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Conversation with Andrew C. Thompson
December 12, 2008
The United Methodist Reporter, section B
"New Stats offer hope for young UM clergy"
by Andrew C. Thompson
In this article Andrew sites a new study which shows an increase of young clergy entering the church the past couple of years. The following is section of an email I sent to Andrew Thompson and then his subsequent response:
Jason:
"In light of these numbers coming in about the rise of younger clergy, your article makes it sound as though the church is doing a better job at addressing the issue of an aging clergy pool. I do not have reports to back this, but could it be the church is not doing a better job but the current generation is more inclined to seek out jobs and careers of service to others? The rise of volunteerism in the younger generation could give evidence that the church may not be doing much at all to buck the older clergy trend (the three year residency requirement after completion of seminary is not an effective way to streamline the ordination process). Do you know of specific things which the Church is doing to encourage younger people to seek ordination in the UMC?"
Andrew:
Lovett Weems reported to me that he is hearing about individual annual conferences taking this issue head-on, in the way they deal with their candidates in such arenas as the Board of Ordained Ministry. I can report one positive development in my own annual conference in Arkansas. The bishop there, Charles Crutchfield, is breaking with tradition and instructing his district superintendents to make appointments for returning seminary students first in the appointment process. That change is designed to place the new pastors in appointments that will be conducive to their growth and ministry as they move through the probationary period. In other words - keep them out of rural 3-point charges! In light of the old school idea that pastors had to start out in the least-desirable appointments and work their way up, I think that is a significant move for a bishop to make. For what it is worth, Lovett also mentioned to me that he sees a lot of younger clergy themselves doing things to help bring their brothers and sisters along. Again, in my own conference there is a new movement afoot to gather young clergy at different points in the year for fellowship and retreat, and it is (significantly) a movement that originated with the young clergy themselves.
The United Methodist Reporter, section B
"New Stats offer hope for young UM clergy"
by Andrew C. Thompson
In this article Andrew sites a new study which shows an increase of young clergy entering the church the past couple of years. The following is section of an email I sent to Andrew Thompson and then his subsequent response:
Jason:
"In light of these numbers coming in about the rise of younger clergy, your article makes it sound as though the church is doing a better job at addressing the issue of an aging clergy pool. I do not have reports to back this, but could it be the church is not doing a better job but the current generation is more inclined to seek out jobs and careers of service to others? The rise of volunteerism in the younger generation could give evidence that the church may not be doing much at all to buck the older clergy trend (the three year residency requirement after completion of seminary is not an effective way to streamline the ordination process). Do you know of specific things which the Church is doing to encourage younger people to seek ordination in the UMC?"
Andrew:
Lovett Weems reported to me that he is hearing about individual annual conferences taking this issue head-on, in the way they deal with their candidates in such arenas as the Board of Ordained Ministry. I can report one positive development in my own annual conference in Arkansas. The bishop there, Charles Crutchfield, is breaking with tradition and instructing his district superintendents to make appointments for returning seminary students first in the appointment process. That change is designed to place the new pastors in appointments that will be conducive to their growth and ministry as they move through the probationary period. In other words - keep them out of rural 3-point charges! In light of the old school idea that pastors had to start out in the least-desirable appointments and work their way up, I think that is a significant move for a bishop to make. For what it is worth, Lovett also mentioned to me that he sees a lot of younger clergy themselves doing things to help bring their brothers and sisters along. Again, in my own conference there is a new movement afoot to gather young clergy at different points in the year for fellowship and retreat, and it is (significantly) a movement that originated with the young clergy themselves.
A specific version of the Christian message brings people to church in economic downturn
An article I read (found here) speaks of Evangelical churches growing in attendance numbers in Sunday worship during times of economic downturns while mainline churches attendance continues to fall (albeit a bit slower than in "normal" times).
The study was done by a professor at Texas University and tracks some of the historical trends of economic downturns and church attendance.
Of the many questions I have one that I continue to come back to is:
Is there anything the mainline church can do to stop the dramatic decline of members?
If Starbucks maketed like the Church...
I will confess I got this from my friend Kyle (the post-modern pilgrim blog in my list). But I wanted to add it to my personal reflection.
What does the fellas apron mean? I identified this as a caricature on many of the stereotypes of what I see in the non-denoms. What do you think about this in relation to the UMC in the CTC? In what ways are we like this? How are we different? Could we make a video 'parable' about the CTCUMC? Any thoughts on this idea for something like annual conference?