Over a month ago I happened upon an article concerning “young clergy” and the dire need to increase the percentage of young leaders within the United Methodist denomination. You can read the article I happened upon here.
Since reading this article I have continued to reflect on this topic. Upon following the link you’ll find an article titled, “Leaders Share Best Practices to Attract Young Clergy.” The word that kicked my grey matter into action was “attract.” It didn’t sit right. In fact, my stomach churned.
The question, “where are the young people?” is not an uncommon one. Jean Twenge, in her book Generation Me, has provided ample data to show that members of my generation are dropping out of the church in droves. Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone chronicles the decline in civic involvement which has eventually led to my generation’s increased disengagement not only in church, but in all spheres of public life. Many of our large churches are asking how to engage my demographic, formulating strategic plans, launching evangelism initiatives, and deriving innovative ways of doing and being church. Perhaps the loss of the young’uns has hit the mainline denominations hardest, as existing beaurocracies perpetuate status quo approaches to doing ministry, expecting my generation to conform to traditional expressions of faithfulness mediated through too narrow a variety of communication techniques. It isn’t that my generation doesn’t want to plug into something that is very old and very true, it is just that in many ways the truth of the gospel is being communicated in ways that we have not been trained to understand.
Which brings me back to the word, “attract.” Would you rather be attracted to a special event, such as a Dave Matthews Band concert through saavy marketing, or personally invited by a friend to share in a common experience? Leadership in the United Methodist Church and other denominations would be wise to implement invitational language in how they approach leadership recruitment and development. Such an invitation also requires a compelling vision which a young person would like to come and be part of. Planting churches, leading congregations, discipling people to follow Jesus, seeing lives transformed–such things are compelling enough, I believe. Communicating this vision to ”young people” will require living in community with these people. Where are the young people in our communities who have shown gifts for leadership and ministry? Do you know any? Have you developed any? If not, how can you reach out into your community, find such gifted students, love them, encourage them, and develop them as leaders? These people don’t appear from thin air, and there is no “bat signal” which will bring them to your doorstep. You have to have your eyes open.
Such invitations should also be accompanied by prayer. What would happen if the Council of Bishops called on every prayer group meeting in every United Methodist Church to dedicate a portion of their meetings to specifically petitioning God to raise up leaders for the United Methodist Church in this generation?
I’ve been talking about the recruitment of young people for pastoral leadership, but such thinking also applies to including a younger contingency in local congregations as part of the laity. This does require a change in worship format, as I indicated above–people in my generation need the gospel communicated to them in ways that are understandable. More importantly, however, where do the 20 and 30 somethings in your community live? Do you have people in your congegration who befriend and love them? Is there a small contingency of young people who want to reach out to their friends and neighbors, co-workers and social networks and share the gospel? Do they understand the reason why Christians convictions call us to talk to others about Jesus, and do they have a passion to communicate that message to others?
As much as language of “attracting” new leaders and young people to us might make sense, it won’t work. The church will have to go, recognizing our unique vocation as a sent people to enter into the world as Jesus’ disciples, proclaiming his gospel and inviting others to walk with us on the journey.
Hey, welcome to wordpress! This is a great post. I like the connection you make here to the book Bowling Alone. I think you’re right that it’s not really going to work if the church is expecting to “attract” in the sense of staying where we are and pulling others in, rather than reversing that model by purposefully and actively going out into the community.
Ben – Great post! I also appreciate the reference to the books which you have read. Good stuff. I think that you also raise a good point of recognizing where in the community those of a younger generation are living. I think that this can be true living in a larger population center, but in areas of less population density the answer to that may be – not many here at all. I think that this will be an interesting issue as many UMC congregations exist within areas of lower population.
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