LH-H: It can easily be traced to the recognition about five years ago that commissioned lay pastors were serving more and more churches, and we wanted to see how those CLPs were being trained and how satisfied the presbyteries are with the service they are providing. [After reviewing an initial report] … the GAMC and COGA asked the Committee on Theological Education to address the question of leadership more broadly. COTE commissioned a study on what leadership the PC(USA) needs. We asked Brian Blount to convene the group.
The committee focused around three questions: “What is the context of our ministry and mission?” We believed that has changed and is changing. “What are the leaders we need to do God’s ministry and mission?” And, finally, “How are we going to resource, train, educate leaders who are going to serve in that context?”
JHH: The Apostle Paul said of himself, “I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some.” The paper challenges that model, calling for “the Reformed ideal of the ministry of all God’s people.” Are you rejecting Paul’s model?
LH-H: I haven’t exegeted that particular passage, but I think where the committee was focused was on the Reformed idea of the priesthood of all believers, and that’s a real gift that the Presbyterian Church offers. We are ideally set up to be a collaborative team of leaders serving in a particular ministry and less hierarchical in our approach to how we serve God’s mission in the world today. Not unlike Jesus with his team, the collaborative team of disciples, we serve together.
JHH: The report seems to be nudging us in the direction of developing missional leaders. What are some marks of missional leaders? How do they differ from recent ministerial models?
LH-H: Missional has a lot of baggage. What the committee and others see in this is people who focus on ministry in the world, not just in church itself. The metaphor that’s helpful for me is the ministerial leader not standing at the door, opening it and saying, “Come on in,” but one who’s outside the door, down the street with the people in the community. That is not only missional but also evangelistic; it is social justice oriented; it is a ministry of love and care and nurture.
JHH: You all lift up qualities of heart and character — transparency, authenticity, servanthood, and vulnerability — that are necessary for effective leaders to emulate. But, most ministers will admit that our seminaries did little to help shape those personal qualities in us when we were there. Are seminaries now trying to shape the ethics, morals, integrity, personal holiness and spiritual character of our future ministers?
LH-H: The short answer is “Yes” — in different ways and different places. Mentoring is a key. There are individual mentors and groups meeting on all of our seminary campuses – in pastoral residencies and internships, cohort groups, spiritual direction; it’s not just what’s happening in the classroom. When you have residential formation being a priority, it’s over a cup of coffee … in professors’ homes.
JHH: Where do we go from here?
LH-H: This is a talking paper, something to gather around, for everybody to take a bite, to respond to. Hopefully it will feed people and hopefully it will generate new ideas. This report doesn’t finish with a period at the end. It gives a launch pad.
