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[Just a Shepherd]

Originally Posted by Michael Phelps

Ok, let me offer two scenarios, apropos to young ministers going to Bible College vs. secular college, and this whole concept of "getting rich".

SCENARIO A:
John Doe feels a call to the ministry. He goes to an unaccredited Bible school for 4 years, gets a diploma in Theology, and decides that he wants to plant a church. He gets to Metropolis with his young wife and possibly young child in tow, and sets about to find a job.

Let's stop right there. That is improper planning. First of all, John shouldn't be going to plant a church in a city when he has a wife, a young child, and can barely support them. This is the typical "thrown to the lions" UPC mentality. His Bible college education shouldn't get in the way of his making a good living. He should have better plans for supporting a family than "looking for a job."

Since he has no degree, he will most probably have to settle for a lower paying job, most likely in manufacturing or service industry work. He may make 8-10 dollars per hour, and very possibly will have to work shift work to start. He barely makes ends meet, the support he gets from Home Missions doesn't do much to help him rent a building, he has very little time to evangelize his community due to his varied work schedule. He gets discouraged after a while, and gives up on his vision of building a church in said city.

Well, this is the current model that the UPC uses. Pretty dumb huh?

SCENARIO B:

John Doe feels a call to the ministry and knows that he will be planting a church. He goes to secular college and receives a degree in accounting/engineering/business administration, _____________ (fill in the blank). He arrives in Metropolis, is offered a position with a good company making 56k per year, working Monday thru Friday with great benefits. He now has time to spend his evenings teaching Bible Studies, he can not only support his family, but can contribute his own money to purchase, renovate and insure a building.

This is a great fairy tale but in reality it doesn't work out very often. Most jobs like this are going to be very demanding emotionally and in addition to shouldering the load of a planting a church, John is going to have the added pressure of swiming with the corporate sharks.

His church begins to grow, because he has an opportunity to invest his personal time into his ministry and in time the congregation grows to the point that he can leave his secular job and become a full-time pastor. Two years down the road, John Doe experiences some financial difficulty, due to members moving away, some may become disgruntled, etc.........but, his experience and education allow him to re-enter the secular work force on a part-time basis until things stabilize.

In reality, his church might suffer as much as the first "John" because he isn't going to have the energy or emotional capitol to invest in teaching bible studies every night of the week (at least not if he wants to maintain his mariage). Secondly, he will have a very hard time giving up a stable career making $50,000 plus with benefits for a full time pastorate that is not as stable. Your scenarios are good fodder for discussion but rarely is anything that cut and dried.

Now, I realize that this is not the case with every church planter, but it's happened more often than not in my experience.

And, as my good friend Newman would say, I rest my case!

There is a better way to plant a church than either of the two scenerios that you came up with. It's just that the UPC is stuck in this mode of accepting the numerous failures of church planting and never wanting to address the issue. I would be surprised if they even kept records of their success/failure rate.

McDonalds is successful because they know every detail of what it takes to operate a successful franchise. The UPC is willing to accept the same sorry results year after year. Truly, the children of this world are wiser than than the children of light...