February 3, 1999

Wanted: Ministers really
willing to go wherever he leads
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___COMANCHE--Should a seminary degree mean a ticket to a position in a large urban church?
___That's the impression members of First Baptist Church in Comanche are getting, and it's making them frustrated. The rural church--located 30 miles from the nearest Wal-Mart--has been searching for an experienced seminary-trained minister of youth and education for a year-and-a-half.
___The central Texas church has engaged in serious conversation with four potential candidates they hoped would come to Comanche. Yet the post remains vacant. The reason, according to Pastor Van Christian, is the church's rural location.
___"We've been very serious, we think, with at least four candidates," Christian said. "In all those cases, the overriding factor was where we are."
___Three candidates for the position have visited the church, raising hopes in the congregation that a match finally had been found. "But when they got here, they just weren't the least bit interested in coming to Comanche," the pastor said.
___Now the strong rural congregation--averaging 300 people in morning worship and offering a competitive salary package--can't even get new seminary graduates to talk with them.
___"Out of the last batch of resumes we got from Southwestern Seminary, we contacted five we thought were the best we'd ever seen," Christian said. "All five refused even to interview with us, based solely on location."
___That's frustrating to both the congregation and the pastor, who holds a doctor of philosophy degree from Southwestern.
___"Some people within the church have really gotten down on the community," Christian explained. "They think we need to lower our standards. Their thought has been nobody good is going to come here. I've tried to shake them of that, but it does get a little depressing."
___Sometimes, it makes Christian question whether young ministers are really listening to the call of God as much as they claim to be.
___He recalled losing his patience with one soon-to-be seminary graduate who said he wouldn't consider serving in Comanche. "I asked him about the line on his resume that said, 'I'll go wherever God calls.' I told him that wasn't a true statement and he ought to change it."
___Many ministers say they'll go wherever God leads, "but that's not true," Christian asserted. "They've set their minds that there are certain places they won't go."
___That's an increasing problem as more ministerial candidates come out of larger churches and more urban churches, while thousands of rural churches still seek leadership.
___"The guys I know struggle a lot at this point," said Gary Farley, a national consultant on rural church issues and director of missions for Pickens Baptist Association in Alabama. "They're wanting to be faithful to God, and yet they struggle with their family relationships and responsibilities as well."
___The problem is not only getting seminary-trained pastors to rural settings, but getting them to stay once they've arrived, Farley said. Many view these out-of-the-way churches as stepping stones to larger and more urban churches, he said.
___"How God works in all that, I don't think there's any pat answer," Farley said. "Sometimes, guys feel God wants them to stay, and there's other times guys bail out. And there's still other times when God does move them."
___The struggle for city-bred students to move into rural churches is a real phenomenon, affirmed Michael Morgan, associate dean of Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University and former placement officer with Southwestern Seminary.
___"I think there is a hesitance sometimes from prospective students who have been raised in a city to go into a rural area," he said. "They don't really know how to live in a rural area."
___The factors that make rural ministry appear less appealing in today's urban-driven world are multiple, according to Morgan and Farley.
___Farley recalled the story of a pastor whose wife worked as an engineer at General Dynamics in Fort Worth while he attended seminary. When they accepted a rural pastorate, there was no place like General Dynamics for her to work. "She struggled with using her God-given abilities," Farley said.
___And for most people raised in a city, the slower, more isolated life of the country is daunting, said a Texas director of associational missions.
___Yet rural ministry can be rewarding, according to those who have experienced it. The slower pace and the close-knit communities offer many benefits, they report.
___Christian said he understands the feeling some in his congregation have that "no one good wants to come here," but he also bristles at that suggestion sometimes.
___And on occasion, he only half-jokingly reminds them, "I wanted to come here."

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