According
to a recent study, 80% of U.S. companies encourage the hiring of married
couples. Businesses have discovered
that couples working together are less likely to move, stay longer, and
complain less about longer hours. What’s true of businesses is also true of
local churches. Clergy couples who work
within the same congregation bring stability to the congregation and find
satisfaction in their own personal lives.
That has certainly been our experience.
During our twenty-three years together as a clergy couple, we have
served thirteen years as co-pastors.
Looking back, being co-pastors brought significant advantages to us as a
couple, as parents, and as leaders of a congregation.
So
what are the administrative possibilities of being co-pastors in the same
congregation? We begin by acknowledging
that administration is a ministry of shepherding a staff and a whole
congregation. This ministry of
directing ministry is just as significant as visiting in a hospital or leading
a Bible study.
We
have served as co-pastors in three very different congregational settings. Our first parish was a co-operative parish
of seven churches in the North Carolina mountains. We and a 15 hour a week secretary were the entire staff. Our churches ranged in size from seven
members to one hundred members. Each of
us preached every week in at least two congregations. In this mountain setting, we determined each week who would be
responsible for the pastoral care of a particular congregation and
community. Over the course of several
weeks, each of us would visit in all seven settings. If one of us was visiting in one hospital, the other would visit
in another hospital. In administration,
Andy would work with the finance committees of the congregations, while Sally
focused on the co-operative emergency food and clothing center. We rarely attended the same church committee
together. The major administrative
difficulty was keeping seven churches working together; the advantage we
brought was that we were in constant communication with one another.
We
also served as co-pastors of a small-town congregation of eight hundred
members. We began in that ministry with
three part-time support staff, plus three preschool staff. We ended that ministry with four full-time
staff, plus fifteen preschool/daycare staff.
Generally, we alternated preaching week by week.
In
administration, while Andy worked with a building committee, Sally organized
the church in its work with the local homeless shelter. Andy supervised the custodian and
musician. Sally supervised the
secretary and Christian educator. In
the first year of our ministry, both of us attended almost every committee
meeting of the church. By the second
year, we had divided the committee work and were only attending together the
meetings of the administrative body of the church and the building committee. We worked hard to keep the church moving
forward, and because we were initially the only professional staff, we
unfortunately rarely took a day off.
Our
current setting is in a congregation of fourteen hundred members with nine
full-time staff and a very large preschool program. In this situation, we serve as the senior co-pastors. Again, we generally alternate preaching week
by week, but also share in worship leadership with other staff.
In
this more complex organization, Andy supervises the associate pastor, the
musicians, and the support staff; Sally supervises the program staff with
children, youth, and adults. While all
staff may drop in and visit either of us for any reason, only one of us is
responsible for the evaluation and direct supervision of a given staff member. In this setting, we began our work by dividing
the labor of a senior pastor rather than spending the whole first year doing
all the work together. In this
situation, we have found it physically, mentally, and spiritually necessary,
and possible, to take a day off each work week.
An
example of co-operative work relates to the selection of new staff. When we needed a new minister with youth,
Sally led the search committee and did the leg-work in selecting final
candidates. Both of us, however,
interviewed together (and outside the selection committee) the final candidates
and reached consensus about strengths and weaknesses of the candidates, as well
as letting the candidates get to know us.
The
major issue is communication. Each of
us must alert the other to major decisions yet-to-be-made and then the
decisions that are made. Each of us
must know what the other, and his or her areas of ministry, are doing, but not
in exhaustive detail. In every setting,
we must trust the ability of the other.
Even more importantly, we must share the same vision for the
congregation. Every administrative
decision must be made with the same vision in mind.
Sally
and Andy Langford, Senior Co-Pastors
St.
Stephen United Methodist Church, Charlotte, NC