Great post and analogy! I grew up in Evangelicalism, spent most of my 20s and 30s in it, and even attempted to become a missionary at one point. This post tracks pretty closely to what I observed.
I’d say that as far as education goes, yes you don’t have to have a ministry degree at first, but it’s expected that you’ll seek some sort of ministry education. (Maybe after that four year mark.) This is increasingly done through online-only programs. Sometimes they’re bachelor’s degrees, frequently they’re just certificate programs. They’re always marketed as programs that “fit the busy schedules of full-time pastors.”
On support teams, while this varied a bit from pastor to pastor, I never felt like church planters were insincere in their appreciation for volunteer efforts. Especially when it came to anything for the Sunday morning service itself.
But for the behind the scenes stuff (website, finance team, administrative support, etc…) there was definitely tension. Lots of big ideas with poor follow-through. Maybe a bit like product managers who insist someone else is the responsible “product owner,” many pastors do want to leave all the homework for somebody else to do.
Great post and analogy! I grew up in Evangelicalism, spent most of my 20s and 30s in it, and even attempted to become a missionary at one point. This post tracks pretty closely to what I observed.
I’d say that as far as education goes, yes you don’t have to have a ministry degree at first, but it’s expected that you’ll seek some sort of ministry education. (Maybe after that four year mark.) This is increasingly done through online-only programs. Sometimes they’re bachelor’s degrees, frequently they’re just certificate programs. They’re always marketed as programs that “fit the busy schedules of full-time pastors.”
On support teams, while this varied a bit from pastor to pastor, I never felt like church planters were insincere in their appreciation for volunteer efforts. Especially when it came to anything for the Sunday morning service itself.
But for the behind the scenes stuff (website, finance team, administrative support, etc…) there was definitely tension. Lots of big ideas with poor follow-through. Maybe a bit like product managers who insist someone else is the responsible “product owner,” many pastors do want to leave all the homework for somebody else to do.