The Fund for Theological Education is trying to coax young seminarians into becoming pastors of congregations when they graduate.  That may sound strange, but the situation is real.  Just a few more than half of them are interested in doing so, thinking they can apply their learning, degree, passions, and faith commitment in other ways.

One student from Yale Divinity School described the notion of being a pastor as “boring.”  Others are turned off by the low salaries, especially for beginning pastors, and by their perception that the church is fraught with so many problems.  The way some churches treat clergy also is a significant negative factor.

There has been a trend in recent times for older, second-career folks to attend seminary and take on leadership in the church, but there is a growing gap between congregations needing pastors and the number of qualified people to step in. In my own denomination, we are going to lose about 2/3 of our pastors to retirement in the next 15 years or less.  There is not a like-sized gaggle of replacements on the horizon.

I’m in that retiring group.  I also was part of another group. 

The Lily Endowment does a lot of work with churches and ministries, and several years ago produced a research study that indicated a large percentage of pastors leave the church within the first five years after graduating from seminary.  The transition from the academic world of seminary into the day-to-day realities of congregational life is huge and unsettling.  There is a lot of thought and discussion regarding how seminaries can better prepare their students for pastoral ministry.  It took me just slightly longer than five years to jump, but jump, I did – without knowing what was next.  That eventually led to my tenure at William Penn House, which lasted nine years before I gradually found my way back into the church.

Lily Endowment established a program called Transition Into Ministry(and commited mucho bucks) to minimize the jumps.  T.I.M. matches freshly-minted seminary graduates with established “big steeple” churches where they can gain practical experience and work under the supervision of experienced pastors for a couple of years before venturing out on their own.  My experience with the T.I.M. program, as part of a multiple staff church, was that a lot depends on the willingness and ability of the senior minister to be faithful to the program and its goals.  Those were sadly lacking in that church, unfortunately.

The Fund for Theological Education is hosting a conference to help the seminarians get a handle on what pastoral ministry has to offer, and provide encouragement for them to more seriously consider it as a vocational option.  Good luck.

A person named Kurt Fredrickson, from Fuller Theological Seminary said, “There’s 22- and 23-year-old students with a wonderful sense of idealism.  They’re gonna change the world, and they haven’t been hammered on yet.  But there’s also disillusionment with the institutional church.”

The late sage Rev. William Sloane Coffin used to say, “How can you become disillusioned unless you had illusions to begin with?”

It seems to me the Fund for Theological Education is walking a pretty thin line here, but I wish them well.