My Thoughts on Craig Groeschel's Thoughts on the UMC- Part 3

In his blogs on the UMC last week (pt. 1, pt. 2, pt. 3, pt. 4, pt. 5, pt. 6) Craig Groeschel focused his third posting on the ordination process of the United Methodist Church.  Here is a piece of what he wrote...

"As I continue to think about the future of the United Methodist Church, I’m hopeful that the UMC (and other mainline denominational churches) will attract and retain more young leaders.
To do so effectively would take many fundamental changes. One might include re-evaluating the ordination process. When I was a UMC pastor, I was an un-ordained “local pastor” for three years, spent four years in seminary (while serving full time at a church) and had two more years before I’d become fully ordained as an elder."

Groeschel goes on to say that many young leaders want to "get in the game" without the denominational hurdles to clear.  I have to admit, I agree with Groeschel 100% on this one.  I started my process towards ordination in 2004 when I was 25 (I'll be 32 later this year).  I have been in seminary for 4 years with one more year to go.  Hopefully I can be commissioned in 2011 and get ordained by 2013.  If that is how it works out, I will have been in this process for 9 years! Does it take 9 years to affirm that someone is gifted, called, and equipped for ministry?

It's been a struggle of mine to see other churches who have pastors in the early 20's leading the helm and impementing the vision that God has given them for the church and community.  Even if I was reappointed this year- six years would have passed from when I started this journey and I would just begin to be able to try out some of the skills and vision that God has placed in my heart. (As an associate, some of those have to simmer on the back burner for a while!)

I can think of Jon Weece (Southland Christian Church outside Lexington, KY) or Steven Furtick from Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC as examples of pastors who are leading large churches and doing many creative things- yet began their leadership in the church in their late 20's.  No, I'm not aspiring to becoming a mega-church pastor- but to bring out the point that they were placed in a position where they could lead and influence even though they were/are younger.  Had they been in the United Methodist Church- they might have left after seeing all the hurdles that must be cleared.

Some thoughts-

1. While I affirm seminary (and have enjoyed it), God does not need well educated people to bring about His Kingdom.  Do we need seminary to be a pastor?  If the UMC decides we need it- does one really have to graduate before they can become "ordained"?
2. Wouldn't the UMC be better equipped for the future if it cleared the pathway for younger pastors to be put in positions of influence to win over the emerging generations for Christ?
3. Does the length of the current process lend itself to creating effective pastors? Or is it more likely to lead to discouragement?

What are you thoughts on the ordination process?  Are you in it?  What is your experience?  If you could change something, what would it be?

Young Clergy and the United Methodist Church

I've been meaning to write this post for about a week, but seminary just started back up and I've been watching Abbie all week since our daycare is closed. So here we go...

I followed a link from the United Methodist Young Clergy page to a study done by the Lewis Center at Wesley Theological Seminary regarding the number of young clergy (under 35) in the United Methodist Church. (You can find the report here) The statistics are rather disheartening as someone who is in the ordination process in the UMC. This particular study tracked Elders (and those commissioned yet in their probationary/provisional period) under 35 and gave a break down of each conference. Let me give you some of the statistics from the report- with some thoughts afterwards.

According to the report...

• 5.21% of Elders are under the age of 35. This is a decrease of almost 10% since 1985 (15.06%).
• As of 2008, there were 910 Elders under 35. In 1985, that number was 3219.
• In 2007, there were 40,100,000 young adults age 25-24, with only 876 Elders in that same age range...a ration of 1 Elder for every 45,000 Young Adult.
• In 2006, there were 26,083 Pastoral charges and 881 Elders under 35. A ratio of 1 Elder under 35 for every 30 churches.
• In my conference (Peninsula-Delaware), as of 2008 there were 2 Elders under the age of 35, comprising of 1.08% of our ordained/commissioned clergy. (I believe that number went up to 4 for 2009)

The report list some other denominations statistics for ordained clergy under 35 and the Methodist Church is not alone in this. Only two denominations report that more than 10% of their ordained clergy is under 35 (Church of the Nazerene, Reformed Judaism).

Linked to this issue, I believe, is our feeble attempt at reaching out to college age/young adults in meaningful ways and inviting them to be apart of the Kingdom of God. I've heard it said that a pastor can generally connect with people 10-15 years older and younger than themselves. That could be true as the average age of our ordained Elders is 52- many may have difficulty connecting culturally, relationally with those younger than 35.

So what can we do?

1. More Young Clergy: To this I will say yes, and no. On the yes side- The United Methodist Church (and the Christian Church as a whole) needs more young clergy to help effectively share the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world around them. People need to hear this Gospel from their peers- and most importantly, see it lived out from someone their age that they can relate too. Having more young clergy in pulpits and in leadership can be inviting to a young adult who is exploring his/her faith.
   
   Certainly seminary takes time to go through- but the entire length of the ordination process is too long. I started at 26 and will be lucky to be ordained by the time I am 35. Many young pastors are burnt out on the process and by their poor placements in charges that are not willing to allow creativity and passion to be evident.
   
2. On the "no" side of this answer- it takes much more than having younger clergy to reach a world who are thirsting for the living waters of Christ. I have heard (in my annual conference and on blogs/websites) that more young clergy is the way to solve our lack of young adults persuing their faith in the church. It's brought up like a cure-all. This is false thinking. As a denominational level, I feel that we are very much stuck in the 1980's or 1990's in our thinking (maybe in earlier than that). We have failed to keep up with the cultural changes that have taken place.
   
   Since our newest slogan is ReThink Church- we must be willing to really rethink how we go about our ministries. I fear that this is just a catching tagline that the UM marketing department has developed rather than the heart of our leaders in our General and Annual Conferences. In my own conference, I have seen very little dialouge on what it means to rethink church as clergy.
   
   If we were able to Rethink Church; If we were able to live Church as a verb- people (including Young Adults) would be attracted. It happened in Acts when the Holy Spirit came upon those gathered in the Upper Room. They lived life differently and people noticed and wanted to join in because of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. If that was the case today- we would see more people of all ages seeking to live out their faith, and in turn, have more people (of all ages) desiring to serve God through (but not limited to) ordained ministry.

I pray for myself and my brothers and sisters who are pursuing ordination that we would not lose our passion. That we would have the strength and courage to rock the boat, to go against the flow, and to seek to allow God to work through us in ways that we could never imagine.