“News for Two” is an informal e-mail newsletter that seeks to provide ministry to couples engaged in, or interested in, “Shared Pastoral Ministry.” The purpose of the “Two by Two” network, is to facilitate dialogue between couples involved in Shared Pastoral Ministry, so I encourage your response to any of the articles found below. A list of all of the couples in “Two by Two” can be found on the website under “The Network Database.”
The Summer Edition: This edition will examine several aspects of “Worship” from a perspective of Shared Pastoral Ministry. The CONTENTS lists a brief description of the ARTICLES that are found below.
Russ Dean, Editor
August 3, 2001
www.parkroadbaptist.org - click the link for “A Network for Shared Pastoral Ministry”
1. A Retreat
I’ve had a commitment from several couples, and have room for several more. Come spend a few days in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. The cost for the Monday-Tuesday, September 10-11 retreat is only $50.00. For more information, see the link on the website.
2. Mixed Reception for the Idea of Co-Pastors
How open are churches to Shared Pastoral Ministry? Here are some statistics from a 1994 survey in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
3. A Call to Worship and Sermon
Serving together allows for creative elements in worship. The Deans used a musical Call To Worship to introduce worship on their first Sunday together in Shared Pastoral Ministry, and employed the elements of the Call to Worship in the sermon itself.
4. On Celebrating Communion Together
A new book edited by Linda McKiernan Allen features worship outlines and includes a communion meditation. Serving communion together is an important way for couples involved in ministry to present for their congregation the “full image of God.”
I am interested in collecting sermons related to the subject of Shared Pastoral Ministry. If you have preached a sermon “defending” our ministry, or on aspects related to ministering “together,” and would be willing to send them, please let me know. I would love to post them to the website. Amy Jacks Dean recently preached from the text which provides the title of my Doctor of Ministry project, and summarizes all of our ministry together, Luke 10.1-11. The sermon can be found on the website: www.parkroadbaptist.org. Follow the link to “A Network for Shared Pastoral Ministry,” and click on the page for “Article and Resources.”
The conclusion of the worship service is an important time to empower of the congregation to go into the world, afresh and renewed, ready to serve God together. Here is an example of a benediction designed specifically for a Shared Pastoral team.
7. A Little Poetry for the Road
8. The Database
Since the May newsletter, the Database has grown. Please check out the website for the e-mail addresses for 40 couples around the country. In addition to these addresses, I need to begin collecting some more detailed data from you. I hope you will respond to a database the form that I will be sending in the next few weeks.
9. The September Edition of “News for Two” – Marriage
What are your secrets to keeping your marriage strong? Are there particular issues which you would like to see addressed? I’d love to hear from you before the end of August.
ARTICLES
September 10-11, 2001 (Monday-Tuesday) at Camp Rockmont for Boys in Black Mountain, NC we will meet for a casual getaway. There will be lots of time for rest and relaxation, and we will meet for two informal sessions to discuss issues relevant to our ministry. The cost of the retreat is only $50 per couple. Several couples have expressed interest, but I need a confirmation from you soon. For more information, see the website: www.parkroadbaptist.org and the link on the lower-left for “A Network for Shared Pastoral Ministry.”
“After defining co-pastors as two pastors filling equal full-time positions, we asked panelists how receptive they thought their congregations would be to hiring co-pastors. One-half of elders (48%), 40% of members, 35% of pastors, and 30% of specialized clergy said their congregations would not be receptive to this idea. (Respondents who said their congregations cannot support two pastors – that is, one-third of members, pastors, and specialized clergy and one-half of elders – were excluded from these analyses.) Less than 10% of panelists said their congregations currently have co-pastors” (http://www.pcusa.org/cmd/rs/pp1194.htm).
I have not conducted any “hard research” on the subject, but at a recent meeting of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, 37 people attended a break-out session that was led by three active Baptist co-pastoral couples. There is certainly a growing interest among Baptist clergy couples in our model of leadership. This week, a couple now serving as co-Associate Pastors, contacted me to say that they were in conversation with two Baptist churches in North Carolina. I believe that there is also an increase in the number of congregations who will consider Shared Pastoral Ministry for their congregation. (Russ Dean)
Since Amy and I have a great interest in music, and at least some aptitude there, we have often employed music into our ministry. We are careful not to overdue this in worship, but find that music provides a wonderful avenue of speaking our message with a different voice. On the first Sunday in our current church (which is the first church we have served together), following the organ prelude, we began our Call to Worship from the rear of the sanctuary. With one of us standing in each aisle, we processed into worship singing alternating lines of a wonderful Gospel-style chorus which had been written by a roommate of Russ’s from college. It should be noted that our church is not a Gospel-music church. We used an organ, the latest hymnbook from the United Church of Christ, and our choir sings a purely classical or high-sacred choral repertoire. But, the words fit and message were well-received as we sang:
We have come to hear the Gospel
We have come to sing the songs
And when we leave we will not be the same
We gather here without the fear that judgments will be made
And celebrate the grace by which we’re changed
And celebrate the grace by which we’re changed.*
(Kyle Matthews, Not Normal Music)
That morning’s sermon was entitled “Why have you come here?” In it, we preached together (both standing at the pulpit), and we employed the main phrases of the opening Call to Worship as the emphases of the sermon. We also incorporated a good deal of “dialogue” in the sermon as we transitioned from one voice to the other. We have found that preaching together, on occasion, is a wonderful opportunity to literally display the kind of mutuality that we preach, philosophically. The sermon can be found on the website, also: www.parkroadbaptist.org (follow the link to “A Network for Shared Pastoral Ministry,” and on the “Articles and Resources page, the sermon is under “Network Articles.” (Russ Dean)
*The music for this piece can be obtained through Kyle’s website at: www.kylematthews.com.
Celebrating Covenant, A Resource for Worship, edited by Linda McKiernan-Allen, features fifteen outlines for services of worship. The passage for each worship service is a biblical text related to the scriptural theme of covenant. “Each chapter includes a call to worship, an opening prayer, a prayer of confession, words of assurance, prayers of the people, a children’s sermon, two sermon starters, an offering meditation, and offering prayer, a communion meditation, and a benediction. Also included is a list of hymn and anthem suggestions” (taken from the book’s back cover). The salient feature of the book for “Two by Two” is that each chapter is written by a male and a female, as a ministry team. Only a few of these couples serve together as “co-pastors” (many are not married), yet all of the chapters make clear the legitimacy and impact of integrating voices, female and male, in worship planning and implementation.
I was happy to find this resource by Linda McKiernan-Allen (who served as a co-pastor with her husband, Ron, for five years). Particularly interesting to me is the fact that each chapter includes a “communion meditation,” because this reminded me of a conversation that I had with Dr. Paul Duke several years ago. Amy and I had begun considering our “dream” very seriously, and I was speaking with Paul about our vision for Shared Pastoral Ministry. He spoke eloquently about the need for such ministry and especially of the visual importance of a man and woman serving communion together. He used the phrase “the full image” of God, which has become a cornerstone in our “defense” of Shared Pastoral Ministry. I believe his direct quote was, “Never should communion be served without a man and a woman, representing the full image of God, at the table.” We do find that participating together in the “sacramental” moments of worship – communion, baptism, weddings, funerals, parent/child dedications, etc… is particularly moving and instructive to our congregation. Paul Duke and Stacy Simpson Duke now serve together as the Pastors of Ann Arbor Baptist Church in Ann Arbor, Michigan (see the database for an address).
Amy Jacks Dean recently preached from the text which provides the title of my Doctor of Ministry project, and summarizes all of our ministry together, Luke 10.1-11. The sermon can be found on the website: www.parkroadbaptist.org. Follow the link to “A Network for Shared Pastoral Ministry,” and click on the page for “Article and Resources.”
Amy and I conclude each morning worship service with a benediction that we speak while walking down the parallel aisles of our sanctuary. At this point in the service, we cut off our microphones so the sound of our voices travels “among the people.” After nine-months of pronouncing the same benediction, many of our members tell us it is the most important part of the service for them. There is something powerful about this moment: our physical closeness to the people, the eye-contact we are able to enjoy, and the antiphonal sound of our very different voices all add to the beauty of this time of departure. A benediction is not so much a prayer, proper, as it is a “good word” spoken as we leave. We conclude our service by saying, “The final word is not ours, but the Lord’s…”
(Russ) May the Lord bless you and keep you,
(Amy) May God=s face shine upon you
And may God be gracious to you.
May God give you grace this day:
To love with all your heart,
That you might do justice;
To love with all your soul,
That you might show mercy;
To love with all your mind,
That you might walk humbly with your God.
As you go into the world this day, dear friends,
Love the Lord Your God with all your strength
And love your neighbor as yourself.
Taken from Mark 12.30 and Micah 6.8 and used by Russ and Amy Jacks Dean, Pastors, Park Road Baptist Church, Charlotte, NC.
Do you have a benediction or other liturgical expressions that have become important in your worship together? Would you share them with the network?
7. A Little Poetry for the Road
From the fourth of T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets,” these often quoted lines have no specific bearing on Shared Pastoral Ministry, but they do speak powerfully of the mystery of love. It is this deep mystery that motivates and gives life to our worship.
The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre –
To be redeemed from fire by fire.
Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire.
Since the May newsletter, the Database has grown. Please check out the website for the e-mail addresses of 40 couples around the country. In addition to these addresses, I need to begin collecting some more detailed data from you. I hope you will respond to a database the form that I will be sending in the next few weeks.
9. The September Edition of “News for Two” – Marriage
What are your secrets to keeping your marriage strong? Are there particular issues which you would like to see addressed? I’d love to hear from you before the end of August.