The Story Behind
Project 10:2

Dr. Kevin Burr, my next-door office neighbor at Harding University, runs a podcast called "Faith in the Folds." He recently told me his 2023 episode called "Why are Churches of Christ losing ministers?" is his most-viewed and most-commented-on ever. This did not surprise me. Across the country, church leaders are increasingly aware of a growing and increasingly acute minister shortage problem.

As executive director of ULife Consulting, Inc., I often lead searches for vacant campus, college or young adult ministry positions. Every time, the church and I face the daunting reality that, even after a thorough national search, we do well to find two or three truly worthy candidates to consider. Informed church leaders know the days are long past when a healthy ministry vacancy would attract a thick stack of quality resumes.

In a blog post called "Ministers in Short Supply," Dr. Carson Reed, chair of Abilene Christian University's Graduate School of Theology, said ACU has a team that for many years has played matchmaker between ministers and churches. Through the years, he said, "the number of churches and ministers asking for help have been roughly the same." Now, he said, "we will have 15 churches asking for help with possible candidates and maybe one minister requesting assistance." In other words, their ratio of churches looking to ministers looking is about fifteen to one.

The Christian Chronicle last year devoted an entire series to the minister shortage issue. In an editorial, Chronicle Editor-in-Chief Bobby Ross identifies three significant problems: "lack of money" (churches cannot afford or choose not to provide a respectable salary and benefits), "lack of faith" (churches and parents dissuading young people from ministry), and "lack of unity" (doctrinal differences). He then pointed to what he believes to perhaps be the most acute problem: lack of respect and mistreatment of ministers by elders and church members.

But while these are certainly factors, low wages, lack of benefits, theological division, and, sadly, mistreatment are nothing new. So, what is driving the more recent decline in the numbers of people entering or continuing in ministry? Anecdotal evidence suggests that cultural shifts are a major factor, including a decline in general religious observance. In 2021, religious membership (people who regularly attend church, synagogue or mosque) fell below 50 percent for the first time in U.S. history. The cultural shifts as causes would also make sense in light of the fact that the shortage is not exclusive to Churches of Christ.

Regardless of the causes, church and educational leaders seem to be in broad agreement that the problem is acute and getting worse. That is why about two years ago, Mark Hooper (Mission Resource Network), Scott Lambert (Heritage 21, Conversation Group), Neil Reynolds (Kairos Church Planting, University Church of Christ in Tuscaloosa, AL), and I began to informally discuss the minister shortage issue. The more we discussed, the more we felt drawn to do more. Since then, the four of us have slowly moved from informal conversation to tangible action.

What Action Are We Taking?

First, we knew we needed better information to guide us. With the help of Dr. Usenime Akpanudo, a quantitative data expert at Harding University, we developed and released a survey that has now been taken by more than 1,200 Christian and public university students from across the country. These responses give us significant insight into current college students' attitudes toward ministry and the potential roadblocks that might prevent otherwise capable, qualified people from considering a ministry career.

The result of all this is a program we are building that will allow young people to "try on" ministry in the context of healthy Christian community under the oversight of wise, experienced mentors. It's called Project 10:2, which is a reference to Jesus' statement in Luke 10:2: "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few."

Project 10:2 is a post-college gap-year experience aimed at recent college graduates or those who are ready to consider ministry after a short time in a different profession. While we are willing to work with anyone, including those who already plan to enter ministry, we are particularly interested in working with college students who have never considered ministry as a vocation.

As we ask soon-to-be college graduates to consider our program, we will focus special attention on our public university campus ministries as well as Christian universities such as Lipscomb, Harding, Abilene Christian, and Pepperdine.

We are building a network of ministry partners and mentors across the country who will agree to receive our workers from Labor Day to Memorial Day. The receiving church/ministry will provide a small salary and free housing, if possible, and the worker will fundraise for the rest. We are formally partnered with Hope Network to help us identify the healthiest possible partner churches, and with Kairos Church Planting to lead the vetting process for potential workers. We will strive to make the best-possible match between churches/ministries and P10:2 workers, considering factors such as the worker's ministry interests, geographical preferences, and theological alignment.

During the gap year, the workers' experience will include four primary components. First, they will get opportunities to actually do the work of ministry inside a healthy, fully functioning church or ministry. They will be exposed to preaching, to worship, campus, youth and children's ministry, and in some cases to a foreign mission experience. Second, they will be mentored by a designated on-site leader (often a local minister or elder) and an off-site mentor (a member of the P10:2 team). Third, they will attend a fall and a spring retreat that bring all the interns together to learn, connect and be encouraged.

Following the gap year, the workers could decide ministry is not a good fit and could then begin a different career, but with excellent new skills and knowledge that will deeply bless their current or future churches. Or interns can decide ministry is now their desire, and P10:2 will help them consider and move toward next steps.

Why We Believe Project 10:2 Will Work

First, it offers a clear and deliberate pathway to ministry. For many young people, considering a career in ministry can seem nebulous, distant and unattainable. P10:2 is a simple, step-by-step process. Like interstate highways, careers in ministry require on-ramps that allow us to start the journey and point us in the right direction.

Second, P10:2 leverages the power of invitation. Many young people do not choose ministry simply because they are never asked to consider it. Jesus went to the seashore and said to Peter and Andrew, "Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men" (Mark 1:17 ESV). Jesus invited them to join him on a journey they would have never considered, through which they were transformed into people they would have never otherwise become. What if just 5 or 10 percent of those who have never been asked to consider ministry would consider it through P10:2? This will almost certainly yield many new ministry leaders the church would have otherwise never had.

Third, P10:2 reflects the millennia-old apprenticeship tradition of the younger and less-experienced learning from the older and more-experienced. Long before Joshua became Moses' successor, he had been "Moses' aid since youth" (Num. 11:28). The Apostle Paul, in mentoring numerous young men like Timothy, was not only building early church leaders and missionaries but was also modeling for them how to train others who would, in turn, train others (2 Tim. 2:2).

Fourth, P10:2 takes seriously the belief that Christian leaders are made more than they are born. Numerous young people today possess the faith, skills, and aptitude to become excellent ministry leaders. Peter and John were "unschooled, ordinary men" who, after three years with Jesus, were transformed into writers of New Testament books, passionate preachers, and the preeminent leaders of the early church.

Fifth, P10:2 leverages the power of community. God, who has existed in community within himself from eternity, has imprinted on his image-bearers the necessity of doing life together. P10:2 will ensure that no one walks alone. From the P10:2 staff and mentors, to local mentors, to local church communities, to the community of interns across the country, each worker will be surrounded by loving, supportive relationships.

Conclusion

The shortage of kingdom workers and leaders is certainly nothing new, as evidenced by Jesus' statement from which we draw our organization's name. Each generation must choose to recommit itself to raising up kingdom workers and leaders, and ours is no different. In fact, it appears that in our time the shortage of kingdom leaders is more acute than it has been in many decades.

While Project 10:2 is certainly not the only possible solution, we believe it is a substantive response that will be particularly effective at allowing those who have never considered ministry—as Jesus said in John 1:39—to come and see.