The Grumpy Old Man in the First Pew

by Rev. Peter E. Bauer

A minister colleague of mine recently observed not too long ago that in his previous congregation, he had a challenging church member. The congregant was described as “the grumpy old man who sat in the front pew. ‘This gentleman was described as someone who always complained, someone who was always pointing out mistakes either that happened in the worship service or misprints in the bulletin.

I would argue that a lot of clergy have had, at one point in their ministry, “the grumpy old man who sits in the front pew. “Some clergy, especially younger clergy, might find it unnerving to have someone consistently critiquing them. The phenomenon could feel like a job interview that never ends.

On the other hand, those church members who show up every Sunday, verbalize their comments either good or bad about the life of a congregation are hopefully taking their faith seriously! Perhaps, maybe instead of dreading those who critique church life, we should embrace them instead.

As I mentioned before, church attendance nationally is dwindling. More and more churches are finding that they may need to close. One large church in Florida recently roped off a lot of its pews because their attendance is more meager. Another church in Portland, Or is actively selling its excess pews.

When I hear all of this, I find myself feeling very concerned for the future of the church. Where are we heading regarding mainline Protestant Christianity? Thirty plus years ago, the idea was that you went to college, went away, usually across the country, to attend seminary or divinity school, you got ordained and then you began a series of pastorates ranging from small to medium and eventually to large churches. This was the system of meritocracy that church denominations fostered.

Now, we have seminaries, such as one that is in New York, that are not even marketing any degrees that are focused upon the goal of ordination. Rather, they are offering certificates in various forms of ministry including urban evangelism. Most of the students who are attending these schools will be doing some form of lay ministry. Again, this is wonderful but it does create a different trajectory versus ordained ministry.

Increasingly also, we have the growing number of “Nones,” those who are not affiliated at all with any denomination nor religion. Theological institutions like Harvard Divinity School, Yale Divinity School, Union Theological Seminary, Candler School Of Theology at Emory University are graduating more and more students who are Nones. These people are not looking to serve churches, but rather are looking to work for non-profit agencies addressing a wide variety of concerns from hunger, poverty to the environment and global income inequality.

Which brings me back to “the grumpy old man who sits in the front pew. “Right now, churches need all of the self-reflection and critiquing that they can get. There needs to be a lot more aggressive proactive movement towards adopting collaborative partnerships and programs between different congregations, perhaps even reviving two or three point charges, where two to three small congregations would share pastoral staff.

One church that I am familiar with has the challenge of fixing its roof, which is estimated to cost a lot of money. If they cannot get money from endowment sources, they may be faced with appealing to private donors.

I still believe ordained ministry is important and that well trained and effective leadership for churches is more important than ever.

We need to embrace and sit next to “the grumpy old man who sits in the front pew. “

May it be so.