LPM/PACE
Lay Pastors Ministry (LPM, USA)
This is the system of congregational care by lay people. This concept is in the Melvin’s PACE Training Manual. In the introduction part, it says like that.
It means this is not a program but kind of system. What does that mean? Once we say system, we may recall a few things, but easily we might think of a computer system. When we talk about computers, we know how it works. Once we push the start button, our computer is on. That is the SYSTEM. This ministry is just like that. What and who does, and when and how it works. Church ministry should be like that.
Pastor alone, laypeople alone could not do that. If we look at the Bible it says that we are one body, one church, also one God which means the leader has to think how his act, his talk will be effective to the lay people. If they have a caring heart, it goes to them directly; if they don’t have the mindset, then laypeople know that. Lay people also need to know their church is the system, which their act will be effective to their peers directly. So the Bible says each one is the part of the whole body; hands, eyes, so on. As we see computers, every single part of our body, that is, every single of our members are connected directly and indirectly. That’s why Professor Paul Stevens stressed that to see the Pastor as a system leader. In his book, The Equipping Pastor, he explained more in detail. Lay Pastors Ministry is also the brand of this ministry.
First they, LPMI USA, put the name in the beginning, ‘Lay Pastoral Care Ministry’ which means this ministry is done by lay people, and it is on the pastoral care, but later on they changed the name to Lay Pastors Ministry (called LPM), which means Lay Pastors are doing this Ministry, its core ministry is PACE; Prayer, Available, Contact, and Example. They focused on the person Lay Pastors.
PACE
PACE is the Ministry Description of a Lay Pastor. When a lay person joins the Lay Pastors Ministry in a local church, he/she makes a commitment to PACE. P=Prayer A=Availability C=Contact E=Example.
Dr. Melvin J. Steinbron introduced the Lay Pastors Ministry to College Hill Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati in 1978. It has since expanded to churches of many denominations across the United States and around the world. The four elements in the acrostic PACE became the basis for what a Lay Pastor would have to do to adequately care for the families in his/her flock.
If you read Dr. Steinbron’s book, Can The Pastor Do It Alone?, you will find a fully outlined Equipping Seminar for Lay Pastors. PACE is an essential part of that Seminar.
Textbook
Can the Pastor Do It Alone?
PACE Training Manual (by Dr. Melvin)
1. CONCEPT AND THEOLOGY
2. WHO NEEDS IT?
3. COMMITMENTS
4. THE CAL
5. BUILDING A RELATIONSHIP
6. ABOUT LISTENING
7. “BEING” PRECEDES “DOING”
8. KEEPING SPIRITUALITY FIT
9. ANATOMY OF A VISIT
10. BEING PROFESSIONAL
11. CONFIDENTIALITY
12. DIFFICULTIES INTO POSSIBILITIES
Training Manual
Supporting Paper
Answering Paper
PACE Effects
Just like Butterfly effects, Domino effects…so PACE is as well. There are many bad effects in the world. One terrible behavior makes the world upside down.
Care for others has effects. Caring is abstract, it doesn’t see clearly to our eyes, but people feel it just like air. For instance, you know the word, “consideration”, in other words “thoughtfulness” at job place, to personal relationships, so on…couldn’t see but feel it. That is very trivial thing, but it affects people’s daily life and sometimes its memories go very long, in longevity. That’s PACE. Just like bad and terrible things affect many people, caring with consideration and thoughtfulness are also effects to the people.
Mostly great things take place from very small things. All great effects happen from a small place, one person’s idea, from insights, dreams, even from behaviors. Let’s say Mother Teresa. She started with a merciful mind seeing the dying people in the street. Small beginnings. Small consideration…but its effect was enormous.
It depends on how we see people. Shouldn’t try to change them, as we know we are going to change them, but they become more protected attitudes, then it makes their habits, and later it might be their bad life’s philosophy. As good as small consideration affects their life journey, small bad effects go far longer in their memories.
PACE-ing is surely giving effects. Even though we never tried it intentionally, but it comes out naturally. That’s it. So we need to sharpen our inner being endlessly.
PACE is Core value
Core value is important to any ministries. It’s kind of the spiritual center of it and people to whom those are committed in that ministry.
I remember the books “Built to Last” or “Good to Great”, Jim Collins says, if we want to do lasting ministry, we need both Core Value and Stimulate Progress which he, got a diagram of Yin-Yang, Chinese philosophy.
Yes, we have to keep on going but…it should be based on Value…e.g., core value.
Core Value of Lay Pastors Ministry is P.A.C.E which is no question of it. It calls ministry description as known to us from Dr. Melvin. But it’s also the core value of the ministry.
Core value is not changeable. Others are changeable.
It keeps us on the right track.
It keeps us getting deeper.
Furthermore, it keeps us to use it with our bones and flesh.
Furthermore, it keeps us thinking of the ministry continually.
Likewise, it keeps us going because we are confident in this truth.
PACE is NOT from learning.
But what is practiced and accumulated! Once we get feedback on P.AC. E. ministry from pastors of LPM Network churches, a couple of them were saying “PACE is the just Lifestyle.”
How can we become some model of lifestyle?: from leading? Yes, In the beginning stage we need to learn the basic meaning and concept of it, but soon we are learning from our own experiences.
Through the trial & error, e.g., field experiences, we taste P.A.C.E slowly, so we become experts of it slowly, we might call them practitioner. (Rev. Sangbok Kim, the former pastor of Hallelujah Church, said “Lay Pastors are specialists on this ministry”). We are learning shorter, but its practice is longer (it takes 8–10 hours to complete the coursework/equipping seminar, but takes many years to practice).
Through our practice we realize more depth of its concept: Prayer. Available. Concept. Example. We are becoming more and more quality people, an integrated person, because those four ministries (P.A.C.E) make us into that kind of person naturally and also automatically.
Eventually, it becomes the philosophy of our own life, more accumulating with those qualifications, and in the end we might be the fullness of the image of Christ.
So, practice for it please!
I have studied, taught, and practiced PACE many years, even though not enough yet, but it made me where and what I am now.◆