wfn.org | Short of clergy and money, churches take to the tentmakers

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2000-208

Short of clergy and money, churches take to the tentmakers

by Evan Silverstein

     (PNS) Tentmaking pastors who split their time between the pulpit and their 
"day jobs" are under-appreciated leaders of the church who represent an emerging 
model of ministry in the new millennium.

     That was the message a group of about 40 Presbyterian and Episcopalian 
tentmakers heard during the Nov. 3-5 annual conference of the Association of 
Presbyterian Tentmakers (APT), which was co-sponsored by the National Association 
for the Self-Supporting Active Ministry (NASSAM) of the Episcopal Church. Members 
serve in church positions but derive all or most of their income from outside 
employment.

     Bishop William Persell of the Diocese of Chicago, a guest panelist during 
the conference, said the tentmaking ministry is "very largely hidden, and not 
understood by most people within the context of the church."

     "I think the church as a whole does not recognize ordained ministry that 
happens outside the context of a parish, or possibly a chaplaincy," Persell told 
participants in the conference. "I think we have a long way to go to get a real 
understanding of what some of you are about, and have been for many years."

     The conference, whose theme was Tentmaking 2000: The Outer Fringe or the 
Cutting Edge?, featured perspectives from those on the front lines of ministry in 
the Presbyterian and Episcopal churches. It included panel discussions with 
seminary, presbytery and diocesan leaders of the tentmaking role and the possible 
impact of an expansion of tentmaking ministries.

     Tentmakers said Presbyterians and Episcopalians must "wake up" to the 
reality of tentmaking as a cutting-edge solution to the shortage of full-time 
clergy and the declining number of congregations able to afford full-time 
pastors.

     Although its roots date to the Old Testament, tentmakers are often dismissed 
as pastoral flunkies forced into two-vocation careers because they can't nab a 
permanent calling. The Rev. Ron Simpson, of Cincinnati, Ohio, a Presbyterian 
tentmaker, blamed some of his colleagues for doing too little to broaden the 
faith community's perspective on the importance of tentmakers.

     "Tentmakers sort of see themselves as second-class citizens," said Simpson, 
a tentmaker for 25 years and an employee of General Electric before his 
retirement in 1997. "I like to see tentmaking as providing a full ministry on a 
part-time schedule. You're providing a full ministry in every sense of the word, 
you're just not there all the time. Without tentmakers, I think a lot of smaller 
churches would go under sooner."

     Simpson said congregants need to help tentmakers with duties from visiting 
hospitalized parishioners to maintaining the grounds.

     "That's how the lay and the tentmaking clergy can work together," said 
Simpson. "And that strengthens the church. It gets the members working so they 
don't feel like they're paying a full-time minister."

     Tentmakers, whose name is a reference to leather working, a trade of the 
apostle Paul, exchanged stories about their own "tents" and discussed the polity 
of the two denominations during the gathering at the University of St. Mary of 
the Lake, a sprawling Catholic seminary about 40 miles north of Chicago.

     Participants urged seminaries to step up their efforts in preparing 
tentmakers and commissioned lay leaders to fill the growing number of empty 
pulpits in both denominations.

     "The need will grow and it is growing for (pastoral leadership)," said the 
Rev. John P. Jewell, a panelist and director of Seminary Technological Services 
at the Presbyterian-related University of Dubuque Theological Seminary in 
Dubuque, Iowa. "I think that is under that part of tentmaking as the ministry of 
the 'gap.'"

     The conference also provided "quality time" for bonding among the 22 
Presbyterian clergy and 16 Episcopalians, who are also bankers, teachers, 
farmers, writers and parents.

     "Tentmaking is also for the large churches who need a part-time assistant, 
or the medium-size churches who are just thinking they're moving into needing an 
associate pastor but can't afford to call one," said Amy Isbell Hanschen, of 
Austin, Texas, who as an ordination candidate seeking a call is working for a 
national corporation that places chaplains in businesses to counsel employees.

     "Tentmaking is ideally suited for new-church development and church re-
development. It crosses all of the boundaries," said Isbell Hanschen, whose 
primary "tent" consists of her husband and four children. "I can be a mom and I 
can provide ministry."

--Evan Silverstein is a reporter for the Presbyterian News Service.