In the 13 years since I started Moore College I’ve lived in 8 houses and served on the staff of 4 churches. The house I am in at the moment is a temporary measure while the rectory is renovated. So by next year it will be 9 houses in 14 years. We’ve never stayed anywhere long enough to plant a vegetable garden.
Our gypsy lifestyle is not atypical for those going into full time ministry.
Don’t get me wrong - we’ve been generously provided with housing at every step of the way. At considerable expense different parishes have put a roof over our heads. We live in a street we couldn’t afford to buy into on our own steam.
But nowhere was owned by us or ever felt like the place we belonged for the forseeable future. Like military families or bank managers of old, clergy adopt this strange ‘posting’ lifestyle - each posting comes with housing provided.
I remember talking to an old guy in the Armidale Diocese once. He told me how new ministers would come cycling through with some crazy new plan to re-invent the parish. Parishioners would roll the eyes and go along with things, only to see their rector head on his way after a few years. The rector never really settled in the town, never really belonged.
The structure of our training effectively forces ministers into at least a decade of moving and moving again. This is wrong for people so committed to the importance of good relationships. There is a real danger that ministers disconnect from the very people they should be connecting with - in the church and the parish. Like military families, it ends up being easier to just have deep relationships with other military families that understand the strange lifestyle.
I’d like to see these changes:
- Encourage college students to stay at their sending church
- Discourage the rotation of assistant ministers and allow them to stay longer
- Find ways to enable ministers to buy into the parishes they are serving - this would change the way stipends are structured but so be it.
- Encourage ministers to go to a parish earlier and stay longer - put down roots. Maybe even plant a vegetable garden?
Lets bring an end to nomadic ministers and look to genuinely connect.
