ASHLAND THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY THE IMPACT ON CONGREGATIONAL LEADERS IN THE USE OF LAY SPEAKERS IN PULPIT MINISTRY A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF ASHLAND THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF MINISTRY BY JOHNNIE FAYE MARSHALL SWANN ASHLAND, OHIO July 29, 2020 Copyright © 2020, by Johnnie Faye Marshall Swann All rights reserved To lay servants, past and present and future, called to pulpit ministry “Take care what you do with respect to that young man, for he is as surely called of God to preach, as you are. Examine what have been the fruits of his preaching and hear him also yourself.” Susanna Wesley’s advice to John Wesley concerning the lay preaching of Thomas Maxfield APPROVAL PAGE Accepted by the faculty and the final demonstration examining committee of Ashland Theological Seminary, Ashland, Ohio, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Ministry degree. Academic Advisor Date Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program Date ABSTRACT The purpose of this project was to impact a group of congregational leaders of the Olivesburg United Methodist Church in Ohio on the use of laypersons in pulpit ministry. The design of the project was a sermon series of four weeks followed by a presentation by a representative of the Lay Servant Ministry of the East Ohio Conference. This design included a pre-test and a post-test. The most prominent goal was becoming involved with the Lay Servant Ministry of the East Ohio Conference of The United Methodist Church. CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................. viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................... ix Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION AND PROJECT OVERVIEW .............. 10 2. BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS .................................................................... 28 3. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE......................................65 4. DESIGN, PROCEDURE, AND ASSESSMENT ................ 91 5. REPORTING THE RESULTS ........................................ 101 6. SUMMARY AND REFLECTIONS .................................. 119 Appendix 1. APPENDIX ONE PROPOSAL ........................................135 2. APPENDIX TWO ASSESSMENT TOOL........................ 156 REFERENCES ..................................................................................... 163 vii TABLES Table 1. Goal #5 Becoming Involved with Lay Servant Ministry………… 103 2. Goal #4 Recognizing Gifts in the Local Church………………….106 3. Goal #2 History of Lay Servants in Scripture……………………..109 4. Goal #3 History of Lay Preaching in the Methodist Church……. 112 5. Goal #1 Benefit of Using Lay Servants in Pulpit…………………..115 viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are many friends, colleagues, parishioners and family members who have supported me in this endeavor. Thank all of you for caring. I wish to thank Dr. Paul Chilcote for affirming my call to this degree. I want to thank Dr. Steve Harper, Dr. Steve Manskar, Dr. Dan Hawk, Dr. Constance Cherry and Dr. William Payne for their instruction in WesleyanPractices. I wish to thank Dr. Matthew Bevere for his input as I started this journey. Thank you Dr. Allan Bevere, advisor and Dr. Nickol Calhoun, editor for trying to teach me to write as an academic. To the congregations of Plymouth Community United Methodist Church, Olivesburg United Methodist Church and the United Methodist Church of Savannah I thank you for your prayers, your support and allowing me a break in parish duties as I wrote. I cannot thank enough my husband, John C. Swann, for his technical assistance and support, his constant reminders that I needed to write and his love. I would not have made this journey without him. Finally, I thank our triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit for the call placed on my life to serve God’s people in a variety of different ways. ix CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION AND PROJECT OVERVIEW In the history of the church, the status of laypersons has both expanded and decreased. The early church was cognizant of 1 Peter 2:9, scripture pertaining to the priesthood of all believers. This scripture, however, lost its influence on the church over time. The hierarchy grew stronger and laypersons were delegated to passive positions. The movement established by the original apostles of Jesus and further cultivated by the apostle Paul of Tarsus developed into a church with specific buildings in which to conduct worship services. These new church buildings replaced the house churches that had been in operation, where the employment of laypersons for preaching was the norm. With the development of these church buildings, individuals were set apart for the specific purpose of preaching the Word of God. This development led to the separation of the people of the church into clergy, those who interpreted scriptures, preached and celebrated the sacraments, and laypersons, those who received the interpretation of scripture, the preaching of the Word of God and the sacraments. The clergy matured into a professional group and laypersons developed into observers. Martin Luther, a Roman Catholic priest, is credited with rediscovering the vital verse in support of the priesthood of all believers. He believed that by baptism all persons became priests and were worthy to participate in the worship services of the church, including the office of preaching. He did have some 10 reservations however. Luther believed the office of preaching was not just for men. He believed women and children were also worthy to preach. As the Protestant Reformation continued, a revival movement was formed in England by John and Charles Wesley. While founder John Wesley knew the scripture 1 Peter 2:9, for him it was a call for movement toward holiness instead of an incentive to open preaching to lay people. Wesley believed it was the ordained clergy who should serve in the pulpit. However, when the clergy refused to join the movement, John Wesley found himself in a peculiar situation. He needed the lay people to preach the word. Therefore, based on his present necessity, the ministry of lay preaching began in what would become The United Methodist Church. Purpose Statement and Research Question The purpose of this project was to impact a group of congregational leaders toward the inclusion of lay speakers in the pulpit ministry of the Olivesburg United Methodist Church in Ohio with a five-week sermon series on the use of lay speakers in ministry. The research question was “What impact would a five-week sermon series have on a group of congregational leaders at the Olivesburg United Methodist Church in Ohio toward the use of lay speakers in the pulpit?” The project focus was to raise awareness of the use of lay persons in the contemporary church by studying biblical texts, historical accounts and information available through the Lay Servants Ministry of the East Ohio Conference of The United Methodist Church. The emphasis of the project was to 11 invite the leaders to seek the use of lay speakers in pulpit supply and to encourage these leaders to become involved with the Lay Speakers ministry. There are many relevant scriptures in both the Old and New Testament concerning the use of lay persons to lead God’s people in the ministry of preaching. This project was dependent upon the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Overview The focus of this project addressed the problem of the seeming reluctance of local churches to use lay speakers to fill the pulpit during the absence of the ordained clergy. The focus included awareness of biblical and historical texts concerning the use of lay persons assisting clergy in leading the church, including the area of pulpit supply. The congregational leaders were given a pre-test to assess their knowledge of the biblical and historical texts as well as their knowledge of the Lay Servant Ministry, which includes lay speaking. After the pre-test, a series of sermons were presented to the leaders based on two texts from the Old Testament and two from the New Testament. Information concerning the priesthood of all believers was also included. This series of sermons also included the use of lay speakers in the history of The United Methodist Church and its antecedent denominations. Directly after the sermon series, there was a presentation by a representative of the Lay Servants Ministry of the East Ohio Conference of The United Methodist Church. 12 The participants from the Olivesburg United Methodist Church were representative of the entire congregation. Most of the congregation is 65+, with three families with children. The church is very family oriented and involved with the community and local school. Foundation I was a new college graduate, who finally finished my degree at the age of 44. I was a new wife of two years and learning all the idiosyncrasies that entails. My husband was a seminary student and he had just been appointed as a student pastor of a small membership church. As the wife of a student pastor, I knew there were many things that I could do to complement other talents in the church. I also knew there were many things expected of me including assisting my husband. As my undergraduate degree was in theater, I knew that I would be assisting with such pageants as Christmas and Easter, but, I felt there should be more I could do to assist in the life of the church. The conference where we were appointed offered the basic lay speaking course in the fall. I believed this would be a good first step in becoming a useful member of the clergy family. I attended the seminar held on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. As I drove home from that final session, I knew I had found my calling, a lay speaker in The United Methodist Church. As I continued to take lay speaking classes, I would be able to fill the pulpit in my husband’s absence. God, however, had other plans. After a restless night of hearing all the voices telling me I was called to ordained ministry, I knew I was not finished.