KAY DeMOSS
Senior Editor-Writer, Michigan Area
Local pastors on the rise is a trend here in the Michigan Area and the theme of a recent 10-part series published by the United Methodist News Service.
UMNS writer, Sam Hodges, offers coverage of the overall trend, the rapid growth of part-time local pastors, the use of local pastors in Hispanic outreach and the challenges faced by local pastors in in the Central Conferences. Hodges also profiled six part-time local pastors of the West Virginia Conference, including a grocer, a corrections officer and the 2013 state Teacher of the Year.
MIConnect commends this special coverage to our readers.
MIConnect reached out to three pastors for their viewpoint on the life and times of the Licensed Local Pastors of The Michigan Area. Currently there are 101 Local Pastors working for the Lord in the Detroit Conference; 97 Local Pastors labor in the vineyards of the West Michigan Conference. Together they comprise 32% of the United Methodist pastor force in Michigan.
A different tool box
Since 2014 Jeremy Wicks has served as the Chair of the John Wesley Association in West Michigan. The JWA is the fellowship of Licensed Local Pastors and Associate Members of the Conference. Jeremy also is the Registrar for the Michigan Area School for License as a Local Pastor. He pastors Millville UMC (Lansing District) and is Parish Director of the cooperative ministry known as Connections; he partners with Richard Foster who pastors Williamston Crossroads and Webberville UMCs.
When asked what gifts Local Pastors bring, Jeremy began, “We are often second career and have a wide range of experiences that someone coming from high school to college to seminary has not yet had.” Jeremy worked for 13 years in the school district, “so I bring a different tool box to the ministry.”
He spoke of a person heading toward licensure who is now working 60 hours a week in the building trade while serving quarter-time on top of that. “He brings a vast skill set into that church and community,” Jeremy notes. “Rural congregations especially appreciate someone who brings more than book-learning.”
Jeremy also feels driven by the fact he does not have a guaranteed appointment as a Local Pastor. “If I am not effective in the church and in the conference, I won’t have a job,” he states. “It is not an option for me to sit back and let things just go on. I like that healthy pressure to bring about growth. It’s just my personality.”
Regarding the growing number of Local Pastors serving churches in the denomination and in Michigan, Jeremy explains, “I don’t think it is just because more and more churches can’t afford Elders. A Licensed Local Pastor may earn as much or more.” He believes the growth is partly due to what he calls “the complicated system of ordination.” “As a younger person I started a family,” he continues. “I understand that education is important but I was a dad at 21-years-old and my family was more important to me than continuing school.” Jeremy is grateful for “another route I could pursue to live out my passionate call to serve God’s people as a pastor. That’s what the opportunity to join the numbers of Licensed Local Pastors meant for me.”
Wicks also praised the Bishop and District Superintendents in the Michigan Area. “They are willing to allow Licensed Local Pastors to experiment in ways ministry has never been done before.” Currently Jeremy is working with others in converting the former Dansville UMC into a community center. “The state of the church today requires us to step outside of what we’ve always done in order to accomplish something fresh,” he asserts. He celebrates that in this work, “Bishop Kiesey and her Cabinets are recognizing Local Pastors as partners in ministry and not those who are less than ordained clergy.”
Challenges do exist and Jeremy lists several. “Bi-vocational ministry is both a challenge and a blessing,” he begins. “The idea of quarter-time appointment is the biggest joke in our denomination as it’s not possible to effectively serve a church in15 hours or less, even if it’s a congregation of eight people.”
He also acknowledges a “self-imposed inferiority complex” that can get in the way of ministry. “Licensed Local Pastors struggle to see themselves as equal to and partners with ordained clergy.” Wicks calls himself a “Rudy Rasmus groupie.” Rasmus and his wife, Juanita, lead the 9,000 member St. John’s United Methodist Church in Houston; both are Licensed Local Pastors. “He is a hero of mine,” Jeremy says. “He shows all of us that if we have an issue with who we are as Licensed Local Pastors, we need to deal with that.”
At the same time, Jeremy also calls others to greater understanding of mutual ministry. “We talk about justice and equality a lot in the United Methodist Church,” he adds, “but justice and equality seem to apply to everything but the way we view the different ‘castes’ of ministers.” He would like everyone—licensed, ordained, lay—to recognize and live out their partnership. “We are all partners in ministry,” he claims, “from the church custodian up to the Bishop. When we cease to see ourselves as partners, we cease to do the work of building God’s Kingdom.”
Both sides of the pew
Sue Platt, pastor of Fremont Avenue UMC in Bay City, is an Associate Member of the Detroit Conference. She chairs their Fellowship of Local Pastors and Associate Members, having assumed the group’s leadership recently from Beth Librande.
Sue explains that she started ministry as a Licensed Local Pastors and then, through continued education, became an Associate Member. “I was asked the same questions as the Provisional Elders and now relate to the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry.” As an Associate Member Sue does have a guaranteed appointment and she will remain licensed after retirement. Local Pastors relate to the District Boards of Ministry and their license is discontinued upon retirement.
Sue spoke of national trends recently reported by the Lewis Center for Leadership. “There used to be five Elders to every Local Pastor,” she says. “Today there are two Elders to every Local Pastor.” She does cite dollars as a driver of this trend. “Insurance and decline in membership and giving have made it difficult for many churches to support a full-time pastor,” Sue notes. “In fact, my church can no longer support me in a full-time position so we may yoke with another congregation or I may go part-time.”
Economics aside, Sue believes Licensed Local Pastors bring significant gifts to those they serve. “We have been in business and we have been in the pews ourselves,” Sue says. “I have served on all those committees myself before becoming pastor, so I came to pastoral leadership with compassion and knowledge of the other-side-of the pew. That’s huge.”
Platt does acknowledge that while many seminary students have not had the advantage of sitting in a pew, the Local Pastor does not have the advantage of higher education. “The Course of Study School,” she notes, “provides good background and training” but lacks depth. She hopes that more Local Pastors will stay on the growing edge. “I especially pray that those who are licensed at a younger age will continue study and become Associate Members,” she adds.
Sue has been in Michigan for 12 years, having begun her pastoral journey elsewhere. “I have served in other conferences where Local Pastors are put down,” she remarks, “but I really respect the Michigan Area. I experience no division. The spirit among us is, ‘We are clergy.’”
Platt is excited that the John Wesley Association and the Fellowship of Local Pastors and Associate Members will meet together next year. She has already met with Jeremy Wicks and their respective boards are working toward a smooth transition into the new Michigan conference. Sue also meets with Joy Barrett (Order of Elders) and Laura Speiran (Order of Deacons) “working together for a great connectional system.” “We are all ordinary people with differing gifts,” Sue concludes, “just as Jesus’ disciples were ordinary people with a love for God and a desire to share the gospel.”
Blazing the trail
Ray McGee, started as a Licensed Local Pastor in 1995 and then was ordained an Elder in Full Connection in 2003. He now is the Senior Pastor of Detroit Metropolitan UMC and is the Director of the License to Preach School of the Michigan Area.
His history with the movement offers this perspective: “Twenty-five years ago the roll of the Local Pastor was seen as an option for the rural small-member church. I have seen it grow as Local Pastors have demonstrated skills and enormous passion. They have gained a sense of collegiality with Elders. I am excited about where this is going.”
In addition to directing the License to Preach School, Ray teaches the course in United Methodist Polity. “I work with a faculty second to none as we make sure to achieve the outcomes prescribed by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry,” he explains. Others on the faculty include Rick Blunt (WMC pastor teaching worship and preaching); Wes Brun (DAC pastor teaching spiritual care and counseling); and Pam Buchholz (DAC pastor teaching Christian Education). “It fuels my fire,” Ray says with enthusiasm, “when persons leave the class and a few years later you become aware of him or her as an effective pastor.”
Ray considers the Michigan Area as a trailblazer in the training of Local Pastors. First of all, the two conferences have been working together in this endeavor since 1992. Also, the Michigan Area has the only school in the nation with a one-week intensive course, held at Lake Huron Retreat Center in July. Four weekend schools, each focusing on a different area of proficiency complete the 80-hour licensing school. Those who graduate each November are able to move forward with the Course of Study recommended by the Board of Higher Education and Ministry once licensed and appointed. The 20 classes of the COS, taught at United Methodist seminaries, must be completed in five years by those serving full-time; 12 years for those serving part-time.
Like Sue Platt, Ray sees benefit in all levels of the academic process. “There is value in both the Course of Study and Seminary,” Ray reflects. “I just kept going and going with study. I went on to get my masters and my doctorate at Candler School of Theology. It has all helped me live out my call.” Experience in the work force was a plus, too. “Some of the skills I acquired at General Motors impact how I manage and lead in the church,” Ray says. “It has been a good journey melding those together.”
McGee hopes the church gets beyond misunderstandings of what a Local Pastor is. “Sometimes they are seen as lay preachers and that can be difficult,” he notes. “Such misconceptions can be challenging. We have local pastors barely out of high school and others who have doctorates in other fields.”
He warns against seeing Licensed Local Pastors as a cheap resource. “Such broad diversity and richness of life experience needs to be embraced by congregations,” he says. “If all pastors were white, male, and fresh out of seminary, we would be a terrible church,” he concludes. “We are a better denomination and conference because of the varying ages, multi-cultural backgrounds and walks of life God gives through Local Pastors.”
Last Updated on January 30, 2024