Pastoral Ministry — But Not Only Pastoral Ministry

This essay responds to a recent article on pastoral care.

Cole Hartin is right. Of course he’s right. And yet, and yet. Why did his article leave me uneasy?

I think it is because, having worked in evangelistic ministry with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship for many years, and then having taught evangelism at Wycliffe College (Toronto) for a further twenty years or so, I came to feel there is an imbalance in our understanding of ministry, and Cole’s article clarified that feeling.

Early on, he refers to the congregation in which he grew up, whose leaders were “talented preachers, administrators, evangelists, and worship leaders.” Then he adds, “few of them, however, were pastors.” I try not to hear a note of criticism in this sentence, and I suspect Cole would speak warmly of these people. And yet, and yet.

Am I against pastoral ministry, or pastoral visiting? God forbid! I would not be here now were it not for fine pastoral care, even though it has very seldom involved visiting me in my home — and not always from my parish priest.

What troubles me, I suppose, is the absence of gifts other than pastoring and teaching among the leadership of Episcopal and Anglican churches in North America. Such was not the case in my growing up in the Church of England. My heroes and role models were evangelists, virtually all of them ordained Anglican priests, men (yes, all of them) who preached the gospel not only in their parish churches but in public places — universities, community centers, town halls, and marketplaces — literal marketplaces.

Older readers will be familiar with names such as David Watson, Michael Green, John Stott, Bryan Green, and others. All of them Anglican priests, and all fine and gifted evangelists. But where is their equivalent in the Anglican and Episcopal churches of North America? There have certainly been some in my limited experience in Ontario, such as Desmond Hunt, later bishop, who preached to businesspeople in the open air of downtown Toronto every Friday for many years. Then there was Harold Percy, rector of Trinity Anglican Church, Streetsville, who evangelized from the pulpit and through whom many people came to Christ and asked for baptism.

But who are their equivalents now, and where are they exercising their ministry? I would be delighted to hear that there are many of them, and that it is only my limited experience that means I don’t know their names. (Well, yes, even as a Canadian, I do know the name of Michael Curry!) Read More

Evangelistic leaders like David Watson, Michael Green, John Stott, Bryan Green, and others have been singularly lacking in the Anglican and Episcopal churches of North America. During the 1980s and 1990s it was to these leaders one had to turn to for inspiration and ideas. With a few exceptions interest in evangelism in the Episcopal Church was at a low ebb. Many Episcopal clergy treated the Decade of Evangelism as a joke. LGBTQ advocacy and inclusion would become the denomination's priority and would overshadow church expansion and evangelism. It would have a negative impact on church planting and church growth in the Diocese of Louisiana and Kentucky, the two Episcopal dioceses with which I am the most familiar. Some churches were slower to feel this impact than others but eventually it would be felt in these churches. My former parish would become a mission in a part of the state which is experiencing tremendous growth and is seeing the growth of a number of evangelical and Roman Catholic churches. My previous church would eventually experience a decline in attendance. While it has recovered to some extent from that decline, its attendance has not returned to earlier levels. Before conservative Anglicans pat themselves on the back for dodging this bullet, I must point to their attention that their preoccupation with partisan politics and partisan forms of churchmanship is also distracting them from prioritizing discipleship and evangelism and will also have a negative impact on church planting and church growth. They are free to disagree with my assessment but from what I am seeing, if Anglicans and Episcopalians wish to make a difference in North America, they need to make Jesus and his teaching their number one priority.