As pastors age, majority struggle to find mature young Christian successors
As American pastors continue to skew older, with an average age of 52, a majority now say it is becoming increasingly difficult to find mature young Christians willing to do their jobs as they prepare to retire, data from a new Barna study shows.
Researchers found that some 75% of the pastors in the study at least somewhat agree with the statement that "It is becoming harder to find mature young Christians who want to be pastors."
With only 16% of pastors currently aged 40 or younger, Barna noted that American churches are likely to face a real succession crisis if the issue is not addressed.
The study comes as data from an October 2021 Barna survey suggested that nearly four out of 10 pastors (38%) said they are "seriously considering" leaving full-time ministry, which was a significant increase from the 29% of pastors who reported feeling this way several months earlier in January 2021.
As the world was still reeling from the pandemic in 2022, some Christian denominations, such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, reported that they were already in the throes of a succession crisis with a national shortage of "at least 600" pastors.
Last May, when The Christian Post interviewed Nancy Rupe, an office administrator at Atonement Lutheran Church in Billing Heights, Montana, who is now retired, the church, which has more than 260 active members, had been waiting eight months to be assigned a new pastor.
Even though a majority of pastors are concerned about finding successors for their ministries, Barna noted that 79% of respondents also agree that "churches aren't rising to their responsibilities to train up the next generation of Christian leaders." It's not, however, out of a lack of desire to do so but competition from what they consider more pressing ministry priorities.
When asked if he was worried about Christianity in America, Chaddick said he believes the country is in a "post-Christian era" but doesn't necessarily see it as a bad thing.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/pasto...ssors.html
As American pastors continue to skew older, with an average age of 52, a majority now say it is becoming increasingly difficult to find mature young Christians willing to do their jobs as they prepare to retire, data from a new Barna study shows.
Researchers found that some 75% of the pastors in the study at least somewhat agree with the statement that "It is becoming harder to find mature young Christians who want to be pastors."
With only 16% of pastors currently aged 40 or younger, Barna noted that American churches are likely to face a real succession crisis if the issue is not addressed.
The study comes as data from an October 2021 Barna survey suggested that nearly four out of 10 pastors (38%) said they are "seriously considering" leaving full-time ministry, which was a significant increase from the 29% of pastors who reported feeling this way several months earlier in January 2021.
As the world was still reeling from the pandemic in 2022, some Christian denominations, such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, reported that they were already in the throes of a succession crisis with a national shortage of "at least 600" pastors.
Last May, when The Christian Post interviewed Nancy Rupe, an office administrator at Atonement Lutheran Church in Billing Heights, Montana, who is now retired, the church, which has more than 260 active members, had been waiting eight months to be assigned a new pastor.
Even though a majority of pastors are concerned about finding successors for their ministries, Barna noted that 79% of respondents also agree that "churches aren't rising to their responsibilities to train up the next generation of Christian leaders." It's not, however, out of a lack of desire to do so but competition from what they consider more pressing ministry priorities.
When asked if he was worried about Christianity in America, Chaddick said he believes the country is in a "post-Christian era" but doesn't necessarily see it as a bad thing.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/pasto...ssors.html
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
