Matt Skolnik–General Presbyter of MVP led a lunch (3/8/22) conversation that was designed for elders and pastors to continue a dialog to help empower elders to lead the church in this new world. Matt’s presentation can be downloaded below.
There are some key points that Matt shared during this gathering that are not written down and which should be remembered:
- This ministry model is not for every church (nor every pastor). The model is not about finding a next pastor nor keeping church doors open. The goal is to help congregations thrive instead of just survive while they learn to be stewards of the faith—handing the faith off to the next iteration of church life. Admittedly, considering the long arc of history, we do not know how church life will be structured 20 or 50 years from now.
- Nothing in this slide deck is written in stone. It is merely a formal starting point for the conversation. In formally, this presentation was preceded by several conversations with sessions, online meetings and a lunch gathering with elders and pastors from several churches. Concerns and feedback from ruling and teaching elders during the previous 3 months have helped to shaped the details and trajectory of this presentation.
- Matt joyfully participates in this conversation, and leads when and as appropriate. However, for a model like this to work, pastors and elders will have to take more ownership by the week. Remember, “presbyterian” means elder. Ruling and Teaching Elders are the spiritual leaders of the local congregation.
- Currently we have churches who range across the geographical north of the presbytery. We may have enough churches to create two cohorts/teams of churches.
- A key member of the ministry team needs to be an outreach/local mission specialist—and not every outreach/local mission needs to be “staffed” by current congregation members.
- The Mentor Pastor does not necessarily need to be a pastor, and could be called to full or part-time work.
- The Ministry Team could be comprised of Ministers of Word and Sacrament, CREs, ministry students, and non ordained/commissioned staff.
- Taking a next step is always paramount. At the close of the meeting, we offered several next steps for leaders to take ranging from scheduling conversations with potential church partners to inviting speaking to visit your church or session.
