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Pulpit professionals
03473
November 5, 2003

Pulpit professionals

Tentmakers say church can do more with two-career ministers

by Evan Silverstein

BANGOR, ME - Tentmaking pastors - those who divide their time between serving
the church and working at other jobs for a living - are overlooked treasures
of the church.

That was the principal message at a recent three-day meeting of about 25
Presbyterian and Episcopal tentmakers, men and women who serve in church
positions but derive all or most of their income from outside jobs.

These "full-time part-timers" were pitched as an affordable and logical
option for congregations in need of leadership but short on cash.

Tentmakers from the two denominations gathered here on Oct. 31 with their
spouses and others interested in bi-vocational ministry for the annual
meeting of the Association of Presbyterian Tentmakers (APT), whose theme was
Sailing With the Wind or Rowing Against the Tide.

People on and near the front lines of tentmaking ministry in the Presbyterian
and Episcopal churches heard from church consultants, parish officials and
other guests about their unique style of ministry and how it could have a
greater positive impact on denominations faced with declining memberships and
budget constraints.

The Rev. David Vellenga, a tentmaker from Raleigh, NC, said the tentmaking
ministry is largely unseen, and not well understood.

"I think the church at large is not used to this idea, and tends not to
notice it because it doesn't fall within what people have been comfortable
with," said Vellenga, who in his "day job" helps develop microcomputer chips
for MCNC-Research and Development Institute.

He said more people - especially men and women considering careers in
pastoral ministry - need to be made aware that tentmaking is a viable option.

"When they think they're being called to ministry, they usually think that
means, 'I'm being called to be a full-time church employee ... devoting all
my working hours to the ministry,'" said Vellenga, stated-supply pastor of
little Nutbush Presbyterian Church in Townsville, NC. "We know that that's
probably too narrow a way of looking at ministry as a vocation."

The two-career ministers were challenged to be more thoughtful about their
roles by the Rev. Carl Geores, a retired Presbyterian minister who works with
tentmakers and who founded Mission at the Eastward (MATE), a cooperative
parish of nine Presbyterian congregations in Central Maine.

 "What's your focus?" Geores asked. "What are you trying to do? What is your
role in the church? How does a tentmaker connect with the system that the
church has for employing ministers? That's my challenge: What is your goal
and what is your vision?"

Worship, music and networking were featured during the conference, which was
co-sponsored by the National Association for the Self-Supporting Active
Ministry (NASSAM) of the Episcopal Church.

Some participants brought along meaningful objects, tools, products and
pictures representing their tentmaking labors, offering up brief reflections
about the meaning of their ministry and call.

The Rev. Jeff Scott, a conference organizer and tentmaker who serves two
Presbyterian congregations in Central Maine, used a baseball bat to symbolize
the bumpy ride tentmakers face in trying to balance call and career.

"A ship's sail that doesn't have a bat tends to flap and rock and lose the
wind," said Scott, a self-employed home inspector and camp director for MATE.
"When you stick the bat in the sail, you combine a certain amount of
flexibility with a certain amount of stiffness. It's correct now, and it
makes for ideal sailing. When I think about the bat description, I think of
our lives on the waves together and that correct balance that we seek."

Tentmakers and guest speakers said Presbyterians and Episcopalians must
recognize tentmaking as a cutting-edge solution to the current shortage of
full-time clergy and increase in the number of congregations unable to afford
full-time pastors.

"Tentmaking as a form of ministry is very rich," said the Rev. Douglas
Walrath, a retired professor at Bangor Theological Seminary who now works as
a church consultant. "It has a lot to contribute to the contemporary scene,
because of the challenges of providing ministry - for example, in small
congregations, and in situations where people are not able to afford a
full-time minister."

Walrath said he believes a tentmaker's occupation can "enrich the ordained
part, that is, the ministry per se."

Although its roots date to the Old Testament, tentmaking is often dismissed
as a make-do endeavor for people who can't get a permanent job in the
ministry.

Not so, said the Rev. Ross Blount, a tentmaker and farmer who serves Allerton
Presbyterian Church in Iowa.

"We choose to do this," he said. "We're not forced to do this by financial
circumstances. We choose to do this, because we like the idea, and feel it's
a calling that God has for us."

The "tentmakers" label is a reference to leather working, said to be a trade
of the apostle Paul.

The conference participants exchanged stories about their own "tents," and
met in small groups to discuss what tentmaking means. The gathering was held
at Bangor Theological Seminary, an ecumenical seminary affiliated with the
United Church of Christ.

Guests included the Rev. Scott Planting, a Presbyterian minister and MATE
coordinator who spoke about the practical uses of tentmakers in cooperative
parishes.

Planting said cooperative parishes or clusters of congregations are "about
working together in common mission, sharing resources without surrendering
individual congregational identity. That's our big concern, that we're going
to somehow be less."

Sister Lucy Poulin, the founder and coordinator of HOME-Orland in Maine, a
co-op and advocate for the poor, also addressed the group.

The mostly Presbyterian clergy included real-estate agents, teachers, farmers
and retirees. A risk-management consultant from England who is also an
Anglican priest gave the meeting an international flavor.

"I think it is needed," Fr. Elborn "Al" Mendenhall, an Episcopal priest from
Topeka, KS, said of the tentmaking ministry.

Mendenhall, a U.S. Air Force veteran and retired engineer, added: "I think it
is very much something we've neglected, and the Episcopal Church has tried
hard to do something about it nationwide. But we have not been very
successful."

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