Episode 251: Learning to Be Visitors Not Hosts — Jim Hollendoner (Part 1)
“I never want to go to a surgeon that only took online classes, so why in the world are we allowing the doctors of the church…the shepherds of the church to lessen their training…Our churches’ demands haven’t changed as far as the amount of demands, it’s just how they demand it.” —Jim Hollendoner
Summary of This Episode
Welcome back to The Messy Reformation podcast where Jason and Willy are joined on this episode by Rev. Jim Hollendoner, the lead pastor at Munster Church, where he’s served for seven years. Prior to that, he began in ministry in non-denominational churches before coming to the CRC as an associate pastor at Crown Point CRC. All of his ministry has been in the Illiana region. Jim shares his “denominational mutt” upbringing, which included being in a Lutheran church that also use the Heidelberg Catechism and Westminster Confession. He spent time in a UCC congregation with “a healthy youth group in a dying church.” He benefited from the ministry of Camp Manitoqua as well as Baptist-background higher education.
Unsurprisingly, Jason and Willy both had questions after his introduction, and Jason probes into what is meant by a healthy youth group in a dying church. Jim shares that for the season that he was in that youth group, it had mission and vision as well a pastor who was teaching the Bible and foundations of the faith, while the UCC was leading the church further from the gospel and seeking to make them a flagship in that denomination for God still speaking. While it was exciting and he was grateful to be in the youth group, he would later learn it’s not often a good thing when you have that much difference in the ministry of a single church. He does credit that time, though, as being significant in his development, and helped shape his calling to begin ministry working with youth.
They also spend some time talking about the influence of and differences between his Baptist/non-denominational time and what he has experienced in the CRC. A lot of that touches on the themes of hospitality that have been discussed in previous episodes. An important part of ministry in the 21st century, which reflects the historic church, is to genuinely care about other people and interact with them, not just host and expect them to pick everything up on their own.
Jason brings up the pastor shortage of the CRC at the end of this episode and asks Jim to share what he thinks is behind that. Jim shares one of his interests is “generational theory,” and summarizes part of a talk from the 2019 Global Leadership Summit. Among Millenials, there’s a split between those who act more like Boomers and those who are shaped and defined by the internet and what it offers. Many seminaries, around the years of 2010-2015 and after, tried to adapt to that. Instead of being a proving ground of one’s call to ministry, they forfeited their identity and began providing an education that’s wide but not deep. He recognizes appropriately the demands of the pastorate are high and require solid training, but seminary and internship expectations aren’t meeting that need. He compares it to doctors, “I never want to go to a surgeon that only took online classes, so why in the world are we allowing the doctors of the church…the shepherds of the church to lessen their training…Our churches’ demands haven’t changed as far as the amount of demands, it’s just how they demand it.” He and Jason acknowledge part of why burnout and atrophy and deteriorating numbers is happening is because we’re not training people for longevity. Come back next week for the rest of this conversation.