Today, there is a shortage of good men to serve as pastors in Jesus’ church. Regularly, I field phone calls and emails from members of search committees asking for suggested candidates. Some congregations are discouraged because of the apparent lack of men who would fit their particular need and situation. The crisis is now. But a greater crisis is also looming, at least in the RPCNA.

When [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’ Matthew 9:36-38 (ESV)

Would you resolve  to pray afresh in 2018 that the Lord of the harvest would raise up laborers to go out into the harvest?

I sense that in the denomination in which I serve, the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, we have ceased to take Jesus’ call to prayer for laborers as seriously as we ought in recent years. Brothers and sisters in other churches may be flagging as well.

Today, there is a shortage of good men to serve as pastors in Jesus’ church. Regularly, I field phone calls and emails from members of search committees asking for suggested candidates. Some congregations are discouraged because of the apparent lack of men who would fit their particular need and situation.

The crisis is now. But a greater crisis is also looming, at least in the RPCNA.

Our denomination reached a similar crisis point nearly 30 years ago. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the church felt the need for more laborers. With the presentation of the RPCNA Home Mission Board’s vision for “Seven More By Ninety-Four” (seven more congregations by 1994), there was an urgent call for prayer that the Lord would raise men up for ministry.

I was young then, but the Lord used the prayers of the church. The words prayed in my hearing (and through my own lips) impressed a Spirit-shaped mark upon my soul that was part of my calling to pastoral ministry. Not only was I called, but many men were called. Many pulpits were filled. More churches were planted.

God’s answer at that time, ironically, is part of the looming crisis today. He sent out laborers. By my rough count, about 40% of the active pastors in the RPCNA today were born in a ten year window between 1975-1984;  all of these were young men and boys during the years that I remember the church praying fervently. Had the Lord not raised them up, there would be no need to replace them in the future.

The new problem is that there is no significant numerical wave of younger men formally in the pipeline at present. In about thirty years, the men who were “prayed into ministry” by their seniors will hit retirement age. Who will replace them? The good news is this: the Lord has answered our prayers before and he will answer us again, if only we would call upon him.

As we pray, the Lord will also lead us to act. People in need of a pastor often think to make phone calls to professors at seminaries or pastors of churches with interns to ask “who’s available?” In a sense, that is to pray and to act too late, even if it is the right response in the moment.

We are all in need of our next pastor, however quickly that need becomes manifested through vacancy. How will the need be met? In all likelihood, the future pastors are already in your congregations. Today, we need to start praying and asking “who’s available?” as we look in our own pews for newborns, toddlers, teenagers, and older men that the Lord is calling. As I’ve written before, presbyteries who pray to see their own men raised up usually see far healthier churches than presbyteries who are dependent on others to provide pastors for them.

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