Craig Carlisle believes the congregational landscape is in crisis due to a dearth of pastors to lead churches.
“Thom Rainer is the first I heard who called attention to this in 2011 when he wrote about baby boomer pastors [born 1946–64] retiring,” Carlisle, president of the Alabama Baptist State Convention, told pastors from Birmingham Metro Baptist Association Oct. 30. “Churches will search longer than expected for new pastors and find it more stressful and more challenging than ever before.
“One of our churches has been searching for three years for a pastor.”
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Carlisle has been director of missions for Etowah Baptist Association for eight years, coming from a 10-year pastorate at 12th Street Baptist Gadsden — his boyhood church.
“I remember my pastor, Troy Morrison, often giving an invitation to young men considering a career in pastoral ministry,” Carlisle recalled. “I think this has almost disappeared, but I encourage pastors to do this today — and also to tell young men that you can have a career and be a pastor. Fifty-five of our churches in EBA have part-time or bivocational ministers.”
Carlisle noted that Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina, said the six Southern Baptist Convention seminaries have a combined enrollment of 13,000 students, down from 17,000 five years ago; 3,000 are in undergraduate colleges now part of the seminaries, and 50% are non-resident and study online.
“Dr. Akin said that less than 50% of our seminary students plan to seek established pastorates,” Carlisle lamented. “They want to do church plants or work in parachurch organizations. And 25–30 % are females who are studying for other ministry roles.
“Many of the current students in seminary aren’t there to ‘finish’ their calling but to ‘find’ their calling.”
Overlooked ministry
Carlisle said one of the major issues is that the work of bivocational ministers has often been overlooked.
“One is no less a minister if he serves a church part-time,” Carlisle asserted. “When I was in seminary my idea was ‘full-time or bust,’ but this isn’t as realistic today. Men can feel called to law enforcement or teaching or other vocations and feel called to serve as pastors, too. I think we’ve done a poor job of emphasizing this. Bivocational ministers are overworked, underserved and under-appreciated.”
The call to missionary service is wonderful, but “we have missions fields across our counties, too,” Carlisle added.
This burden led Carlisle to meet with Scott Guffin and Kevin Blackwell at Samford University, and for a larger discussion with leadership of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions. From these came the first “Calling Out the Called” emphasis Aug. 10.
“I heard from several churches in which young men answered the call to ministry, and I trust there were many more,” Carlisle noted. “But it doesn’t have to be young men who answer this call. Older men can respond to God’s call to be pastors or other ministers in our churches.”
Compelled to share vision
Another idea under consideration is to have bivocational “hubs” in each of the 12 districts in Alabama, with something of a residency, Carlisle said.
“Men wouldn’t have to move to these areas, but they would get training and encouragement from larger churches with resources to do so,” he explained.
Carlisle also envisions the posting of a sermon library with Bible study outlines bivocational pastors could draw from to write their own material.
Concluding with a familiar scripture passage, Carlisle told the group, “Paul asked in Romans 10, ‘How can they hear without a preacher?’ My heart breaks when I think about our need, and I’m compelled to share my vision with others who will help ‘call out the called’ to do God’s work.”
Carlisle’s convention presidency will conclude at the annual meeting at Whitesburg Baptist Church in Huntsville Nov. 11–12. He would like to share his vision with the larger denomination and hopes to do so in his new role as second vice president of the SBC.
More information is available at callingoutthecalledal.org.
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