By Aaron Weaver/CBF Communications
GREENSBORO, N.C. — How can churches nurture the calling of ministers within their congregation? What are ways they can rethink who can be called to ministry, how individuals are called and how they live out their ministries? What about ensuring that those who are called aren’t just affirmed but also sustained and supported in that calling?
Cooperative Baptists gathered Thursday for the opening plenary session of the 2024 CBF General Assembly in Greensboro, N.C., to wrestle with these questions and the topic of calling during an interactive plenary sessions that included personal testimonies and table discussions.
Brian Foreman, CBF’s Coordinator of Congregational Ministries, framed the challenge of calling for both churches and ministers in this way: “Why are we talking about calling today? Here are a few reasons why: (1) the model for ministry and ministerial calling has been changing for decades; (2) the pipeline of students going to divinity school is shrinking, and many of those who do enroll are not doing so with an interest in congregational ministry; (3) in many cases the burnout to run a program is too high.”
Just as churches and theological education have faced rapid changes in recent years, so too has the nature of ministerial calling. Foreman noted a shift away from the program model of ministry to one that focuses on relationships. He also said multi-vocational ministers are becoming more prevalent.
In a time of constant change, Foreman implored that such relational ministry can only be accomplished with ministers who are rooted longer in their congregations.
“The cost of turnover in these leadership spaces is high, not just for the financial cost, but also the formation costs,” Foreman said. “No teenager should have three, four or five youth ministers during their time in school. These critical relationships take time to nurture and perhaps noticing the call of someone already in your midst might provide the long-term relational stability your young people need.”
The goal of the conversation was to inspire a renewed engagement in the nurturing of ministerial calling.
“We are proposing a commitment, possibly even a recommitment, to nurturing and naming calling within your congregation,” Foreman said. “We want to facilitate a culture of calling, beginning with folks who are already in your congregations.”
Foreman then invited attendees to hear three different stories of calling from CBF churches and ministries.
The first story comes from Rev. Holly Hatton at First Baptist Church, Memphis, Tenn. Hatton serves as the church’s associate pastor, working with youth, children and senior adults, but before that, First Baptist was her home church.
For 15 years, she was a teacher in the church’s preschool. Hatton was nearing burnout in that position, and considering what else she could do when the personnel committee asked her to consider working with children and youth at the church. Hatton described how that conversation led to conversations about ordination, seminary and full-time ministry. All the while, Hatton said the church continued to give her holy nudges, saying, in her words, “We see you, and we think that you are worthy and your gifts do lie here, and we’ve experienced you pastoring us.”
“One of the things that’s brought me great joy in this position has been making this place that I love proud,” Hatton shared. “I desperately want to do a good job for these people that I love.”
A similar story of calling was shared by Dr. Telika McCoy, the youth pastor at Mount Peace Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C. McCoy wears several different hats as professor of Practical Ministry at Shaw University Divinity School with her own eponymous global ministry.
Still, it was her pastor who noticed another calling for her embrace.
“I was already volunteering, even with the youth or wherever the need was. And he decided, ‘This person is already here. This person is faithful. This person is excited about ministry. Where is she currently working? Because maybe she could work here,” she shared.
“I was able to be mentored by people who saw things in me that I did not see in myself,” McCoy observed.
It’s also given her a chance to understand the power of her own voice.
“In ministry, I realized that my voice matters in this space,” she said. “Not that it wouldn’t matter in other spaces, but it’s most powerful in this space. I can be my most authentic self in this space.”
Foreman recalled his first youth minister at the church, Ron Prevatte, who was the first to ask Foreman if he’d ever considered ministry. “Even as another minister came and went, and even as I did knuckleheaded things in high school, God was attending to a calling that I’d had named for me years before,” he said. For Foreman, it was not just one person noticing his calling; it was a whole cloud of witnesses who pointed him to it. He cited ministers, longtime church volunteers and his mother for nurturing his calling to ministry.
Antonio Vargas, a 2023 Vestal Scholar and student at Yale Divinity School, shared some closing remarks that echoed similar sentiments shared by Foreman about the communal nature of calling.
“I am often reminded walking through the corridors of the Ivory Towers, that theological education and call has never been the responsibility of a single individual—it is a daring act of community,” he said.
“The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship continues to serve as a communal hub for the formation of Christian leaders, serving as an irrigation system rather than a water hose, watering and nourishing partnership and collaboration for all.”
Celebrating Vestal Scholars
The two newest CBF Vestal Scholars were also recognized during the Thursday morning open plenary. This year’s recipients are Meg Rooney, a student at Candler School of Theology and Jordann McMahan, a student at Truett Seminary.
CBF’s most prestigious scholarship, named in honor of former CBF Executive Coordinator Daniel Vestal and his wife, Earlene, was established in 2011 to further CBF’s commitment to theological education. The annual scholarship is a foundational element of the Fellowship’s focus on nurturing young Baptists. Recipients of the Vestal Scholarship will have demonstrated academic excellence and displayed a deep commitment to the local church and to CBF.
The Vestal Scholarship provides $11,000 to recipients’ educational costs and an additional $1,500 to attend Fellowship events.
Meg Rooney is a third-year student at Candler School of Theology at Emory in Atlanta, and serves with CBF as a freelance copywriter. She has been an intern with CBF in communications and marketing since September 2022. Rooney has a Bachelor of Rhetoric and Writing from James Madison University.
“This scholarship will help me really focus on my education and career goals,” said Rooney, who is interested in pursuing a doctoral degree.
“What also draws me to CBF is being a part of a community of believers that care about intentional theology, that care about being an inclusive space for women for all to be a part of. CBF does a great job in being intentional and being kind about how they live out that theology, she shared.
Jordann McMahan is a third-year student at George W. Truett Theology School at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy at Old Dominion University. She has served as a residential chaplain since January 2023, caring for more than 700 Baylor students.
“This job in particular has been preparing me for congregational ministry, as I am involved in pastoral care for students every day in so many different seasons of their lives,” she said.
McMahan has also interned with Baptist Women in Ministry.
“This has been such an encouragement and such a wonderful opportunity,” she said. “I get to see and hear about the ways other women have overcome obstacles in pursuing their ministry.”
“I am drawn to CBF because of the values it upholds, and the type of people and churches that are part of CBF, particularly individuals engaging in conversations related to religious freedom and women in ministry, among others,” McMahan shared.
CBF Executive Coordinator Paul Baxley presented the two scholars with their awards and congratulated them on their accomplishments.
Read more about Meg Rooney and Jordann McMahan here. Watch a video about the Vestal Scholarship.
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CBF is a Christian network that helps people put their faith to practice through ministry efforts, global missions and a broad community of support. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.