Episode 237: The Strategic Importance of High School Ministry

“Broader—denominationally, I think we need a couple of things moving into this rebuilding phase. I think we need to be focusing on raising up pastors…You may even see an overture come out of Classis Wisconsin to Synod next year about making that the focus of the CRC for the next five years, making that our number one priority…Bigger than that, [as we move from fighting to rebuilding]—it’s hard…everybody’s got a different idea of where we’re going to build and what we’re going to do…We need a real clear vision for where we’re going to build moving forward. That’s really going to help bring unity…something that’s compelling that makes people go, ‘Yeah, this is what we want to be a part of.’ If we can paint a compelling vision of that, I think that’ll also help raise up the next generation of pastors…” —Jason Ruis

Summary of This Episode

Jason, Willy, and Dan are back on this episode of the Messy Reformation podcast as they continue to discuss Jason’s move from being the pastor of Faith Community Church to a chaplain/teacher at Central Wisconsin Christian School and likely an associate pastor at another local church. Jason puts forth one of the biggest questions he’s wrestled with—is he being a hypocrite to step out of his church’s revitalization process before the 10 years are up? He shares that he’s really admired those who have served long-term at a church, and expected to do that himself. This decision has been difficult because things are going well at Faith, he’s seen God at work, but this came down to being faithful to where he thinks God is calling him. Willy supports that and responds that it would be hypocritical if Jason felt God had work for him left to do there and he decided to leave anyway. Jason shares that through his discernment process and when he announced it at Faith, he asked for prayer, the church expressed their love, but they also recognized it seems like a perfect fit for Jason. His departure doesn’t mean that revitalization must end.

Dan asks the pertinent question for this platform—what does this mean for the Messy Reformation? “The Messy Reformation is going to keep going,” though scheduling things may take some tweaking as he adapts.  He points out that Dan’s been helping out more, including on air—there’s no fighting between Jason and Willy that kept Willy off; it’s a team effort. He also shares, “…I do have my summers, and so we’re going to capitalize on my summers in some way.” We’ll keep doing interviews, but he also teases that he’s got some new ideas that we may see come up.

One of those stems from our conference, and hoping to bring roundtable discussions into this platform. The plan is: “Pick a theological topic, get a few pastors together, and let’s riff on this, and talk about it for the building up of the church.” The hope is we might be able to reach into the seminary, the denomination, and various agencies with people who are solid. We hope to create a place on our website where ideas for that as well as pastors’ names for interviews can be submitted. Dan shares his excitement that it often seems like we reserve these really big conversations just for during Synod, but we need to figure out ways to use the other 51 weeks of the year—for church leaders and members to hear what is being thought about and wrestled with. Jason’s hope is that we can address some of “the problem of theological mediocrity” that Chris Ganski recently raised. “We’re in this building phase now of the CRC…That means laying foundations, laying groundwork, trying to equip people, trying to raise up pastors—all of these kinds of things is where we need to really start focusing our attention and energy.“

Jason and Willy talk a bit more about what the ministry transition may be like and what Jason is excited about as well as what may be tough. His episode ending words are, “…Be faithful to where God’s calling you. We can try to make all the plans for the future. We can try to do all the strategy. We can try to crank out budgets and…do all that work. And that’s wise…But at the core, the calling is to seek God, seek his leading, not through just your own prayers, but in community with other people.” He also shares, “Broader—denominationally, I think we need a couple of things moving into this rebuilding phase. I think we need to be focusing on raising up pastors…You may even see an overture come out of Classis Wisconsin to Synod next year about making that the focus of the CRC for the next five years, making that our number one priority…Bigger than that, [as we move from fighting to rebuilding]—it’s hard…everybody’s got a different idea of where we’re going to build and what we’re going to do…We need a real clear vision for where we’re going to build moving forward. That’s really going to help bring unity…something that’s compelling that makes people go, ‘Yeah, this is what we want to be a part of.’ If we can paint a compelling vision of that, I think that’ll also help raise up the next generation of pastors…”