c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) When laity describe their ideal pastor, they often prefer “a nice young man with a family,” as one denominational official said. Nice young men and women do become pastors, but they are a minority in the pool of American clergy. I concentrate here on the word “young.” Whether male or female, young clergy are in short supply.

In one sense, this is no surprise. For at least the past 25 years, an increasing percentage of seminary students have been second-career students; that is, they have worked in at least one other occupation prior to seminary.

A 1999 Auburn Seminary study of entering seminarians found their average age to be 35. This means an older pool of clergy serving congregations: 56 is the average age of Catholic priests, and 51 for Protestant pastors. That is in sharp contrast with the 1960s, when the average age of seminarians was approximately 25 and the average age for a pastor was in the mid-40s.

A study of clergy age trends from Wesley Theological Seminary further highlights the lack of young clergy. In 1985, 15 percent of United Methodist pastors were under age 35; in 2005, they were fewer than 5 percent.

Other Protestant denominations report similar percentages under 35 (between 4 percent and 5.5 percent). The Presbyterian Church (USA) is an exception with just more than 7 percent; Nazarenes are another, with 12.7 percent. Just 3.1 percent of Catholic priests are under 35.

It is not only the second-career phenomenon that affects clergy’s average age. A significant number of seminary graduates _ especially younger graduates, whose numbers have started to grow in recent years _ are choosing not to become parish pastors.

Instead, they look to serve in other types of ministry or in a secular job. Daniel Aleshire of the Association of Theological Schools recently reported that only about half of those graduating with a Master of Divinity degree now enter parish ministry _ down 15 percent to 20 percent from five years ago.

In short, lay members looking for a “nice young pastor” are likely to be disappointed. There are too few to go around.

Is this a problem? There is not a clear yes or no answer.

It isn’t a problem when one considers the maturity and experience that many second-career clergy bring to pastoral ministry; I met many such clergy in the course of my research. Additionally, small congregations would have no pastoral leadership at all were it not for dedicated older men and women willing to serve these churches.

Yet, there is a problem when we ask what it is about pastoral ministry that is sufficiently unattractive to lead many younger, first-career seminarians to say, “No thanks. I want a theological education, but I’m just not interested in becoming a pastor,” or who enter parish ministry but drop out after a few years.

Is it the low pay compared to what is available in many other occupations? Is it resistance to having to serve in their first assignment in a small congregation, often in a rural area or small town? Is it the demanding work schedule of pastoral ministry? Is it the lack of attractive role models and mentors among the clergy that they have known? Is it increasingly conflicted parishes, or the difficulty of reaching people with the gospel today? Is it lack of denominational support? Is it a perception that local congregations seem so darn parochial?

Or another question: What does an aging clergy imply for the churches?

Apart from the effect on health insurance and pensions, there is another issue: If one compares the average age of current U.S. church members with that of the clergy, one finds that they are quite similar: laity in most denominations average in their mid-50s _ much the same as their clergy.

But this is quite different from the age of the general population, a large percentage of whom are young adults between 18 and 44 _ Generations X and Y. Taken together, these two generations are almost double the size of the baby boomers, the oldest of whom will reach their 60th birthday this year; the youngest, their 46th.

For a long time, we’ve been keenly aware of boomers’ impact on many aspects of our culture, including religion. Yet if boomers are culturally different from preceding generations, their younger cohorts carry those differences further _ especially in their religious involvement and attitudes toward congregations. One wonders, therefore, whether aging congregations led by an aging clergy will be able to attract and capture the religious imaginations and commitment of these new generations.

It does matter that many younger men and women are not being attracted to pastoral ministry. These issues are important and beg to be addressed by laity and denominational and seminary leaders.

Clearly, not every congregation needs “a nice young man or woman with a family” as its pastor, but we face some serious problems if we don’t find ways to make the pastorate attractive to such persons.

KRE/JL END CARROLL

(Jackson W. Carroll is the author of “God’s Potters: Pastoral Leadership and the Shaping of Congregations” and professor emeritus of religion and society at Duke Divinity School in Durham, N.C.)

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