Called To Pastor, Not Co-Pastor

By Rev. Rachel Williams-Glenn & Rev. Dr. V. Gordon Glenn, III

When we met, in seminary we knew that God was calling us to be pastors. At the time, we were in two different denominations so we would not be under the same supervision. No problem, right? We graduated from seminary and were ordained in our respective denominations. Shortly after we were married, one joined the denomination of the other’s birth and was re-obligated and ordained into the itinerancy – first as an itinerant deacon, then as an itinerant elder. Our individual call to pastor did not change, but we were now in the same denomination.

We started in two different annual conferences. No problem, right? Then those conferences merged into one but under two different presiding elder districts. No problem, right? As time went on, we ended up in the same conference, in the same presiding elder district, but that wasn’t a problem for us because God had made it abundantly clear that we were both called to pastor, not co-pastor. Some asked, “Don’t you want to be like Revs. (insert clergy couple name here) who are co-pastoring (insert name of local AME Church here)?” Others in leadership tried to “get us to a place where we [could] co-pastor.” Though we always replied, “God called us to pastor, not co-pastor,” we started to second guess ourselves questioning if we heard God clearly all those years ago. 

We tried it for a season when one of us was taking a sabbatical from pastoring to finish a second master’s degree. The result was disastrous. We won’t go into the details, but it was a challenge to our ministry, home, and marriage and solidified that we did hear God clearly all those years back in our seminary days.

We know our obedience to God’s calling on our lives presents a challenge to leadership and raises questions like, “What shall we do with The Glenns? Promote one and demote the other? Give one an appointment and leave the other without an appointment? Assign one to the city and the other to the rural?” But our obedience to what we know supersedes their challenges.

Traveling throughout the connectional church, we discovered we are “odd ducks,” “unicorns,” and “easter eggs” – entities so rare that we are like someone with AB neutral blood type. We are among the few and far between – seminary-educated, itinerant elders, pastoring two separate churches, while parenting a school-aged child – who are still married. But, we cannot be the only ones. We’d like to connect with the other “odd ducks” in our denomination. We know you are out there. We’d like to form a group of some sort where we can get together – virtually or in person – to share stories and support each other.

If our story resonates with you, you can find us on Facebook. Send a direct message to our inbox, so we can navigate this journey together.

Rachel Williams-Glenn, LMFT, is pastor at St. Luke AME Church in Lawrence, Kansas. V. Gordon Glenn III, ThD, is pastor at Grant Chapel AME Church in Wichita, Kansas. They live in Overland Park, Kansas and are the parents of two.