The sheep are plentiful, but the shepherds are few
Time and again, NECF Malaysia has been asked to recommend people to fill up pastoral vacancies in churches. It seems there is an acute shortage of pastors, especially youth and children's pastors, in the Malaysian Church, Twelve years ago, NECF brought to-gether the heads of three local bible seminaries - Seminary Theology Malaysia, Malaysia Bible Seminary (MBS) and Bible College Malaysia (BCM) - to discuss why Christians are shunning the pastoral ministry and seek possible solutions to meet the demand for pastoral workers.
Since then, Rev. Bishop Dr Hwa Yung has gone on to become the bishop of the Methodist Church while Rev. Dr Tan Kim Sai and Rev. Ng Kok Kee are still heading MBS and BCM respectively.
Though the interview took place long ago, the interviewees' response reflects today's scenario. We reprint below extracts from the interview for your reflection and invite you to give your comments on www.necflc.blogspot.com
In your opinion, why are so few Christians entering full-time ministry nowadays (12 years ago!)?
Hwa Yung:
I would like to say that it is not only nowadays. Over the last 2,000 years, there have not been many Christians entering full-time ministry. It is only in special times of revival and in special situations when many people have moved into full-time ministry - for example, in the Korean Church over the last generation and also today, a lot of highly-qualified people have entered the full-time ministry. That is an exception rather than the norm. Throughout history, it has always been difficult to get the right people to go into the ministry. In the Malaysian context there are three main reasons.
The first reason is that going into the ministry always involves an element of sacrifice. That's always the tough part. If you look at the Malaysian Church, you will find that before 1970, there were very few university graduates moving into the ministry. Thankfully, the picture has changed over the 70s and 80s and people are coming to terms with (this) matter of sacrifice. But there remains a big issue. Why go into the ministry and have unreasonable elders/board members working over you when you yourself can become a millionaire at 30 years old? Why go into ministry when you are not sure whether you can send your children for university education? "Why go into the ministry when you may not even have a house to stay in? These are real questions involving sacrifice that people going into the ministry have to grapple with.
The second reason is the wrong notion that the full-time ministry is only for the drop-outs and non-performers. Istill remember one incident when a particular bishop was sitting with a group of friends and one of them complained about this son who was academically quite weak, as compared to the first daughter and second son who were doing well in their respective careers. He just didn't know what to do with him. "Perhaps Iwill send him to Trinity Theological College", he said. Of course he apologised profusely when he realised that the bishop was there. That unfortunately has been the image a lot of people have about the full-time ministry:
The third reason is the negative image of the ministry created by those of us who are in the ministry. Ministers have failed to uphold the dignity and image of the ministry and allowed themselves to be corrupted by money, sex and power. This problem can only be resolved by those of us in full-time work. We have to show to our church members that the calling to full-time ministry is something that we thank God for and something we deeply value. When people are touched by our life's example and also by our ministry, they too will want to enter the ministry.
Kok Kee:
In my denomination some 20 years ago (1970s), there was a high percentage of people who were willing to go into full-time ministry. But Ithink materialism has affected the church somewhat over the last 10 or 15 years and people are finding it harder to make that kind of sacrifice. A lot of my friends have become executives, driving imported cars and making their first million ringgit before they are 30. Going into the full-time ministry means that they have to sacrifice all these and people are finding it very hard to do so even though they say that they love God.
The more affluent you are, the harder it is for you to give up. An example that always intrigue me is that when you earn $100, it is easy to give $10. If you earn $1000, to give $100 away is not so bad; but if you earn $100,000 to give $10,000 can be real struggle. Ithink the affluence over the last few years has badly affected the church and many of our people are not willing to make the sacrifice.
Kim Sai:
All the factors and elements that have been mentioned are very real that made many that have been called not willing to give up. But I like to affirm what Hwa Yung has said earlier that one of the reasons why not many are willing to take up the challenge is the many problems, squabbles and fights that exist among the church leadership. If you were to ask around, many of those who are now serving in the ministry most probably come from non-Christian backgrounds, not knowing the many problems that they have in church!
They were challenged by the gospel and God's call and most innocently and zealously took up the challenge. But if we were to do a survey among the second or third generation Christians in the church, the number of them going into full-time ministry would most probably be very small - unless it is the very special work of the Lord.
In the face of so much church politics, problems and the lack of integrity and dignity on the part of pastors and church leaders, it is not surprising why second and third generation Christians are refraining from going full-time.
To reverse this trend, we as pastors and church leaders must sincerely serve the Lord in all that we do and be helpful to people in general. We need such godly role models in our church today to be the motivational force for more people to enter the full-time ministry.
What can be done to arrest the decline of Christians going into full-time ministry?
Hwa Yung:
From the mainline church's point of view, Iwon't say that there is a decline in Christians going into the full-time ministry because the number has never been very high in the first place. From our observation, the quality of people who have come to our seminary has gradually risen. Generally speaking, more mature people and some with university or other professional backgrounds have entered full-time ministry. Iwould also like to point out something that Kok Kee has brought out earlier, that is rightly or wrongly, some churches perceive that seminary training is not very useful.
They think that studying theology is a waste of time. But the quality of preaching and messages in our churches today is generally very poor because full-time workers and even pastors don't have a solid understanding of the Bible, church history and theology.
On the other hand, the seminaries have themselves to blame because we have locked ourselves too much into the Western model of training which is basically very academic. We are still wrestling with this problem and slowly getting ourselves out of it because it is not an easy task.
For example, there is not a single textbook on Systematic Theology which relates to Asian society, culture and the needs of our society. Most books are neither written in the Asian context nor pastorally-orientated. Hence, we hear complaints from church leaders who say that there are workers who have been to seminary for four years who cannot even conduct a proper Bible study. Iam not saying that seminaries have not done their jobs but that they are doing their best within their limited resources because most of the text-books are from the West.
Kim Sai:
So in this regard, there is a need not only for godly role models, that is, pastors and preachers who have immediate influence over the potential people who may be called to serve the Lord full-time, but also the need for role models of theological educators and scholars to improve the situation.
Kok Kee:
I like to emphasise that role models are very important. The role model may not necessarily be a dynamic preacher, great administrator or the person who is always up front, but one who makes an impact on the church members' lives - the godly pastor. He is the one whose life the church members want to emulate.
Hwa Yung:
In this regard, Ithink of Rev. Peter Hsieh. Everywhere that he has gone and pastored, many people have gone into full-time ministry. The Air Itam Methodist Church in Penang alone has produced quite a number of pastors because of his influence. In the West, we can think of the Guinness' and Hudson Taylor's families where successive generations of them have gone into mission fields. I think one test as to whether the person has a real calling to full-time ministry is whether he really desires and prays for his own children to go into the full-time ministry too. We need to build up such traditions in our country.
Some of the reasons we discussed earlier on why people are not going into full-time ministry are the same reasons why we don't have such traditions in Malaysia. Ihave people who say to me, "I saw what my father went through as a pastor and Itold myself that Iwill never become a pastor." I think it is partly the church's fault for we have not really taken care of those who are in the ministry. It is also partly our fault - we have not shown ourselves to be godly role models.
Kok Kee:
One way to compensate for this lack of godly role models is to challenge our people to read biographies of outstanding men and women of God and understand some of the sacrifices that they have made in serving God as missionaries and so on. Our people are reading too much 'junk' in the form of all these 'bless me' stuff.
|
