Numbers don’t show everything, but sometimes the big statistical picture can help explain some churches’ leadership matching dilemmas.

Marcia Clark Myers – who is director of the Office of Vocations for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and whom Bruce Reyes-Chow, moderator of the 218th General Assembly, has given a shout-out for the way her statistical presentation had the audience buzzing (both in the room and via Twitter) at a recent meeting of denominational leaders – has spent time and energy recently pulling together numbers regarding leadership in the denomination.

Her bottom line: the PC(USA) has some mismatches between those trained for ministry and what the denomination needs.

The future leaders of the church will need to be flexible and creative, able to serve at a time of new denominational and religious realties. Among the types of ministerial leaders the PC(USA) will need: church planters; those who can transform older congregations into new ways of being; and those capable of “hospice” ministry, who can guide congregations that won’t survive faithfully through their final days.

Here are some of the key points from Myers’ presentation – which is available on the PC(USA) Web site.

Small churches. No real surprises here: most Presbyterian churches are small, with more than half of Presbyterian congregations having fewer than 100 members. About 40 percent have fewer than 50 members and another 40 percent from 51 to 150 members. Of the rest, about 15 percent have 151 to 350 members, and just above 5 percent have 351 members or more.

Even though most Presbyterian churches are small, however, many Presbyterians do worship in the bigger congregations.

Leadership openings. The fact that so many Presbyterian congregations are small has a direct impact on what kinds of jobs are available to students graduating from seminary. To put it bluntly: there’s a big mismatch, with many of those seeking calls preferring larger congregations in bigger cities, and those with open positions being smaller churches in small towns or rural areas.

Here’s how the numbers shake out as of March 2009.

•           Not enough jobs. The PC(USA) call system listed 2,137 ministers or candidates seeking a call – and just 627 positions were available.

•           First-call shortage. The system shows 368 candidates seeking a first call. But only 174 available positions were listed as being willing to consider a first-call candidate.

•           Rural-urban imbalance. Fewer than 1 in 10 candidates – 9.5 percent – were willing to consider a church of 100 members or fewer. Only 7 percent were willing to serve in a rural area, and many would only consider a position in one or two particular states.

Preparing for ministry. The PC(USA) has about 2,400 candidates and inquirers – those preparing for the ministry. About 1,100 of those are under age 40 and just over half are women. Many do not intend to enter parish ministry.

Currently serving. Already the denomination has 13,615 ministers actively serving – meaning they’re not retired. Just over half of those – 7,495 – work as pastors or associate pastors. Another 1,110 are in temporary positions (such as interim ministry) and 2,312 (about 17 percent) are in specialized ministry. Only 42 list themselves as tent-makers or bivocational (although the numbers are probably higher in reality). And 2,650 – or close to 20 percent – are in “other” service, an area that’s anything but well-defined.

Leadership gaps. Almost half of Presbyterian congregations (4,857 churches) have no installed pastor. Some are being served by an interim pastor or by a “stated supply” – ministers who arrange to fill in on a temporary basis. Some are served by commissioned lay pastors. But about 2,000 congregations have no identified pastoral leader at all.

Commissioned lay pastors. Most presbyteries – 131 of 173 – use commissioned lay pastors, and across the denomination the number of CLPs has grown from 200 to about 700 over the last eight years. About 10 percent of them serve racial-ethnic or immigrant congregations. Most of the rest are serving small white congregations. According to Myers, 70 percent of the CLPs serve in places where ordained ministers aren’t willing to serve. “For the most part they are filling the gap,” she said, of small congregations that can’t afford a full-time pastor or can’t find one willing to move there.

There also is some concern about the level of training CLPs receive, Myers said. While training programs vary, for the most part CLP training adds up to less than what would be a semester of college study, she said.

So what to make of this pile of statistics?

In part, Myers told the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly that the PC(USA) leadership pool needs to change. Particularly needed, she said, will be tentmakers and racial-ethnic leaders, including those with doctoral training (who might be available to teach in seminaries) and proficiency in languages other than English.

For those who might be willing to consider ministry on a part-time rather than full-time basis, “we’ve got to take the shame out of it,” said Gradye Parsons, stated clerk of the PC(USA). Some might be reluctant – having spent so much money on a seminary education – to do anything other than full-time ministry in an established setting. But why not honor those who are creative in finding work that offers a base salary and benefits and still leaves time for ministry, Parsons asked.

Elders will play important roles in the church of the future she said – speaking of shared leadership with the involvement of many, rather than relying too much on an ordained minister of Word and Sacrament.

Women ministers still have a harder time finding churches to call them than do men. “The process in the church tends to favor males,” Myers told the COGA meeting. “Racial-ethnic females have the most difficult time.”

On the “good-news” side, many churches and communities are seeing an explosion of people willing to volunteer – from young adults to retirees.  She spoke of the need to energize all baptized in the church for leadership; of encouraging diverse approaches – from tentmaking to collaborative approaches; to nurturing the kind of leaders the PC(USA) needs – and saying “No” to those it does not.

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