I received in the mail the text, The Crisis of Younger Clergy, by Lovett H. Weems Jr. and Ann A. Michel, on April 2nd, via amazon.com. I just finished reading it and find it helpful as we think about the future of the church, especially the United Methodist Church.
This text focuses primarily on where we are at with regards to the clergy leadership of the United Methodist Church, especially in relation to those who are commissioned and ordained as elders under the age of 35. In 2007 there were 876 such individuals. The text then moves to argue for vital steps needed for the church to remedy this situation at multiple levels: local church, districts, conference, and general church.
The basis of the data for this text was an assessment that the Lewis Center for Church Leadership carried out in 2006. Shelly and I participated in this assessment back when we lived and served in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conferece. That assessment, along with additional researched that Weeems and Michel have performed, provide the basis of data of this text.
The most striking evidence is to compare the number of less than 35 years old clergy over the past 35 years. Here are the numbers:
- In 1973 21.2% of the elders were under 35 years old.
- In 1985 15.1% of the elders were under 35 years old – 3,219 of the 21,378 clergy
- In 2007 only 4.92% of the elders were under 35 – 876 of the 17,800 clergy
These numbers are stagering, and yet, they also reflect the general nature of the church – it is an aging gathering of disciples, continuing to discern what it is called to do and be in the world. Thus, as the authors note, our efforts for younger clergy are tied inextribcably to the renewal and revitalization of the church.
This text was helpful to confirm my perspective of the ministry as elder in the UMC, and yet much of the information was not new. There is the statement that this text sounds a horn of warning about the state of the church and especially its leadership, however, I think that this horn has already been blown. The vital point will be how we will seek to make change that will invite new persons to respond to the call of God to be in leadership (both clergy and lay) with our congregations.
See the discussion of the topic “Q&A: Why young clergy are important to the UMC” with Dr. Weems on The UM Portal.
Questions: What steps ought to be taken by our own conference, to ensure strong leadership now and into the future? Is God no longer calling younger clergy into full-time pastoral ministry? Or are we not providing an enviroment for those younger disciples to respond and flourish?
