Unique Co-ministry at nearby church

[Ed Pettibone]

The Historic Clifton Park Center Baptist Church, has called a couple as co-pastors. What makes this unique is that the wife will be the full-time pastor and the husband will be a bi-vocational associate. I do not know them however some of our friend have been acquainted with them when in Massachusetts. Clifton Park is the "Mother Church" of several churches in the Capital Area Association, including Burnt Hills where Trudy currently pastors. Unlike Burnt Hills and most of the historic churches in the Area Clifton Park center BC, has a rather modern building and the town is home to one of the largest school districts in the state. Unlike much of Upstate NY it is a school district that has had a steadily growing student population for nearly 20 years, and had become a major Shopping area at exit 10 on the NY Northway, I -87. BTW, the church still has four walls of their original brick building built in the 1770's, the roof caved in under heavy snow in February of 2014. Those walls may stand until there are no more members who worshiped in that building before the new one was built.

[Tim Bonney]

There was a co-pastorate in a Disciples church in one town I served in. They were actually co-equal. A little bit different arrangement. But it worked well for a lot of years.

[Haruo]

Anne Hall and Tim Phillips had a successful copastorate for a number of years at University Baptist in Seattle; eventually he needed more salary and she left to join ELCA as a youth minister at University Lutheran, leaving Tim as sole pastor.

[Ed Pettibone]

Ed: The Uniqueness here is with the co-pastors being Wife and husband. Husband and wife not so unique among Pentecostals but not very common among Baptist. Yes, ABC/USA has a good number of women pastors but still a minority in most locals .

The Methodist church here is the only one with multiple clergy staff, and they are both women.

[Haruo]

A decade or more back, my brother Alan's UCC church, University Congregational, had a gay male couple as coequal Associate Pastors for a while.

[Ed Pettibone]

[Shawn Koester]

An interesting set up. First time I've heard of a husband wife co pastorate where one spouse is full time and the other is bi-vocational. Usually I've seen either bi-vocationals or Full timers but not one bi-vocational and one full timer. My prayers are with them in this new pastorate.

[Ed Pettibone]

[Mrs Haruo]

Back 25 years ago when I was a member of a Nazarene church in Santa Clara CA, we were without a pastor for quite awhile. The pastor who had been there since I joined took a call to a rural town where he felt it was a better atmosphere to raise his little girls away from the hustle and bustle of Silicon Valley. The search committee found an older couple, both ordained who were looking for a church closer to the ocean for the sake of his wife's lung problems. The agreement was that he would usually give the Sunday morning message and his wife would preach Sunday evening. We had a well attended Sunday evening song service where those attending would request hymns and when our throats started getting sore the someone would preach a short sermon. It worked well for awhile, but she unfortunately spent more and more time at home hooked to an oxygen tank. I moved out of the area soon before they retired.