayer support.

This is a new time, a new era for the church, as we continue to carefully emerge from our cocoons of pandemic. May we as leaders make space to nurture our people into leading and find ways to resource their important roles, perhaps turning the hierarchy on its head just as the early church did to the Jewish establishment. May we be ready to fully embrace the Spirit of Pentecost enabling and equipping believers to do the work of the kingdom, and not just the chosen few.