COMMITTEE ON CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FEATURE

At the time of writing, the OPC’s list of vacant pulpits has twenty-nine openings—about one-tenth of all OPC congregations and the highest number in several decades. (Not all openings are for solo-pastor positions.) Our brothers and sisters in the Presbyterian Church in America have calculated a need for 220 new ministerial candidates annually over the next ten years (for context, Reformed seminaries graduated only about 180 MDiv students this past year). Twenty percent of the pulpits in the United Reformed Church are vacant. The Evangelical Presbyterian Church, with over 600 congregations, reports that nearly 50 percent of its ministers plan to retire in the next five years. In other words, the OPC is not an anomaly, and there is not a bucket of spare Reformed ministers “out there” to meet the need for pastors, church planters, and foreign missionaries.

Though I hope these statistics stir us, we should not find the need for more laborers novel or unanticipated. Didn’t our Lord say that “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Matt. 9:37)? Whatever the present need, the church has a continual interest in seeing a growing number of gospel ministers in the fields for the gathering and perfecting of the saints to the glory of God.

A Big Opportunity for a Small Church

The OPC has never been numerically large or outwardly glorious. And yet, several observers have noted that the Lord has been pleased to use the efforts of this modest part of his church in noticeable ways. One historian has called the OPC “the pea beneath the mattress . . . very small, but it is rock solid and undeniably there.” A fraternal delegate to general assembly once remarked that the denomination “punches above its weight class.” These comments, I suspect, are owed to the outsized influence the OPC has due to the gift of the theology represented within our ranks.

The present situation presents an opportunity for the OPC to “punch above its weight class” in another way. The need within our own denomination for pastors, church planters, and foreign missionaries is significant. That need extends to our siblings in sister denominations. What if the OPC’s outsized influence extended to the supply of qualified, faithful, and competent ministers, so that we provided not only for the needs of our own churches but also contributed to the needs of others?

Steps for the Whole CHurch

There are a few steps the whole church can take toward that end.

• Pray. The Lord Jesus Christ is head of his church, and he has promised to build it (WCF 25:6; Matt. 16:18). Apart from him we can do nothing (John 15:5). In keeping with Jesus’s instruction, pray that the Lord of the harvest would raise up more laborers for the harvest—including those currently preparing for ministry—in your private, family, and public worship.
• Watch. Look around you. Are there men in your congregation who meet the qualifications for ordained office and evidence the gifts for pastoral ministry (1 Tim. 3)? Often in our context, the internal sense of calling to ministry precedes external prompting or recognition, but not always. An external prompting may spark an internal desire.
• Encourage. A decision to pursue a call to ministry does not ordinarily come after one conversation. Nor will one conversation sustain a candidate through their preparation. Before seminary, during seminary, and even after graduation, men can wrestle with doubts, nerves, and other obstacles that threaten to derail them. The encouragement and feedback from fellow believers plays a significant role in helping candidates to persevere, clarify their sense of call, and shape their pastoral skills and instincts.
• Give. The Reformed tradition has always placed a significant value on well-prepared ministers who know the Scriptures, are theologically grounded, and are skilled in pastoral practice. The OPC and other conservative Presbyterian denominations continue to affirm this value, ordinarily requiring candidates for ordination to obtain a Master of Divinity degree. This preparation takes significant financial resources, both for the students and for the institutions who train them. If you are able, consider giving above your tithe to support seminaries and scholarship funds.

Consider the Ministry Yourself

If you are someone who meets the qualifications for office, consider whether you might be called to ministry. An often-repeated bit of advice goes like this: “If you can do anything other than ministry, do it.” (Had John Calvin followed this advice, he might have contented himself with practicing law.) To be sure, those in ministry should have a desire to minister. But this advice should be balanced by another perspective: If the Lord has given you the gifts to minister his Word, cultivate them for use!

If you think this might be you, talk to your session. Your pastor and elders are uniquely positioned to help you explore whether you should take further steps in preparing for ministry. They will likely offer some reading suggestions and may encourage you to come under the care of your presbytery as a ministerial candidate.

If you are younger than twenty-five, consider attending the Timothy Conference. It is designed to help young men explore preparation for and the practice of ministry in the OPC. If you are somewhere above twenty-five, don’t think you are too old to consider ministry. At the seminary in which I serve, Reformed Theological Seminary, the median student age is thirty-four, and our oldest student is seventy-six!

One article would not be sufficient to address the challenge before the OPC and its Presbyterian siblings. The need for ministers, however, is surely critical, for “how then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Rom. 10:14–15).

The author, a ruling elder at Reformation OPC in Oviedo, Florida, is chief enrollment management officer at RTS.