By Marv Knox
When First Baptist Church in Memphis, Tenn., faced a staffing crisis, it turned to one of its own, Holly Hatton, to provide one year of ministry to children and youth.
That move answered the prayers of both First Baptist and Hatton. And it worked out so well, the church hired her full-time, ordained her to the ministry and promoted her.
It also illustrated how other churches should think about tapping their own members to fill vacancies, according to Cooperative Baptist Fellowship leaders heading up a new church-staffing initiative, Called in Context.
“I grew up here,” Hatton said of First Memphis, where her father, Ray Hatton, served as minister of music for 35 years. “We were a large congregation in the 1970s, ’80s and early ’90s, when we split and became much smaller. Our mission is to be a midtown congregation that practices the core values of hospitality, dialogue, community and service.”
Whether it was large or small, First Baptist Church consistently played a huge role in her life, Hatton recalled.
“I have always loved church, and I’ve been good at church,” she said. “If the doors were open, I was here. My hand went up any time somebody asked for a volunteer. I worked with children and youth, sang in the choir, baked, served on committees. And in 2016, I was ordained as a deacon. So, this place has really been my life.”
Meanwhile, Hatton taught preschool for 15 years and loved it; but she started experiencing burnout. In fact, she told her husband, James Aycock, she was thinking about making a career change.
“And then in 2018, all our ministerial staff resigned within a couple of months,” she said. “The personnel committee came to me and asked if I’d be willing to give up a year of teaching to work with youth and children. It was perfect timing, because I had been wanting to change. I didn’t even have to think about the answer: ‘Yes, I love this place, and I want to serve.’”
The personnel committee approached her “because they wanted stability; they wanted somebody the families knew,” Hatton reflected.
The pairing produced a win-win situation, she added. “It was good for the congregation, because they knew me, and they had stability. And it was good for me, because I felt like, even if make mistakes, these people love me, and it’ll be OK. It ended up being one of the most joyful years of my life.”
It also proved productive for First Baptist. “After a year in the interim position, the church voted to keep me on staff full-time,” she reported. “Then, after another year of discernment, our personnel committee came to me again and asked, ‘Are you interested in ordination?’
“I had a little bit of a meltdown, just because this was not the typical path to ministry that I’d seen, and I really struggled with feeling unworthy. It took a year to work through that question and see it as a gift. And so, I became the minister to children and youth.”
A couple of years after Hatton joined the staff, First Baptist called Kathryn Kimmel to be senior pastor, who recommended the next step. The church named Hatton as associate pastor, to recognize the broader scope of her ministry within the congregation.
The recognition and promotion were well-deserved, Kimmel affirmed.
“Holly is a bright light whose presence and gifts for ministry lead us into richer life with God,” she said. “It’s no wonder the congregation saw her and called her out to lead them in an official capacity.”
Reflecting her desire to strengthen her ministry and others’ desire to provide support, Hatton participates in two external resources. She’s working online to earn a Master of Divinity degree from BSK Theological Seminary (formerly Baptist Seminary of Kentucky). She’s also participating in CBF Fellows, the Fellowship’s two-year educational and encouragement program for ministers serving their first congregations.
Together, the formal structure of seminary training, the relational networking of Fellows and the response of First Baptist members have confirmed: Hatton belongs in ministry.
When the congregation wanted to ordain her and she questioned if she was worthy, she received “precious” feedback from fellow members. “They always came back to me with ‘We see you, and we think you are worthy, and your gifts lie here, and we’ve experienced your pastoring us for the last two years,’” she recounted. “It took a little while longer for me to see my love of church had always been a calling. I just never felt I was special enough or gifted enough to do it. And it took the congregation saying, ‘But you are.’”
While Hatton and First Baptist Memphis are unique, their experience provides a template for other churches and lay members who might rise up to serve as clergy, noted Brian Foreman, CBF’s coordinator of congregational ministries, and Colin Kroll, its young adults ministry manager.
They have developed Called in Context as part of a larger endeavor to strengthen churches in the area of Christian education, particularly focused on ministries with youth and children. Called in Context specifically is designed to help churches identify ministry resources within their membership and to help laity see their opportunities for ministry.
“We’re trying to create a culture of calling in our congregations,” Foreman noted. “Our goal is to stimulate conversations in churches about how the resources to fill ministry positions already may be in your church or community.”
That’s because “the old great model” for filling church ministry vacancies no longer works, he said. That model focused on tapping into a steady stream of clergy: They trained for ministry in seminary or divinity school, went on to serve congregations, and then became prospective candidates who were available to be “called” or hired by other churches when pastor or staff positions opened.
“Those folks are harder and harder to find,” Foreman acknowledged. “But just maybe the people who can meet your church’s needs are right under your nose, and you don’t see them.”
Called in Context highlights “the ways we are recognizing and finding good leadership in our faith communities are changing,” Kroll added. “There is a possibility of seeing that trend and experiencing fear and feelings of scarcity, that we’re not producing church leaders.
“But we believe in faithfulness. God is calling people within our communities of faith. A minister like Holly demonstrates this. She already had gifts and loved the people in her community, and she has been invited into leadership in a ‘new’ way.”
Called in Context’s “culture of calling” must be part of a broad conversation about both heeding God’s nudge into ministry and staffing congregations, he said. It may focus on changing careers and entering full-time ministry, as Hatton did. But it also may involve maintaining a secular job while taking up bivocational ministry.
“Thinking this way could lead to helping churches that cannot support a minister the way they used to because of financial reasons,” he explained. “It also could address the needs of congregations that may find it difficult to invite clergy to move into their communities because they are rural or underserved. In both cases, we believe churches have ready-rich members who just need an invitation that calls them into ministry.”
Beyond identifying opportunities for vocational ministry, Called in Context also can help lay members understand how their vocations or places in their communities provide ample opportunity to minister to others, he said.
“We recognize the work of God in the world is not specific to our ministries and clergy. It is accomplished through a lot of people in a lot of fields. Called in Context will help our people pursue or remain in careers that impact the world. It will provide resources to help them recognize what it means to be called into those spaces and live intentionally.”
Although Hatton’s calling to ministry preceded the launch of Called in Context, she affirms the deep gladness that grows from being called to serve a church she has adored and which has been her spiritual home for decades.
“One of the things that’s brought me great joy has been making this place that I love proud. I desperately want to do a good job for these people that I love,” she said. “It’s brought me great joy to work hard for these people and for this place. I’ve absolutely loved visiting with people and eating with people and serving people in this capacity.
“There’s a bit of a difference between a layperson and a pastor, I have noticed. And that transition hasn’t always been easy. But I love being able to sit with people, play with the kids, and plan and lead worship. It’s been challenging and fulfilling work, and I’ve learned a lot in the past five years.
“There’s something really special about this church, and I’m really, really happy to be here.”
This story is from the most recent edition of Fellowship! magazine. To read more stories like this, or receive a print copy of the issue, please visit https://cbf.net/fellowship-magazine