By Ed Thompson
In her first column in the alumni magazine, the new President of the College of William and Mary, Katherine Rowe, writes about “How Constraints Spark Creativity.” From her background as a scholar and teacher of Shakespeare’s plays, she explains that the reason so many of Shakespeare’s history plays feature kings and queens is because some of the only costumes available at that time were hand-me-downs from a royal household or noble family. She also notes that one of the reasons the College started admitting women in 1918 is because male enrollment had dropped precipitously due to the U.S. entry into World War I. I guess you could say they were more committed to financial solvency than they were to gender equity. Nevertheless, they did the right thing. She doesn’t say it, but I would guess one of the reasons the College keeps trying to tap me and my fellow alums for money in new and different ways is because the state of Virginia keeps cutting back the funding it provides for higher education.
Constraint sparks creativity for colleges and for churches. I’ve heard of one small church that didn’t have any kids, so rather than completely write off their Christian Education program, they decided to send the children in their neighborhood to camp at Bluestone. I’ve known a couple smaller churches that had a hard time finding an organist or even a pianist to play for worship. A couple of them bought an electronic organ of sorts that could play a certain number of hymns. (Maybe the hymns were actually on CDs. I don’t remember the details.) Another had downloaded their hymns onto a laptop. They then projected the words on a screen at the front of the sanctuary while they sang along to the music. The neat part about it was that the screen had a bouncing ball, and the words changed colors to indicate where you were in the song. The bad part was that every hymn sounded like a dirge. It was dreadful. However, they had decided it was better than singing acapella, which seemed like their only other option.
I’ve known several churches that only had a few teenagers each, so they created a combined youth group. Sometimes the churches were all Presbyterians. Sometimes a Presbyterian church joined with a nearby United Methodist church or a nearby Lutheran congregation to do youth ministry. I think the latter referred to themselves as Lutherterians.
For some churches, funding a full-time, seminary-trained minister can be expensive. Some churches have turned to Commissioned Ruling Elders. Others have turned to retired ministers willing to work part-time. Others have found neighboring churches with the same financial challenges that are willing to share the cost of a full-time pastor. (I generally say that while it can be difficult to find a full-time pastor, it’s even harder to find a part-time pastor.) Four churches in the Elkins area have joined together to call one full-time pastor. He preaches in two churches every Sunday and arranges for pulpit supply to preach at the other two churches that he can’t be at.
The Presbyterian Church of the Covenant in Grafton is a merger of a Presbyterian and a Lutheran congregation. They’ve been together I think since 1972. In Northern Kansas, where I served before coming back to West Virginia, we had several congregations that were the result of a merger between Presbyterian and United Methodist congregations. There were several more where Presbyterian and United Methodist churches shared a pastor. The one that sticks out for me was in Solomon, Kansas, where the Presbyterian and United Methodist churches were served by an American Baptist pastor. It was a part-time position, and he also worked as a janitor at a local high school.
The constraints we face are real. That doesn’t mean we have to give up. It doesn’t mean we have to engage in another round of weepy sentimentality about the “good ole’ days.” The reality is they may not have seemed as good at the time as we remember them to be. It’s probably also fair to say that people back them were facing a different set of constraints.
The eighth vow we take as ruling elders, deacons, and ministers of the Word and Sacrament asks, “Will you serve the people with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love?” I’ve italicized imagination because we need that now more than ever. Can we imagine doing things differently? Can we imagine working with other churches; sharing youth ministry, mission projects or mission trips; sharing a hunger project like a community garden or a food bank; sharing a church secretary, a janitor, an organist, or even (gasp) a pastor?
In the long run, constraints can be a good thing. They can inspire us to use our imagination and motivate us to share the resources we have to do ministry in new and creative ways.
What constraints are you facing? What can you imagine doing differently?