God's most favorite Church of God ever has admitted it's not as favored as they would like it to be. They continue to give the impression each week that they are the most unified and most awesome Church of God ever to exist, yet underneath that dirty facade is a crumbling superstructure that's aging and falling apart.
Roy Holladay from the United Church of God reports in the Nov 4th member news that the church is struggling to find members to ordain as leaders in its church.
We
in the home office administration would like to share with you some of
our manpower plans for serving our nearly 200 congregations and Bible
study groups in the United States. Several of our full-time pastors will
be retiring in the next several years after many decades of faithful
service. However, the work of leading and shepherding those
congregations must continue and we are asking God to show whom He may be
calling to serve in the pastoral ministry of His Church. It’s a very
important role. One of UCG’s goals from inception has been to give each
congregation a live speaker and not become merely a video or Internet
church of God.
As you may know, many of our congregations are quite
small, often with no more than 20 or 30 in attendance each Sabbath. Our
current model has been to give our full-time pastors two, three or four
of these smaller churches that may add up to a total attendance of
80-100. But this approach has significant drawbacks. The pastor may not
be able to visit any single congregation more than once or twice a
month. His travel incurs a great amount of mileage costs and takes a
physical toll on the elder and his wife. We believe there are other ways
to consistently and effectively serve our brethren in these small,
widely scattered congregations.
What we have been doing in some
areas, where there is a smaller congregation, is to find a qualified man
who is already gainfully employed (or retired), who could be appointed
as that congregation’s pastor at a part-time salary or volunteer basis.
Before assuming the pastor’s position, he will need to be mentored and
have online instruction in pastoral care to equip him with the tools and
knowledge for this service. As you know, there is a lot more to
pastoring than just speaking or visiting brethren. He would also have
access to a mentoring pastor, who would be familiar with his area and
would be available to advise and make occasional visits.
A part-time pastor serving only one congregation has the following advantages:
•
The pastor and his wife will have only one congregation to serve each
Sabbath. They will have more quality time with the brethren, knowing
that they do not have to leave quickly after services and drive many
miles to another church service.
• The pastor and his wife will be in
his congregation the vast majority of Sabbaths, which is not possible
for full-time pastors serving three or four churches.
• There will be
lower mileage reimbursement costs for distances traveled, which will
enable us to be wiser stewards of the money that God provides to care
for our members.
• The pastor and wife can develop closer relationships with the brethren because they live in the same geographical area.
• The pastor would not necessarily need to forsake his chosen career.
By August of 2013, Chris and Audra were divorced. Audra quickly recovered from the breakup, reportedly dating even before the ink was placed on the divorce decree and by February of this year was married to Edwin Van Horne. Since Edwin lives in the Netherlands and reportedly has stable employment, the Van Horne’s live there and Audra comes to the States occasionally to show the flag and be ordained to higher rank in the visiting room at a Federal Correctional Institution.
