We Need More Pastors

A few years ago, George Barna published a study called “The State of Pastors.” The study revealed that the average age of pastors in 2017 is 54. “Only one in seven pastors is under 40, and half are over 55. The percentage of church leaders 65 and older has nearly tripled, meaning there are now more pastors in the oldest age bracket than there are leaders younger than 40.”

Several news items reported the study, see “Only 1 in 7 Senior Pastors Is Under 40” at Christianity Today, and “American pastors are older, and getting older, than ever” at Baptist News Global. The aging of pastors as a group is more than an American phenomenon. Here is a Canadian article, “Clergy shortage affecting all denominations in Canada,” from the Toronto Globe & Mail, and another from the UK is here, “C of E in ageing clergy crisis with 25% of ministers aged over 60,” (The Guardian). As you read through the articles, you see that all denominations are facing a demographic shift among clergy, from the very liberal United Church of Canada, to the Roman Catholic Church, and even to more conservative evangelical groups. I don’t know of any studies among fundamentalist Baptists, but my sense is that among our churches something similar is going on.

The article from the Barna site suggests several reasons for the shift from earlier years (55% of pastors in 1968 were under 45 years of age!):

• People are living longer – life expectancy for men in 1968 was 68, in 2017 it is 76.
• More pastors are coming into ministry later in life, after spending time in some other earlier career.
• Many older pastors are unprepared to retire without a regular paycheck.
• “On the other end of the age spectrum, an insufficient number of young would-be pastors is likely a factor, too.”
• Young Christians are increasingly attracted to other careers that seem to offer opportunities to be an influence without the stress of watching over a flock of believers.

“The kind of social research Barna conducts cannot answer why this shift has occurred,” continues Kinnaman. “Possible contributors to the trend include factors such as increased life expectancy; the rise of bi-vocational and second-career pastors; financial pressure facing pastors including the economic downturn of 2008; the allure of entrepreneurship among young adults; the lack of leadership development among Millennials and Gen-Xers and the lack of succession planning among Boomers.” (David Kinnaman, president of Barna Group)

The Barna article suggests one could attribute the shrinking number of candidates to the declining percentage of the population attending church in each successive generation, but another article suggests overall numbers are relatively stable; churches are not keeping up with population growth, so percentages are declining but numbers are not. If that is so, it would seem the pool of potential candidates remains relatively constant.

I’ve run across comments about this situation where some allege that the current crop of aging pastors are unwilling to train a new generation of young men. Certainly, some individuals could be stubborn about giving responsibility to others, but my own experience is that pastors want to encourage young men to come up into the ministry. 1Their ability to be mentors and the willingness of younger men to “be mentored” is another question, however! The bigger problem seems to be simply numeric — there aren’t enough new pastoral candidates to go around.

I’m not sure that any of the articles I link above give much concrete suggestions on what we need to do going forward. Here are some things I think we ought to be doing, which should produce more of an interest in the ministry among likely candidates.

First, we must increase our efforts in discipleship. Discipleship is the mission of the church. (See Mt 28.19-20.) I think we all acknowledge this, but I wonder how well we are doing it. How many young people come out of our churches zealous for Christian service? How many are earnest disciples, diligent in spiritual disciplines, interested in others (especially winning the lost)? We could ask the same questions of the adults in our congregations, but the focus here is producing leaders for the next generation. How well are we doing that overall? I recognize that we can’t expect every young man raised in our churches to be “called,” but we should expect all of them to become disciples.

I often think about the Jerusalem church, scattered by Saul’s persecution. What did they do? “Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.” (Ac 8.4) What would our church members do? What would our young people do?

Second, we must challenge young men to consider the ministry. We use the language of “calling” when it comes to the ministry. The Bible gives us some precedent for that. As such, we have to say that ultimately the calling is of the Lord. Nevertheless, I notice that Paul is the one who called Timothy. (See Acts 16.3.) When we go through the process of disciple-making, some young men seem to take to it in ways that others do not. Others are perhaps “late bloomers.” Is it inappropriate for us to challenge those young men? Can’t we involve them in leadership development and at least suggest they consider serving in the ministry?

The church I grew up in was very small (it was also not a Baptist church, but that’s another story). Over the years, I had several pastors there. They more or less got young people involved in serving others if they showed any aptitude at all. From the time I was old enough to be aware of who people were and then went off to seminary myself (about 20 years, no more than 50 members at any one time), I can count six or seven young men who went into the ministry and at least two ladies who married pastors. Though our pastors had their faults (notable theological faults!) they were willing to challenge young people in discipleship and full-time service. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that.

One more thing, though my list isn’t exhaustive, is simply this:

Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. (Luke 10.2)

We need to be earnest about this!

Don Johnson is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.