From Farm to Table, From Pew to Pulpit

Local restaurants celebrate their “farm to table” practice of sourcing their food items from local farms. Sometimes, the restaurant will name the farmers in their menus. Dairy products are from this farm and eggs and chickens are from this farm. The restaurants are celebrating the absence of a middleman in the food preparation process. We know who grew this food and you, our customer, knows who prepared this food. 

There was nothing in the middle to mess things up. There are no long trips frozen in the trailer of some long-haul truck or countless days stored in boxes in some warehouse. Just a farmer bringing the food grown on their farm to the restaurant and prepared by our chefs in our kitchens. 

In reality, we’re following the farm to table philosophy in a lot of areas of our lives. We’re shopping locally. We’re going to school closer to home. Not only is it cheaper, but the quality of the education isn’t that much different from expensive and distant universities.  For a long time, leaving home was mandatory to young adults growing up. They had to leave and travel the world. They had to go to the big city or the large university to find themselves in their wilderness journey — however that journey may be experienced.  

Now, all of that is being called into question. A college degree and the life crushing debt it brings is being rethought. It’s no longer the presumed key to living the good life. Now, the high school graduate is rethinking whether or not to go to school to become an engineer. Why not stay home and become a certified plumber, electrician, software engineer or HVAC tech? 

Or a pastor?

Things are changing in the local church as well. No longer do we want or need our young ministers leaving home for four years of college and three years of seminary. We no longer have seven years to wait. Our young ministers need to go from call to service, from the pew to pulpit as fast as produce can go from farm to table. 

For generations, pastors were trained in their local congregations. Those seeking to become a pastor would work under an older pastor – even move in with them – and be trained by the old pastor. Following the tradition of the Jewish rabbis, students would actually live with their teachers. Recently, we have trained our pastors by sending them to seminaries and depending on the degree requirements, training them to be a pastor could take 3 or more years. 

There are two problems with this. 

First, every denomination is dealing with a decline in the number of people who desire to become a pastor. Churches must become much more intentional and consistent in identifying and encouraging their members to consider becoming a pastor. Then, pastors must prioritize the training and mentoring of the next generation of leaders for local congregations. 

Second, there are too many things left out of the seminary training of a young pastor. Leadership, financial management, non-profit law (yes churches are being sued) are completely absent from most seminary curriculums. Preaching a sermon for an academic chapel and one for the local community church aren’t the same thing. There is a skill in developing the mission strategy for a local church and training volunteers to accomplish that strategy. Most of these “life skills” are given little attention in seminary training. 

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Cutting edge pastoral training will soon be homegrown, just like our favorite restaurants. Pastors and churches must be much more intentional in the identification and training of members into pastors and ministry leaders. If we don’t, I’m not sure we have much of a future at all.