Recently a member of the cabinet of my conference at a gathering of young clergy said to a small group gathered to discuss leadership involvement that, “young clergy are not electable.”
I disagree.
There is so much discussion these days of the value of young clergy. Whether you couch the argument demographically (gotta have one to get one), theologically (Jesus was young - once), or economically (you know those young clergy don’t jack up the health insurance premiums) the reality is that young clergy are hot property these days.
The Lewis Center this year released a thoughtful look at the decline of young clergy retention rates. The report (available in pdf) shows that the percentage of young elders (under 35) dropped dramatically from 15.05 % to 4.69% between 1980 and 2005.
In my own Annual Conference Susan Buchanan has researched the lack of non-boomer ordained women elders. She writes:
None of the women in our judicatory born after 1965 (usually the dividing line for Gen-X) with more than 10 years of experience are still in ministry in a local congregation in Texas. Only one still remains in any kind of ministry in Texas (specifically campus ministry).
I have seen her numbers and documents and it is impressive - it makes you wonder what it is about our conference that is driving away young women clergy from local church ministry.
And of course there are many pushes for recruitment, retention, and utilization of young clergy in the connection.
So with all the emphasis on young clergy why would you not want to elect a delegate who was a young clergy person?
The old culture has always been based upon a mixture of seniority and political leanings. But young clergy rarely play by those rules. The old culture invests seniority with leadership in a ‘pay your dues’ arrangement. But young clergy find diversity, calling, and meaning to be more powerful than seniority in representing and leading a community.
In our Annual Conference there are more than 100 young clergy (under 40). Most elections have happened with 300-400 persons voting on the floor. So the young clergy if they were to organize could contribute to the formation of a delegation.
The challenge is that young clergy by definition of their generation - are not joiners. I have noticed that as we have organized for fellowship and accountability the young clergy in my Annual Conference are highly sensitive to any move toward becoming a caucus. This reaction to political organizing may be a better reason to deem us un-electable than our lack of seniority.
My hope and prayer is that we might overcome these sensitivities to looking or acting to political. Or maybe a more important prayer is that as the old guard hands over the reins of power to young clergy - we will not assume their culture of seniority. And instead choose our leadership based upon qualities of discernment, character, and accountability.
It is a thought…
