wfn.org | Pastors focus on rekindling passion for ministry

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Jan. 18, 2001 News media contact: Linda Green·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-31-71BP{017}

NOTE: A sidebar, UMNS story #018, and photographs accompany this report.

DALLAS (UMNS) - Pastors shoulder so many demands and responsibilities that
burnout and low morale are common problems, and often result in a loss of
passion for ministry.

Rekindling that passion was the focus of the Second Convocation for Pastors
of African-American Churches, which drew nearly 450 clergy members seeking
to reacquaint themselves with power, passion and preaching authority. During
the four-day event, the clergy attended sessions led by 13 pastors, most of
whom have gone into small-membership churches and built them up into large
congregations.

"As pastors are encouraged, they become God's agents of encouragement for
laity who can make churches that can change their communities," said the
Rev. Vance Ross, chairman of the event's design team.  

The denomination's Board of Discipleship in Nashville, Tenn., sponsored the
Jan. 8-11 convocation as a companion event to the churchwide Strengthening
the Black Church for the 21st Century initiative. The denomination has about
37,000 congregations, including 2,500 that are predominantly black.

"God has gifted these people by way of their appointment and by God placing
them in these positions, but it is also by God's grace and through God's
power that we must remember that we are empowered to do this," said Ross,
who is pastor of multiethnic First United Methodist Church in Hyattsville,
Md. "We must have a vision that fuels us and be passion and vision-driven,
spirit-led and mission-minded. We are authorized and anointed by God to do
this work."

The primary purpose of preaching is to change lives and to get people to
change their direction, repent and realize the empowerment of the Holy
Spirit, said the Rev. Alfreda Wiggins, pastor of John Wesley United
Methodist Church in Baltimore. 

"Preaching, healing and deliverance is serious business," she said.
"Preaching is the power of God unto salvation, and if we are serious about
this business, then preaching ought to do more than revive the choir and
make people feel good."

Pastoral ministry is a profession in which burnout and low morale are as
common as the air we breathe, said the Rev. Carlyle F. Stewart III, pastor
of Hope United Methodist Church in Southfield, Mich. "It is difficult for
some clergy to obtain and maintain a passion for ministry that will enable
them to achieve a sense of wholeness and fulfillment in places they serve." 

He defined passion as boundless enthusiasm for service that sustains the
individual through the highs and lows, the joys and disappointments of
ministry. 

"Passion is the unquenchable desire to serve God's people with conviction
and excellence in kingdom building," he said. "Passion is the ability to go
from failure to failure, problem to problem without losing your enthusiasm
and spiritual momentum. It is the capacity to serve God's people excellently
despite their sin."

The Rev. Benita Rollins, pastor of Aldersgate United Methodist Church in
Warrensville, Ohio, echoed Stewart's observations by using a balloon. Each
person was given a shapeless balloon to note its flatness and lifelessness.
She then told the people to blow a little air into their balloons and
observe what happens. "Sometimes our ministry is like this balloon," Rollins
said. "It is not growing and not really making a difference in the lives of
people. It is either dying or just making do."

Then she asked that the balloons be inflated. "Like the balloon, we need to
be stretched so that we can bring balance and passion in our lives," she
said. 

God wants pastors to let their passions go and be free, she said. "In the
context of ministry, I contend that passion is the intense love and desire
that flows out of an intimate relationship with God. Passion is not just
doing, but it is about being."
 
Clergy are "expected to remain unflappable (and) maintain dignity or grace
under pressure amid the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune because of
the sacred office we hold and the great God we serve," Stewart said.

Despite the notion that a pastor should triumph over tribulation and
struggle as Christ did, the reality is that many clergy, in their suffering,
have lost passion for ministry, he said. Some pastors are emotionally,
spiritually and vocationally trapped and have become "Sullen Saturday"
people instead of Easter morning people. They are stuck, experiencing
neither the passion of Good Friday nor the joy of Easter Sunday.

"Saturday is where too many of us are; in those barren, fallow places where
we have lost sight of the new horizon ... lost desire to serve because we
are caught in the gray areas of ministry; the Saturday areas of ministry,
the unknown and precarious areas of ministry," Stewart said.

Those "Sullen Saturday" places, known as dispassion, disillusionment and
despair, are dangerous, he said.

He presented metaphors to describe states of ministry passion and offered
suggestions on how pastors can obtain, maintain and sustain their passion
wherever they serve.  

Using a metaphor called "The Thrill is Gone," Stewart said many pastors left
seminary with vigor, energy and enthusiasm and were ready to conquer the
world. But after a few board meetings, a few charge conferences, "a few
seasons of persecution and prosecution" and a few veto votes against likable
programs, "we have come to the place where the thrill is gone, almost gone
or nearly gone away."  

He gave examples of pastors experiencing financial difficulties; of
congregations with limited faith and vision who want the church to be a
country club; of feeling monitored by the "thought police"; of frustration
with a denomination that seems more concerned with sex than salvation; of
suffering from "Disciplinitis," in which the United Methodist Book of
Discipline is used by pastors and against pastors to prevent and stop
ministry from flourishing. Those conditions cause clergy to experience a
loss of energy and passion, he said.

Adapting the lyrics of a song by the popular group Earth, Wind and Fire,
"Something happened along the way and yesterday is all we have," Stewart
said something killed the joy, the spirit and desire to serve that pastors
once had.

"We are starving for signs of vitality, renewal, restoration and
revolution," he said. Clergy are looking "for places of hope, for a
resurrection of spirit that will revive and rejuvenate us and the people and
places we serve. "

As Jesus had great passion for ministry and people, an important way for
pastors to retain their passion is "to be born again," he said. "Spiritual
rebirth, a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit and regeneration are
important hallmarks of obtaining, maintaining and reclaiming a passion for
ministry."

Pastors keep the thrill for ministry by reclaiming their connection with
Christ and reclaiming ministry as a place of divine revelation, discovery,
adventure and opportunity, Stewart said. "We reclaim our passion through
hope, the promises of God and the realizable vision for God's people."

The Rev. Zan Holmes, pastor of St. Luke Community United Methodist Church in
Dallas, told the clergy that in order to be safe from burnout, they must
keep refanning and rekindling the flames of their gifts for preaching and
ministry. As he provided an address about the authority of preaching and of
the pastor, he challenged his colleagues to participate in the process of
developing their preaching potential.

Stewart told the pastors to keep a passion for ministry alive by keeping
their hope and vision alive; preaching Christ and saving souls; developing a
strong prayer and devotional life and encouraging others to do likewise;
preaching, teaching and reaching with passion, power and authority; creating
a climate where failure is not fatal; associating with people who are high
and joyful in the spirit and love of the Lord; and channeling anger and
disappointment into acts of healing and kindness.

A healing service was included in a plenary session led by the Rev. Kirbyjon
and Suzette Caldwell, of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston.

"We saw the power of the Holy Spirit in the midst of our gathering," said
the Rev. Lillian Smith, a staff person with the churchwide Board of Higher
Education and Ministry in Nashville, Tenn. "It was refreshing to see the
movement of God in such a powerful way. It was supernatural."

Others providing leadership at the convocation included the Rev. Emmanuel
Cleaver II, pastor of St. James United Methodist Church, Kansas City, Mo.;
the Rev. McAllister Hollins, pastor of Ben Hill United Methodist Church,
Atlanta; Bishop James R. King Jr., Louisville, Ky.; the Rev. Hanq Neal,
minister of music at Windsor Village United Methodist Church, Houston;
Bishop Gregory Palmer, Des Moines, Iowa; the Revs. Rudy and Juanita Rasmus,
co-pastors of St. Johns United Methodist Church, Houston; the Rev. Dorothy
Watson Tatem, director of the office of urban ministries for the Eastern
Pennsylvania Annual Conference, Philadelphia; and the Rev. Cynthia Wilson,
pastor of music and worship, Ben Hill United Methodist Church, Atlanta.

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United Methodist News Service
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