Archive for July, 2007

July 7th, 2007

“Youth” and the dying church”

Posted in general by Ha Kohen
I am an anomaly. I am a Seminary Graduate with a Master of Divinity degree and I am 28 years old.
Experts say there has been a 20-year decline in the number of clergy under the age of 35, especially among mainline denominations. But this is only the beginning. The baby boomers are preparing to retire and the sad truth is: there are fewer and fewer people ready to replace them. And perhaps even more freighting, most of the people who are prepared to do so are only 10 years behind them.
The Methodist church recently completed a survey that showed the average age of its ministers to be 51. The same study also showed that only 5% of the denominations pastors are under 35 and that this number is dropping at an alarming rate each year. In the study released this year by the Lewis Center for Church Leadership at Wesley Theological similar claims appear for the numbers of the Roman Catholic Church. The RC shows only 3.1% of its minister under the age of 35. In the United States the Episcopes and Lutherans are nearly the same rounding out at 4% and the American Baptist’s neck and neck with the Methodist at only 5%.
Interestingly few people are paying attention. Part of the reason is because Seminary attendance is actually up from where it was just ten years ago. In fact, the Association of Theological Schools (the accrediting agency for all North American Seminaries) shows that this number is up nearly 22 percent from previous years. But that is only half the story. The other half is that only 55% of these graduates plan to take on traditional vocational ministry roles.
Recently one report said that one of the nation’s largest seminaries had only 17 students under the age of 35. That’s 17. And the total number of students: 325.
What does all of this mean? It means that by the year 2012 their will likely be nearly 5 times as many members of the clergy retiring as there are people to fill those positions today.
As a member of an ever-increasing minority of people in the ministry, it’s interesting then for me to see such resistance to youth where quite frankly it is needed the most. Both John Calvin and Martin Luther were well under 35 by their first appointments and more importantly the Bibles James was most likely only 18 when Paul wrote to him “Do not let anyone look down on you for your youth”.

In a world where the Bride of Christ is so hesitant to hire people under the age of 35. In a world where the mostly unwritten rule of search committees is to do little more than glace at the application of a young minister - it might be more important than ever to remember that Jesus didn’t quite make the prerequisite either. I guess in the end (though I am an anomaly) I have no right to be bitter. After all what better company could I possibly keep?

July 4th, 2007

Jack Tripper

Posted in general by Ha Kohen

When I was younger I often ran across a syndicated show from the late seventies and early eighties entitled Three’s Company. The interesting thing was… I guess I never really understood it until recently. Still, while I now understand the plot line more accurately that doesn’t actually make it any easier; in fact it makes it even more confusing.

I you have never watched the show, the plot goes something like this: After moving into a new apartment the new tenants Chrissy and Janet find a hung-over Jack Tripper in their home; still sleeping off the goodbye party of the former tenets.  Because the two damsels in distress are apparently both helpless and foolish enough to do so, they ask Jack (whom they do not know) to move in with them to help with the cooking of all things. But here comes the plot twist. The strict landlord Mr. Roper will not allow any immoral monkey business to go on in his apartment complex and so will not allow young Jack to stay in the same apparent with two beautiful young ladies. So… to avoid the sticky business associated with Mr. Roper’s stubborn morality, Janet tells Mr. Roper that nothing smutty will be going on between them because… now get this… JACK IS GAY!

I suppose that as a small child I never would have understood the underpinnings of the show. I suppose I never really understood why it was supposed to be funny that Mr. Roper called Jack “twinkle toes” and a “fairy” as a running gag. But now that I’m a little older and a little wiser I suppose what now escapes me is how people ever found this plot line plausible. The show ran for 7 years and no one ever asked why Mr. Roper had a moral aversion to co-ed apartment living but seemed to have little problem with homosexuality?

It’s just one of those weird things I’ve been thinking about lately. Maybe it’s just me but looking back at it now I think it was probably a funnier show when I didn’t understand it at all.