By Jeff Brumley
Three years in ministry have taught Alina Carbonell some pretty tough lessons about juggling church and family, overseeing both youth and adult members and the fact she can’t share personal struggles with her congregations.
“I have discovered how lonely it can be,” said Carbonell, pastor of the Hispanic congregation at First Baptist Church in Gainesville, Ga.
But she’s found what may be a solution — at least to the loneliness piece: the third-annual “Young Pastors Gathering” in Atlanta.
The three-day gathering, which begins Monday at Second Ponce de Leon Baptist Church, offers panel discussions on issues and challenges in ministry, provides resources for sermon preparation and teaching, and fellowship.
And a big draw for many young ministers serving Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Georgia churches is the cost: there is none.
Carbonell said the free admission was attractive. So was the location.
“One of the things making it easy is that it’s here, pretty local with just a 45-minute drive,” she said. For a single mother of two, that means she can make some of the sessions without taking her boys out of school.
‘Doesn’t have to cost a ton’
In fact it was economics that the founders of the event had in mind when they launched it in 2012, said Tony Lankford, the pastor at Park Avenue Baptist Church in Atlanta.
“We wondered, how can we do this close to free?”
The need for a zero or low cost conference became obvious to young ministers who led churches with tight budgets.
For most of them, top-notch events like the Festival of Homiletics were not affordable.
“A growing number of my generation and those coming out of seminary do not have [travel] budgets to attend those conferences with any regularity,” Lankford said.
So organizers picked a focus, determined to stay local and kept the format simple.
“We don’t bring in a speaker because there’s a lot of creativity and knowledge among us,” Lankford said, adding that participants also agree to lead workshops.
“We ask you to research best practices” on a given topic “and come prepared to facilitate.”
Financial assistance from CBF Georgia also helps keep the event free of cost.
“We are having a good time and it doesn’t have to cost a ton,” he said.
Energy, time and money
Church consultant, speaker and author Eddie Hammett said he’s seeing ministers and church groups across the country focus on cutting or eliminating conference costs.
“It’s people deciding to … budget their time, energy and money and making things as convenient as they can make them,” said Hammett, president of North Carolina-based Transforming Solutions.
For many of them, it’s not just the money that’s influencing them to avoid the expense and travel of attending big conferences.
“The energy and time is almost as important as the money factor because people are so busy these days and life is so demanding,” Hammett said.
And those making these decisions aren’t just individuals and churches, he said.
“Convention budgets are plummeting,” he said. “Most denominations are downsizing staff and programming and being far more selective.”
The change has been especially notable in Baptist life, Hammett said, where conferences had often been free. “Now it’s cost recovery or subsidized by some kind of registration fee.”
Hammett also said he’s seeing many younger Christians substituting peer learning groups for conferences.
Building relationships
That kind of approach has paid significant dividends for pastors who have attended “The Young Pastors Gathering” the past three years, Lankford said.
They’ve covered themes like how to fire employees and how to work with colleagues who are significantly older and wiser. This year, the theme is how to work with colleagues engaged in other kinds of ministry, such as youth and music ministers.
Issues of race will also be considered in a panel discussion.
Lankford said such topics are necessary for younger lead and associate pastors.
And so are practical topics like preparing for Lent.
“We had one session where we walked through each of the Sundays of Lent,” Lankford said. “We took turns pitching preaching ideas, worship ideas and we walked away from that week with a whole folder of stuff.”
Another benefit to the gathering has been the fellowship it’s offered for ministers of similar age in a fellowship marked by an age gap between older and younger clergy, Lankford said.
“I hope this is building a relationship with those with whom we will spend the next 30 years [in ministry] together,” he said.
‘When faith trembles’
It’s precisely that fellowship that Carbonell said she hopes to join by attending the gathering next week.
While she is also going as a panelist on the “Diverse race/ethnic ministry in the historic Baptist church” workshop, she’s also looking for help with ministry challenges of her own.
As the sole pastor of her Hispanic congregation, Carbonell is also serving as youth minister in addition to all her other pastoral duties. There is no money to hire a youth pastor.
“I fear losing these youth and children if we don’t do something.”
She’s hoping to engage with other pastors who have faced — and solved — similar challenges.
Carbonell said she also wants to encounter “others who walk the same path” and who understand “those moments when faith trembles.”