When I began my ministry with the congregation where I serve as a temporary pastor, my initial contract included preaching one Sunday a month. Because the church had been without a pastor for some time, they grew accustomed to listening to many different voices from the pulpit. In addition to multiple pastors from a variety of cultures, who were connected to the congregation in some way or another, ruling elders also preached from time to time. I like to think about it as their own “festival of homiletics,” as an opportunity for the congregation to hear different voices, different points of view, different interpretations of scripture, and different languages from one pulpit.
G-1.034, The Ministry of Members in the Book of Order, reminds us that a faithful member of the church gets involved in “proclaiming the good news in word and deed.” Proclaiming the good news has always been part of the heart of Christianity. Jesus did it. So did Mary, Martha, and Mary Magdalene. So did Peter, Paul, and all the apostles. Still, a lot of people in the church see it as a daunting task. For some, it seems that proclaiming is something a pastor should do and not necessarily the work of the rest of the congregation.
This, however, is a call to all members, to all believers. Everyone should be able to talk about their faith and to live out their faith in their daily lives. We are not Christians only on Sundays. Our faith should be as visible as the cross we wear on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday. For ruling elders, in particular, demonstrating faith should be front and center. Proclaiming the good news in word and deed should not be just in the purview of “professional ministry.”
Paul S. Wright, in his book "The Presbyterian Ruling Elder: An Essential Guide," makes an interesting comment about how faith has been “professionalized.” People seem to think there are specialties in ministry, and we have fallen into the trap of thinking of our faith in terms that limit our responsibilities and our call. Wright writes:
“The heart of our faith is that Christ comes to persons whom the Spirit has awakened to faith. It is a perversion to think of our faith in terms of ‘professionalism.’ We would not tolerate professionals responsible for praying for us any more than we would tolerate professionals responsible for showing Christian love. The church is true to itself and its Lord when there are not two classes of people—one with a unique status in relation to the things of God and another standing in an inferior position.” (p. 17)
Churches can celebrate and benefit from “festivals of homiletics” where different voices are heard. In fact, the role of the ruling elder as someone who can proclaim the good news in word and deed has become essential for our denomination, with ruling elders serving in a variety of roles. It is important to provide spaces at all levels of the church where ruling elders can flex their exegetical, homiletical, theological, and even pastoral muscles.
In the book "Part-Time Is Plenty: Thriving Without Full-Time Clergy," Jeffrey MacDonald has a chapter called “Sure, I Can Give a Sermon.” He presents several cases of churches that opened the pulpit to their congregational leadership, so that churches don’t fall into the trap of paying for a “part-time” pastor yet still expecting the pastor to work full time. MacDonald’s point is that if a church, out of necessity or creativity, decides to go without full-time clergy, it needs to go through a process of discernment where they tap their people’s talents to share the mantle of pastoral responsibilities. There are ruling elders who are teachers, psychologists, owners of small businesses, or pizza makers. Some presbyteries and synods have “schools” where participants are trained to combine their life skills with biblical interpretation and pastoral care.
I now preach more consistently at the church I’m serving. While we don’t have as many pastors filling the pulpit as we used to, the “festival of homiletics” continues. We have several ruling elders who like preaching and have asked to be included in the pulpit calendar. After all, “proclaiming the good news in word and deed” is an important part of our ministries and involvement in the church.
For reflection:
- How do you live out your call to share the good news in word and deed? In what ways do you exercise this call in your church leadership and in your life?
- What preparation might you seek out to feel more confident in this call to share the good news?
- While your congregation may not have its own “festival of homiletics,” what are ways that you can seek out varying expressions of faith as you continue to be formed as a leader?
The Rev. Marissa Galván-Valle is a minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). She is the senior editor for Spanish Language Resources in the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation and temporary pastor at Beechmont Presbyterian Church, an intercultural church that worships each Sunday in Spanish and English. She was ordained as a ruling elder when she was 21 years old.
Throughout 2023 and 2024, monthly Regarding Ruling Elders articles will alternate between a deep dive into the ways ruling elders discern and measure the life of a congregation through the ministry of members and stories about how ruling elders are using their call and gifts as they move about within and beyond the walls of the congregation.