transfer windows for Baptist Ministers – is it the way ahead?

There is an interesting process involved when Baptist Ministers move church. The Regional Ministers, who know the ministers and the churches, meet together monthly to pray and suggest names of ministers to churches that are looking for a new minister, and it is up to the churches and ministers to discern if they have got it right, or to ask them to try again next month. The process is more involved than that suggests, but that is my one-line description.

This happens throughout the year (except August because God takes August off). But what if there were transfer windows for Baptist Ministers like the ones in football? What if they could only be considered during January and July / August? Can you imagine the frenzy? If a church feels a minister might be right for them and the minister feels that the church may be right for her/him, the leaders of the church (or a search committee) will probably meet with the Minister. If that leads them on, the minister may come to the church and preach, so the rest of the church can meet her/him. If that feels right the church may invite the minister to come back and ‘Preach With A View’ (to becoming the minister at the church). There may also be other opportunities for the church members to get to know the minister (and her/his family) as well.

The Church will then meet to consider whether or not to call the minister to come and if that is ‘yes’ will extend an invitation to the minister, who also seeks to discern if it is ‘yes’. In my case, coming to Colchester Baptist Church, the process took about 4 months (and that felt very quick!). Can you imagine trying to fit all that into one or two months?! And if it is not right in one church, then the urgency increases in the next one to get the transfer through in the time allowed. Would it lead to churches sending out scouts to see whom they might invite to come and be their minister? Might churches make illegal approaches to ministers? Might it lead to the development of agents for ministers, taking a cut of offerings in exchange for finding a new minister and negotiating bigger stipends. (Regional Ministers do NOT act in that way, honest guv!) Might some churches seek to ensure their minister does not leave their town during the transfer windows and vet all visitors in case they are scouts from other churches?*

Sometimes I wonder whether our system could be improved, and there are definitely some flaws, but at least we don’t have a transfer window, and I am glad for that. It might focus the minds of churches and ministers, but I believe it would be wrong for us to impose artificial limits on God’s sovereignty. It would be wrong for us to suggest that he only speaks in that way at certain times of the year.

So why do we think that God only speaks to us at certain times? Why do we think he only speaks to us when we are praying, and not also through the words of an ‘innocent’ conversation through the day? Why do we assume he only speaks to us when we open our Bibles and not also at other times when he brings to mind a passage or principle from the Bible? Why do we feel that it has to be ‘now’ that God speaks, rather than in his own time?

After church one Sunday morning, a mother commented, “The choir was awful this morning.”

The father commented, “The sermon was too long.”

Their 7-year-old daughter added, “You’ve got to admit it was a pretty good show for fifty pence.”

*For the sake of avoiding any confusion or misunderstandings, and prevent raised hopes, I am NOT available for transfer and am NOT considering a move.