Church is looking for predecessor. Required: a calling, but how do you recognize it?

About fifty percent of the pastors of the Protestant Church will retire over the next ten years. A large number, while there is already a shortage of the number of predecessors in the church. The Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN) is therefore organizing this weekend for the second time calling Sunday, to inspire churchgoers to pursue a ecclesiastical profession.

« Our pastor corps is old, » says Scriba René de Reuver, general secretary of the PKN. At the beginning of this year, around 1,350 pastors worked in Protestant municipalities in the Netherlands. The average age is 55 years. No less than 53 percent of the pastors are 57 years or older. And although the church becomes smaller, those two developments are not the same size. The decrease in the long term of predecessors is much greater than the decrease in municipalities.

It is not only the future that the PKN is worried about. Already some municipalities are difficult to find a pastor. In Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe, a third of the pastor places are vacant, says De Reuver. But it also plays in other places in the country.

Calling

The PKN therefore asks predecessors to pay attention to the subject of ‘calling’ and pray for new pastors and workers in the church on Sunday. It is a tradition that comes from the Roman Catholic Church. In 1964, Pope Paul VI declared the fourth Sunday of Easter as a prayer day for spiritual calls.

De Reuver explains the concept of vocation Sunday: « It starts with that you feel called something. That is of course not only the case in the church, that applies to more professions. Why are you going to do something? Because it touches you, no longer lets go. That applies to a predecessor in the church absolutely. »

The Scriba, who says goodbye to the PKN at the beginning of July, hopes that pastors can inspire churchgoers on Sunday, including with biblical stories about calling. It is fundamental for a Christian calling that you think ‘Okay, this is special, this could be from God,’ says De Reuver.

Samuel

But it is also important that your environment recognizes such a calling, De Reuver continues. He refers to the Biblical story about Samuel, who is called by God in the temple. He only first recognizes that as such. « You need people who can say that to you. There are plenty of Bible stories in which such a calling sounds. »

A calling cannot organize the PKN. « That’s how it goes with the big things of life, you hardly organize them. They come across to you, come to you. But of course you can try to try to make a kind of channel for that. And whether it happens or not, that’s not up to us. »

And so the PKN calls on predecessors in municipalities and church services to pay attention to it on Sunday or to write something about it. « As a rural church, we are a bit cautious to say to municipalities: now it has to be about this on Sunday. That is also the freedom of municipalities. But there was also a demand from the churches. They saw this happen in other churches and wondered: why don’t we do this? »

Nicest occupation

You become a pastor by studying theology, says De Reuver. And whether it is an attractive profession? « You shouldn’t ask me that, » laughs the scriba. « Certainly! I would say: be a pastor, the best profession there is. » Then seriously: « There are many different sides to it. If you are not motivated, then it is very tough. You are the only professional in a volunteer organization. A lot is coming to you. Very beautiful things, but sometimes also complicated and sad things. »

Anyone who has finished his bachelor and master theology is not just placed at a municipality. The community determines, they can choose from the new candidates. De Reuver says that speed dates have sometimes been organized, where several municipalities could get acquainted with new predecessors. « And then see if there is a click. »

The decrease in the number of believers is stagnating recently From figures from Statistics Netherlands. And other research shows that generation Z seems a bit more religious Then the generations for that. De Reuver: « For example, look at the Dutch national team. A large part of those boys is religious. That was not the case when I was twenty. » Also on television and talk shows De Reuver notices that there seems to be a little more attention to religion.

The scriba does not worry about the future. « But that is a faith reaction. The movement of God has been there from the beginning of creation. That really continues until the end of this world time. It is much more the question whether we join us and let ourselves be taken with us. » De Reuver does have care about institutional forms, such as churches, where believers can come together. « Faith needs that. »

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