{"id":44685,"date":"2023-09-18T11:14:12","date_gmt":"2023-09-18T15:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/?p=44685"},"modified":"2023-10-13T16:09:45","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T20:09:45","slug":"a-pcusa-pastor-who-knows-how-to-ask-good-questions-of-the-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/resources\/news\/a-pcusa-pastor-who-knows-how-to-ask-good-questions-of-the-church\/","title":{"rendered":"\uad50\ud68c\uc5d0 \ub300\ud574 \uc88b\uc740 \uc9c8\ubb38\uc744 \ud560 \uc904 \uc544\ub294 \ubbf8\uad6d\uc7a5\ub85c\uad50 \ubaa9\ud68c\uc790"},"content":{"rendered":"

Presbyterian Foundation kicked off the third season of his \u201cLeading Theologically\u201d podcast on Wednesday looking at the joys of ministry alongside guest the Rev. Mark Ramsey, executive director of The Ministry Collaborative<\/a>. Listen to their 30-minute conversation here<\/a> or here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody I know asks better questions of the church than you do, Mark,\u201d Hinson-Hasty told Ramsey. \u201cYou don\u2019t hold back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ramsey served six congregations before being called to his current position six years ago. The Ministry Collaborative, a project of the Macedonian Ministry Foundation, helps pastors and congregations create leadership in their communities.<\/p>\n

Some of Ramsey\u2019s ministry posts proved more satisfying than others. \u201cI think of some of the relationships and some of the partnerships we did with civic organizations. It wasn\u2019t perfect, but there was something there that was a source of joy,\u201d Ramsey told Hinson-Hasty. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot on blogs about \u2018quit lit\u2019 and \u2018lament lit\u2019 from pastors, and I get that \u2026 It\u2019s a hard job and it\u2019s largely an underpaid job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYet the church is God\u2019s idea, and until God tells us the church is no longer God\u2019s idea, I don\u2019t think as a Christian I have any choice but to invest in it,\u201d Ramsey said. \u201cAs one who feels called to be a minister of word and sacrament, I don\u2019t have a choice but to find a place I can land and do something. That makes me come alive, even amidst all the pain and hardship.\u201d<\/p>\n

The challenges are especially acute for rural churches, Ramsey said. But despite how difficult ministry can be, \u201cI\u2019m seeing really faithful pastors day in and day out getting out and doing the work of ministry. Even though they\u2019re despairing what\u2019s next, they\u2019re doing it. That\u2019s a reason for both joy and gratitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ramsey and his wife, Elizabeth Lynn, write a blog they call \u201cDigging a Deeper Well<\/a>.\u201d They\u2019ve learned that \u201cone of the paths for pastors not to feel isolated is to figure out the most dynamic and generative way they can work with whatever group they\u2019re accountable to.\u201d That might be a session, council or vestry. \u201cQuit treating [meetings] like a [homeowners association] or a PTA meeting and go deep and use scripture,\u201d Ramsey suggested. \u201cAs the church has lost its cultural traction, which I think is a good thing, now we have to earn our own way at the civic table. We\u2019re not going to be given the clergy slot. It\u2019s a marvelous opportunity to put our heads down, do the hard but good work of ministry, and earn people\u2019s respect and the right to be heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty<\/em><\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n

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Hinson-Hasty asked: How do you describe what healthy engagement with the culture looks like?<\/p>\n

In some ways, \u201cI think we try to chase the culture sometimes,\u201d Ramsey said, figuring, \u201cwe\u2019ll just be the Christian version of what\u2019s popular in culture, and then people will come. I think culture has picked the carcass of the church clean, frankly. There\u2019s not much left \u2014 except Jesus, because the culture doesn\u2019t know what to do with Jesus, and that\u2019s all we need to be the church.\u201d<\/p>\n

Culture tells us \u201cWe are lonely, we are isolated, we\u2019re searching for a creative and imaginative way to live our lives, and we don\u2019t know where to go. Church is not even thought of in that equation as a possibility,\u201d Ramsey said. \u201cYou\u2019d think people would give church a glance.\u201d But when we greet visitors \u201cwith a signup sheet to be an usher, they are going to keep on going,\u201d Ramsey said.<\/p>\n

The cohorts formed by The Ministry Collaborative include 23 denominations and non-denominational groups, with 1,5000 pastors having been through the program or currently enrolled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited about what people are figuring out coming out of the pandemic about how to reconnect people with one another,\u201d Ramsey said. \u201cOur smallest church is a house church of 20, and our largest is a church with 6,000 people. I\u2019m seeing faith and vibrancy from every end of the spectrum. I\u2019m also seeing some really painful situations where things are not moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t trust anybody who says they know what the church will look like in five years. It\u2019s Mr. Toad\u2019s Wild Ride. Everything is up for grabs,\u201d Ramsey said. However, \u201cwhen God calls, God equips \u2026 My first question to pastors I am working with is, who\u2019s walking with you? Not just colleagues, but in your faith community. We don\u2019t give enough attention to partnering with faithful church folk who want to do this work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Presbyterian Foundation kicked off the third season of his \u201cLeading Theologically\u201d podcast on Wednesday looking at the joys of ministry alongside guest the Rev. Mark Ramsey, executive director of The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":44686,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}