Lifeway Research indicates that 26% of SBC pastors are bivocational. I don’t know how many Advent Christian pastors maintain a marketplace job in addition to their role in the church. However, with the steady decline of Advent Christian church attendance, we must expect the number of bivocational pastors will only increase. For some, this could bring about a missiological revival and spur church revitalization. For others, it will be like palliative care.
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f we continue to encourage covocational ministry, more Christians will see it as a viable career path. A person can love their current vocation and see God’s call on their life to serve him by serving a local church simultaneously. Essentially, we open the door to otherwise qualified people who could have a call on their lives to serve but shut out that possibility because of perceived limitations bound by a full-time vocation-only model.
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If a church isn’t trained to hire pastors, then it is likely they will lack the skills necessary for hiring them. Mistakes will be made, which can have several undesirable impacts. Consider the church that, after six months, found a candidate, but when the candidate asked how much the church could offer in compensation, they responded with, “We won’t share that information until you accept the call because we don’t want a pastor who is greedy but trusts that God will provide.”
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The Advent Christian Church is not the only network or denomination struggling with finding called and qualified pastors. I remember sitting in a Church Revitalization class at Gordon-Conwell in South Hamilton when one of our Professors would bring in the ABC equivalent to Superintendents. Each one would provide some type of insight on church leadership or revitalization but would always take 10 minutes to pitch to eager seminary students why they should consider one of their many open churches in New England.
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The last article ended with a call for us to put everything on the table. If we are going to do that, then we need to understand exactly what we are as a denomination. The purpose of this article is to help us do that, but perhaps not in the way you would expect. Generally, when the question “what are we?” is asked, the answers revolve around common beliefs or relationships. But I want us to look at our structure, and particularly how our churches relate to one another and to the levels of our denomination, orienting what we are in relation to other types of denominational structure. Let’s begin, then, with an overview of the options.
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The aim of this post is somewhat narrow. I won’t attempt to comment on the entirety of the Ephesians passage that follows and contains what some scholars call a household code. What I want to challenge is the commonly accepted interpretation of Ephesians 5:21 that claims that Paul is teaching that there is to be mutual submission in a Christian marriage of both the wife and the husband to one another.
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All of that went out the window last Saturday, and the reaction inside the Jewish state is one of grief and outrage over the 1,200 people (at this writing) brutally murdered in a terrorist attack that stunned Israeli intelligence and the country’s politicians. As I’ve watched the news unfold, I’m reminded of how so many Americans, myself included, felt in the days following 9/11. While I know that there are two sides to every story, the wanton murder of so many civilians, especially children, is an unspeakable horror.
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You’ve done it. So have I. You got an Email that rang your chimes, and you fired off a response destined to get attention. But now you’re having second thoughts. Should I have sent that? Perhaps I should have waited and thought more about it. Perhaps I should have picked up the phone and talked with the person. Did I compound the problem by sending it to others?
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Two months ago, if you told me that I would sit in a movie theater watching a movie about the infamous Barbie and Ken, I would have given you a puzzled look and maybe questioned your sanity. The early hype suggested that this was a kid's movie about dolls; dolls that made a toy company very rich. Thanks, but no thanks!
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I encourage you to enter the conversation or start one. Do you have ideas on how to serve our local homeless communities better? Share your lessons. Are you struggling with the implications of your theology regarding your fellowship? Someone else probably is, too. This is why many of us write: to share our thoughts, express our doubts, and introduce ideas that could be helpful to the brethren. This is how we dwell in unity.
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In “a resurrection in Zarephath” Jefferson Vann suggests a new translation of 1 Kings 17:21-22.
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I’ve been reading the recent posts on this blog with interest. I too listened to the panel discussion on denominational restructuring at the triennial convention….Comments were made about the need for unity of purpose at all levels of our denomination. Others noted that the question “What is an Advent Christian?” is often answered in terms of relationships. That ties in with things I’ve observed just in the past few weeks, and which I shared with my church following the convention…
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Evangelistic church planting is missional church planting as it contextualizes the Gospel without losing its transformational edge. Missional church planting does not seek to dispense spiritual products but seeks to work with the Holy Spirit to take the hope of Christ into the world in an intelligible context.
Read MoreLast week, my article “Denominational Tectonics” caused a bit of a firestorm amongst the readership of Advent Christian Voices. To be honest, that was one of my goals. I was trying, through confrontational and colorful language, to get people’s attention. What I failed to anticipate, however, is the way that my tone and candor may have deepened the divisions that I desired merely to identify and assess.
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Not all of you know me well...some may wonder about my own history in the denomination and my desires for the Advent Christian church. I thought now would be a good time to share my own story so that you might appreciate the diversity of backgrounds and thought among the “younger” generation. I encourage my peers to do the same.
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At the 2023 Triennial Convention, there was much discussion about restructuring our denomination. Particularly through a panel discussion, and many follow-up conversations, it became clear that most people within the Advent Christian denomination see a need for some amount of change. Yet, there was a lot of disagreement on what type of change needs to happen. This article is the first in a series, that will be published over the course of a few (or perhaps many) months, that will focus primarily on a biblical-theological look at the needs and changes we face.
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Jefferson Vann explains his translation of 1 Peter 2:13-15.
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I’m one of those folks whom if you invite me to your home or office, the first thing I notice is your library and the books you have on it. So let me share with you the books that have shaped my thinking about faith and about life, and hopefully you will find some insight into what I think and what I value.
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