Good news for young clergy
Saturday, December 06, 2008
A few weeks ago, I posted about the new findings of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership at Wesley Seminary about recent trends in the numbers of under-35 year old clergy in the United Methodist Church.
As you may be aware, the Lewis Center's original report, covering the years 1985 to 2005, showed a distressing downward trend in the numbers of young clergy in the church. But the updated findings show that the trend may be reversing, as both the absolute numbers of young clergy and the numbers of young clergy as a percentage of all UM elders has risen.
I recently spent some more time reading the report, and I contacted the director of the Lewis Center, Dr. Lovett Weems, for his thoughts on the new findings. I discuss my thoughts in my new column in the UM Reporter, "New stats offer hope for young UM clergy."
Dr. Weems is cautiously optimistic about what the Center has found. But he notes that he thinks various levels of the church are really doing a lot in nurturing a 'culture of call' that facilitates the ability of youth and young adults to hear the Holy Spirit's calling on their lives to ministry. He cites the work of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, the advocacy of individual annual conferences, and the proactive attitude of young clergy themselves in helping their brothers and sisters respond to the call.
All of this is encouraging news. And it is a great reminder to each of us that we have a responsibility to help raise up a new generation of leaders in the church. God is good!
Labels: Clergy, Lewis Center for Church Leadership, Lovett Weems, Young Adults
posted by Andrew C. Thompson at 4:03 PM
17 Comments:
But which sex constitutes the majority of ordinands? It's probably overwhelmingly female.
The statistics from the Lewis Center report larger percentages of UM elders who are women, as you look at younger age brackets. For instance, as I point out in my column, for the first time ever more than 1/3 of under-35 year old UM elders are currently women.
I don't know about the statistics on those currently in the candidacy process. Unless I'm mistaken, the work of the Lewis Center is focused on those who have been ordained.
But let me be clear - I don't consider rising numbers of women clergy to be bad news! On the contrary, I think it's good for the church. The blog post I wrote last week about the life and ministry of Rev. Kathleen Baskin-Ball is one very powerful example of that.
Andrew,
Do you really believe this about female ordination? Or, is this just the right thing to say? I don't want to open the whole female ordination question, but seriously, since their inclusion into the ranks of the ministry, there has been nothing but decline and crazy theology. Does one have anything to do with another? I am willing to say yes.
"Where orthodoxy is optional, it will eventually be proscribed." My sense is that when mainline churches opened the door to female pastors, it opened the door to homosexual ordination, universalism, and unitarianism.
Jeff-PA, USA
If the decline were about women's ordination then you wouldn't see the same decline in denominations like the Missouri Synod church.
Almost every church (specifically mainline) has the same issue in a lack of clergy, etc. and so to "place" the blame on women's ordination is fundamentally misguided.
I think we all would do well to really reflect on what we can do now rather then trying to "blame" someone or something.
I would not be where I am today as a minister if it were not for women leaders at all levels of the church. I am blessed to work with so many talented ministers here in Minnesota (and many of those are women).
Thanks Andrew for passing along the news about the uptick in young clergy. I believe that the Weems study actually takes into consideration those clergy enrolled in the pension plan and therefore includes those who are commissioned towards elders orders. For instance the 2008 numbers include those who would have entered in the 2007 class (Minnesota went from 8 to 13 and there were 5 of us under 35 in my commissioning class pointing to our inclusion in the study).
I was at Annual Conference Recruiters Meeting this past week in Nashville and it was wonderful to hear some of the things other conferences were doing in terms of "creating a culture of call" etc. It gave us many ideas to bring back to our conference and see what we can do in our context. Renewal is a wonderful adventure to be a part of.
Thanks Again
Justin Halbersma
Chatfield UMC
Female clergy are the ones that push for the ordination of homosexuals and same sex marriage/unions. Their all-inclusive mindset has weakened mainline churches and watered down Scripture to the point where mainline Protestantism is barely relevant. Mainline Protestantism can no longer lay claim to the moral rhetoric in our society. The Catholic Church could not capture the moral rhetoric of the nation and neither could the conservative evangelicals. The Mainline HAD that edge. Now the Mainline is withering away. There were just under 10 million members in the UMC when I joined the church in 1989. From what I hear, the figure is now less than 8.5 million. 1,000 Episcopalians are walking out of their church every week. The PCUSA is also headed into oblivion with new provisions in the works for gay clergy. The 'God Box' at 475 Riverside Drive, where President Eisenhower mounted the first stone in the 1950s, is the symbol of a once great mainline. That era is long gone. The continued feminization of mainline churches has brought chased families (particularly men) away from these churches.
Sad but true....
Dave-
To speak of females in such a broad-sweeping fashion and to claim that the "feminization" of the church is the reason for decline I find rather disturbing. First, it assumes that the female gender is somehow "inferior" to the male gender and "masculinity." Second, by focusing on the binary structure of difference I believe it detracts from what we as Christians are called to do which is root our identity in Christ.
If we take baptism seriously and recognize that through it we become a new creation then we also have to theologically face the reality that we no longer take claim to worldly "identity" binaries that tend to divide us. I find that there is a recurring theme in Scripture of people using an "us-them" mentality that God tries to reshape and frame in a "we" (as in unity in Christ, etc.).
I think it is far more valuable for us as members of the Body of Christ (not just Methodists) to start focusing more on "who we are called to be in Christ" rather than playing the "blame" game.
I know we will disagree on this subject and I don't want to get in an argument. All I can say is I don't think that "women" or "female clergy" are to blame for the decline of Methodism.
Blessings to you.
Pastor Justin Halbersma
Chatfield UMC (Minnesota)
And the Pope is the antichrist! Wait...what?
Blaming Mainline decline on women's ordination is arrogant and ignorant.
Let me play Joe Friday: "Just the facts, maam." I'm afraid the sexist comments here are utterly unsupported by facts. Everyone and their dog has an opinion - OPINION - as to why the Mainline has and is declining.
Unfortunately for the sexist commentators, the Lewis Center's facts support women in ordination. Why? Because young clergy in the UMC is now growing WITH the most number of women clergy ever!
Moreover, to suppose that women are somehow more "liberal" than men is spurious. Again, where's the data? My wife and many of the other fantastic Methodist women pastors I know are just as orthodox as the men I know. Hell, my DS is a woman and far more competent than most of the men clergy I've ever met.
Back to the drawing board, boys.
Dude, Andrew, when did you get your very own trolls? You must really be famous now.
For some time, women have carried the chief load of the work of the churches in the West. The ordaining of women can only make a bad situation worse. Since men are by Creation fitted to lead spiritually, they cannot and will not be willing, in the long run to serve under the spiritual leadership of women. They will simply leave the church to the women altogether. Europe is a case in point. More than 400 priests left the Church of England over the decision to ordain women to the priesthood. Ever greater numbers of women entering seminary will speed up the process.
Pastor Taylor,
There is no such thing as an 'orthodox' female pastor. And if you believe that women and sexual deviates should be ordained, then you are not orthodox.
Respectfully,
Dave
I find myself in a predicament of apocalyptic proportions (literally): my penis equips me for the kingdom of God, yet my marriage to a woman pastor makes me unorthodox.
Dave, once again you replace data with speculation and personal bias.
Since Casey told me not to look at this comment board, I did. Just goes to show women should listen to men and submit to their wisdom... especially when it will protect us from masculine bigotry.
Dave, I have a few things to say in response to your posts:
1. Neither the Nicene Creed nor the Apostles' Creed, which encompass the orthodoxy of the Christian church, have anything to say about women's ordination. Therefore, belief that there is room within Christian orthodoxy for women to be ordained to pastoral ministry is perfectly viable. You would have to appeal to something other than the measure of orthodoxy to make your case against women's ordination.
2. You're right that women have done most of the work in the western church, but you stop too short. Women have been the workhorses of the church since its inception. Remember who buried Jesus? Remember who all Paul names in his greetings in Romans 16? Check out Rodney Stark's book, "The Rise of Christianity." Women's membership in and contribution to church life at every level for the past two-thousand years has far outstripped men's, so that it can hardly be blamed for what you see as a "decline" in the last few hundred (or less).
3. Your reference to women's "all-inclusive mindset" leading to a "watered down Scripture" is offensive. I'll grant that no one should accept any viewpoint uncritically, especially when it appears to conflict with scriptural teaching. However, it is false (and offensive to say it) that this is what all women or women generally do.
4. Your generalizations about men are no more accurate—all men are manifestly NOT equipped to be spiritual leaders. To say that they are so by creation is a poor construal of Scripture. Some men do a brilliant job of it, and some are miserable failures. The same is true of women.
5. If mainline Protestantism is failing, it is not because women make bad pastors, or bad interpreters of Scripture, but rather because there isn't enough theological dialogue and discernment involving the whole church. Decisions about who can be ordained have been based upon a certain political climate and the church's desire to fit in—that is an ax at the root of orthodoxy. Ecumenical councils used to decide the doctrine before initiating changes in practice. Failure to follow that precedent is the church's failure today. However, just because the church has made such decisions without enough theological engagement doesn't mean the decisions are wrong, or have no basis in sound theology. If you want to fight a battle, Dave, push for ecclesial conferences that argue these issues out on the basis of Scripture and the church's ecumenical tradition. That's the real issue, not who can be ordained.
That's my piece, fellows. Nice to see you on here, Justin, Andrew and Casey.
Celia I. Wolff
Blessings Celia and a wonderful and thoughtful response.
On #5
What right can a tiny portion of the church universal have to make such a fundamental change unilaterally when it affects our understanding of so many doctrines of the faith and deepens the division between Church bodies of orthodox faith? Surely failing to persuade the vast majority of the world's Christians in their several Communions should give us profound pause and lead us to test things by a fresh examination of Scripture.
Well, Dave, obviously convincing the Roman Catholic church and Orthodox bishops would be a massive project... and really it's not likely that these communions would be inclined to take doctrinal input from mainline Protestant denominations. The RCC and Orthodox communions have different reasons for not ordaining women than the Protestant church has. Also, by your line of reasoning, should we take our cue on clergy marital status from the RC since we haven't been able to convince them that celibacy is not required? There are so many differences in practice between the oldest traditions and mainline Protestantism that singling out women's ordination doesn't make much sense. Moreover, I think that mainline (and other) Protestants have enough work to do getting on the same page regarding Scripture and doctrinal issues within their own denominations (which mainline church is not on the verge of a split over issues of who can be ordained?). While having universal agreement about such doctrinal issues would be ideal, let's not cast the net too wide before mending the local holes in it.
What a surprise, after a day proctoring final exams and grading papers, to check back in and find this conversation going! I have to admit that, out of all the blog posts I've written, I never thought one as harmless as this one would generate so much controversy. It has ventured from the provocative, to the bizarre, to the surreal, and finally to the downright doctrinal.
Thanks to everyone who has weighed in. Since the turn of conversation has turned doctrinal, I wanted to share a few doctrinal thoughts of my own.
Ordained ministry - what it is, who is called to it, and its role in the church - is a question that must be answered with reference to Scripture and the teaching of the church. In my case (and from this blog's perspective), the church in question is the United Methodist Church. I recognize the ecumenical imperatives - referenced in comments above - that we all have as members of the church catholic. But one must start with one's own communion, and in the context of the present conversation that is the UMC.
First, to Scripture. Women have been called to lead the people of God since the time of Deborah the Judge (Judges 4). If we are looking for whether God calls women to positions of power and authority from a Scriptural standpoint, we need look no further than there or to Queen Esther. But even within the context of the New Testament witness of the early church, we find that women are called to prophesy along with men (Acts 2), that women were in fact prophesying from the earliest period (Acts 21), and that women served as deacons in the church (Romans 16, and possibly, 1 Timothy 3). Then, of course, there's my favorite: the first person in history to preach the gospel of resurrection was a woman (Mary Magdalene, in John 20). So although the earliest church was undoubtedly male-dominated in its leadership, there is evidence that the Holy Spirit called women to important roles of preaching the good news and laboring in the gospel as servant leaders.
And second, to the church's doctrine (with references to the Book of Discipline, 2004). We believe that in ordination, "the church affirms and continues the apostolic ministry through persons empowered by the Holy Spirit" (Par.303.1) and that ordination "is fulfilled in leadership of the people of God through ministries of Service, Word, Sacrament, and Order" (Par.303.2). For over fifty years, the church has officially recognized that women are fully included in the calling to ordained ministry. And we see this as a faithful expression of the calling of the Holy Spirit on women's lives since the time of the apostles.
A crucial connective tissue between the witness of Scripture and the doctrine of the church for Wesleyans is found in the early Methodist movement, when John Wesley recognized the "extraordinary call" that the Holy Spirit had given to women like Mary Bosanquet Fletcher and Sarah Crosby to proclaim the good news as preachers. Any accounting of providence that includes God working in a special way through the people called Methodists has got to include such instances as an important part of the tradition.
Part of the discussion in the comments section on this post got started with reflections on the decline of the church. I don't disagree there one bit. But you simply must look deeper into our history to see where the church began to go astray. It wasn't with the recognition of women's leadership gifts; Methodist women have been serving as leaders since Wesley. The church's real problem is a complex one that is wrapped up in the Methodist Episcopal Church's desire to gain respectability as an institution in the growing American republic of the nineteenth century. By the time the northern and southern branches of the church reunited (along with the Methodist Protestants) in 1939, it was simply inconceivable that being a good Methodist and being a good American could be two different things. And friends, when your church throws all its chips in with the surrounding culture, the chances of you living a life distinct from the world are close to nil. It isn't that Methodists intentionally sought to be "tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine" (Ephesians 4:14). Its just that we mistakenly believed we had irrevocably Christianized our culture. And we couldn't have been more wrong.
None of that, of course, has to do with women's ordination. There is nothing inherent in women that makes them less able to preach, teach, and minister. We are blessed to have women deacons and elders in our church, and the leadership they provide is invaluable. They are where they are because Jesus Christ put them there.
Two years ago I wrote a UM Reporter column about the 50th anniversary of women gaining full clergy rights, which is here if anyone is interested:
http://www.umportal.org/article.asp?id=893
Grace & peace,
Andrew
Wonderful thoughts Andrew. If you happen to run into Chris Klopp or Brian Manley tell them I say hi.
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