An estimated 500 Alabama Baptist churches are currently without a pastor, with fewer and fewer candidates to consider. A new initiative, Calling Out the Called Alabama, hopes to encourage more people to respond to God’s call to ministry and to help them develop as future leaders.
Kevin Blackwell spoke on behalf of the Calling Out the Called Alabama launch team during the Nov. 12 afternoon session of the 2024 Alabama Baptist State Convention at Eastern Shore Baptist Church in Daphne.
Blackwell, disciple-making/teaching pastor at The Station Church in Bessemer, is part of a team of Alabama Baptist leaders who have been working on the new initiative under the leadership of Alabama Baptist State Convention President Craig Carlisle, director of missions for Etowah Baptist Association.
Blackwell hopes the new strategy will be a “game changer for our churches,” many of which are congregations that average less than 75 in worship and are seeking bivocational pastors.
“There is a growing number of open ministerial positions, particularly bivocational [ones], and a diminishing number of people responding to a call to ministry,” Blackwell said.
Blackwell said Carlisle and other associational leaders, pastors from around the state and Alabama Baptist state missionaries have met regularly over the past 18 months to “think deeply” about what they consider “an impending crisis in the Alabama Baptist Convention.”
He noted several reasons for the current situation, including efforts to return to normal following the pandemic and a lack of mentoring and discipling new believers. Another recent trend is that young people called into ministry often seek church planting or parachurch roles rather than pastoral paths.
Blackwell said Calling Out the Called Alabama is a strategic effort to stem the crisis, centered around four essential priorities:
- Praying for the Called.
- Petitioning the Called.
- Preparing the Called.
- Pursuing the Called.
A new website, callingoutthecalledal.org, will be an online hub for video content, events and other useful resources for pastors and future pastors, Blackwell said. In addition, the effort will include a new emphasis Sunday, Calling Out the Called Sunday, set for Aug. 10, 2025.
Team members asked Alabama Baptists to pray for the effort, for those who are currently discerning a call to ministry and those who are mentoring them, and for those who God will call in the future.
“Ask the Lord to grant to our convention success in increasing the number of people responding to the call of ministry,” Blackwell said.
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