The Challenges of a third-generation minister
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2024 Blog #45
November 4, 2024
The Challenges of a third-generation minister
I spent a wonderful afternoon at the Upper Saddle River Reformed Church yesterday. Our Classis gathered to install a new minister as pastor of the church. The new minister was my daughter, Leah. With the classis were members of the local congregation as well as family and friends. My three grandsons were there. One was Leah’s son, and the other two were his two cousins. We all gathered to celebrate the beginning of a new ministry in this rather old congregation.
Of course, I was filled with joy. I have watched my daughter grow in faith for more than thirty years. I remember helping her through some of her college work as well as her seminary assignments. She has now been ordained for eleven years and is ready to start a new adventure in ministry in a new place.
As a surprise to Leah, my wife, Rev. Dr. Pamela Pater-Ennis, presented her with the hood that Pam’s father, wore when he was a minister. He was ordained in 1955. Leah begins her ministry as a third-generation minister in the Reformed Church in America. She faces challenges that her grandfather would never have dreamed about.
When he was ordained, congregations and Sunday Schools were full. The median age of our nation was lower than it is today. The post-World War Two baby boom was going strong. Denominations that were largely white, benefited from the high percentage of northern Europeans who inhabited the country at that time. Church attendance was part of the cultural expectation, and one would feel guilt for missing church. That is the culture that Leah’s grandfather ministered to. She ministers in a very different culture with very different demographics. And yet, she has heard God’s call and has responded.
She will have joys and sorrows in this ministry. She will have many frustrations when there will be struggles to balance budgets and when older members become tired and will be praying for younger ones to engage in the faith community. The ministry that I have known for forty years, and the ministry that she will know are very different from the ministry that her grandfather knew. No sane person would do this work without the assurance that God has called us and put us into such places.
So, what do we do? We support her with our prayers. We pray for God’s Holy Spirit to rest upon Leah and her new congregation, and that God will show them creative ways to do ministry in a different cultural context than our churches had when her grandfather began his work. Without prayer support and the Holy Spirit, all of us who do ministry would certainly despair.
May God bless Leah, and her new congregation richly in their new ministry together.
#ReformedChurchInAmerica # BergenCounty,NJ
#www.PastorMarkAuthor.com #www.markwilliamennis.com
#GlenRock,NJ #UpperSaddleRiverReformedChurch
#Calling #Ministry