Church and Order

This is part of a series of posts about the items and topics before the General Synod 2017. 

***

There are several significant changes to the church order being proposed this year regarding the recently invented ministry designation of commissioned pastor. In the previous post, I addressed some foundations of office and some of the particular challenges inherent in this ministry designation. This post will address the specifics before the General Synod this year. This is contained on pages 224-232 and 267-270 of the General Synod Workbook.

Commissioned Pastor in Synods

One of the most significant changes proposed is the inclusion of commissioned pastors in the synodical assemblies. This has been a topic of discussion for several years but came to the fore as a result of a hastily thrown together “Commissioned Pastor Summit” (MGS 2016, p. 142-162). The entire basis, for the most part, for the inclusion of commissioned pastors in the synodical assemblies are based on arguments of a perceived lack of fairness, although the order comprehends no such concept. After all, no one is guaranteed a right to delegation to a synod by virtue of office or function, and further, the designation of commissioned pastor is a temporary function, not a perpetual office.

The inability to be delegated to the General Synod is not entirely unique to commissioned pastors, either. By way of illustration, I am a minister and I pastor a local church. However, I have served in a particular role at the General Synod for the past several years. While I am serving in this role for the General Synod I am unable to be a delegate from my classis. This is because when I took on the responsibility of this particular role, I gave up the privilege of being delegated to the General Synod. When I cease to function in this particular role for the General Synod, I am eligible for delegation once again. This is certainly not unique to me. For anyone who serves on staff at the denominational level, minister and elder alike, are unable to be delegated to the General Synod so long as they serve as denominational staff.

The question, then, is why are commissioned pastors not to be delegated to synodical assemblies if commissioned pastors are elders?

Ministers and elders exercise interrelated yet unique ministries. Elders are charged with the oversight of the preaching of the Word and administration of the sacraments, whereas the ministers actually carry out the preaching of the Word and administration of the sacraments. Ever since the introduction of the earlier designation of “preaching elder,” it has been noted that when an elder enters the pulpit, there is a blurring of role and office that occurs. This blurring, however, is not inherently bad, “if there are appropriate safeguards in place” (MGS 1997, p. 298).

Elders have always been equally involved as ministers in the governance of the church. The Reformed have always rejected a cleritocracy, where the church is governed solely by clerics. There are many reasons for this, but one of them is the particular place where the elder’s ministry is primarily exercised.

There are other important distinctions between ministers of Word and sacrament and elders as well. In one of the few General Synod reports where this distinction is addressed, the 1980 study on the nature of ecclesiastical office and ministry states that the elder stands beside the minister in connection with both sermon and sacrament, but is distinguished from the minister of Word and sacrament by virtue of the elder’s continued involvement in the world. The elder does not forsake a worldly calling to engage in ministry but represents the “sanctification of the world,” the leavening of Christian faith in all of life (MGS 1980, p. 104). While this distinction should not be interpreted to preclude a “tent-making” approach to the Office of Minister of Word and Sacrament, it does suggest that preaching elders should not be entirely dependent on the church for their livelihood but should maintain a vocation in the world…A full-time preaching ministry should continue to be exercised only by ordained ministers of Word and sacrament. (MGS 1996, p. 395).

There is a balance in church office between the ontological and the functional, the essential nature of the offices and the functions that those have in the church. As with many other things, over time there is an oscilation between these two poles. At times, office is seen as primarily ontological without much regard for function; whereas at other times, office is seen as purely function with little attention paid to the theological nature of the offices. When considering the place of commissioned pastors in the Reformed Church, we must seek to find a balance between these two poles rather than simply the continuation of the oscilation.

Not allowing commissioned pastors to be delegated to synodical assemblies is one way to find that balance. On the one hand, commissioned pastors are elders and to send them in place of ministers, as the above-referenced summit recommended, is problematic because it would neglect the place of the offices themselves. On the other hand, to delegate elders who are currently functioning as commissioned pastors would neglect the unique place of the ministry of the elder, namely that “the elder does not forsake a worldly calling to engage in ministry” (ibid).

Indeed, this balance was the issue addressed by the Commission on Church Order in 2013 when discussing this very topic. The commission writes,

While the commissioned pastor is an elder, he or she functions as a minister of Word and sacrament during the period of his or her service. The commissioned pastor takes on the role of minister during that time. That means that he or she no longer lives in the contextual world of the elder—which is, by definition, an office that “resides” in the life of a congregation. This places the commissioned pastor in an extra-ordinary position. Would he or she represent the classis, he or she would function like a minister. In that role, his or her status as delegate would skew the composition of the assembly toward “professional” pastors. This is an instance where our theology of the church’s apostolicity becomes concretely lived out: commissioned pastors, like ministers, serve a vocation different than that of elders who are not, so to speak, “professional” pastors. (MGS 2013, p. 328). 

The synodical assemblies, then, would be increasingly “professionalized” and the church would lose the “contextual world of the elder” (ibid). Indeed, the delicate balance sought between the ontological and functional aspects of the office is the reason that commissioned pastors are not able to be delegated to synods. The 2013 report continues,

The commission notes that a number of commissioned pastors have not served as elders in congregations, but have, in fact, been “fast-tracked,” in that they have been ordained elders to become commissioned pastors. That makes their presence as delegates all the more problematic. (ibid). 

Indeed, while the Commission on Theology is bringing a paper entitled, “A Theological Rationale for Commissioned Pastors at the Broader Assemblies,” this paper gives a rationale for why commissioned pastors may be delegated as elders instead of ministers, not for the reason for delegating commissioned pastors in the first place.

Broadening of Role of Commissioned Pastor

The Commission on Church Order is recommending a significant amount of changes that would further entrench this ministry designation into the order of the church, placing commissioned pastors increasingly alongside ministers and giving it a sense, though not the official label, of an office.

The commissioned pastor was previously a temporary member of classis in order to give the classis temporary oversight over the elder who is functioning as a commissioned pastor, as elders are rightly overseen by the board of elders of the local church. However, with the elimination of the category of “temporary members” of the classis, commissioned pastors were made members of the classis (like ministers), yet were to remain members of the local church (as an elder). One of the amdendments to the church order would be to further enhance the language of the commissioned pastor’s “membership” in the classis, further confusing the place of the designation of commissioned pastor, as well as confusing what it means to be a member of a body and what it means to be amenable to a body.

Finally, one proposed amendment seems fairly small but has significant implications for the relationship between a commissioned pastor and a church.

Sec. 10. The classis shall approve and disapprove calls and contracts, and effect and dissolve the relationship between ministers and churches or congregations. The classis shall approve and disapprove contracts, and effect and dissolve the relationship between commissioned pastors and churches or congregations. (GS Workbook, p. 229).

In order to discuss this, however, a bit of background on the relationships between pastors and a church is in order. The normative relationship between a pastor and a church is for a church to extend a call to a minister of Word and sacrament and the classis will install that minister as pastor and teacher of the local church. While a relationship is never strictly permanent, installation by the classis gives a sense of permanence to the relationship. Although the classis approves contracts as well as calls for pastors, a minister under contract is not installed, and therefore does not have a sense of permanence to their relationship.

Because the classis effects the pastoral relationship in installation, the only body that can dissolve such a relationship is the classis. Thus, classes have to dissolve pastoral relationships with installed ministers, but not with ministers under contract, as temporary in nature. They are intended to be temporary (the normative relationship is an installed minister of Word and sacrament), and contracts have to be renewed at stated intervals.

This amendment would strengthen and give a sense of permanence between a commissioned pastor and a local church, and in effect, would treat all commissioned pastors in a similar fashion to installed ministers. However, there is a fundamental difference between calls and contracts. Calls are open-ended, that is, there is no need for a renewal. Unless something happens, the call continues in perpetuity. Contracts, however, have specific points at which action must be taken for continuation and terminate automatically unless action is taken. This would serve as a de facto installation of commissioned pastors serving under a contract with a natural endpoint or point at which a contract must be renwed. After all, all contracts between pastors and churches must be reviewed by the classis annually (1.II.8.3). This would give a sense of permanence to a relationship which is not. This is problematic.

Another problematic element is that this would create a discrepancy of relationship with a church between commissioned pastors (who always serve under a contract) and ministers who serve under a contract rather than a call. Ministers who serve under a contract are not installed by the classis (though their contract is approved by the classis), and therefore classis action is not needed to dissolve the relationship. And so this would more firmly establish a commissioned pastor (which is, itself a temporary function) than a minister under contract.

There is no reason why this is needed, why this is helpful, and there is certainly no reason why this is ecclesiologically warranted.

***

Such critiques at more recent developments regarding commissioned pastors are dismissed as being protectionist or elitist, which is neither the case. There is a significant issue with funding theological education, and that is something that must be dealt with so that people who are called to ministry are able to be properly prepared and properly ordained to the proper office.

I am not against commissioned pastors, but I think that we must be thoughtful about changes that are made, rather than simply being taken away by the enthusiasms of the moment. Commissioned pastors have a place in the life of the church, but it is a particular and limited place, as commissioned pastors are, by nature, an anomaly in the church.