When I grow up
25/05/19 03:14
Yesterday a colleague and I were talking about all of the changes that are occurring in the leadership of churches in our community. We came up with two pastors who are switching from one denomination to another, one who is moving out of the United States to serve in another country, one who is leaving South Dakota for an east-coast state, one who is moving to another community in our state, and several who are nearing retirement. I suppose that there has always been a lot of change in the many congregations that we have in our town, but as we were talking, the number of changes seemed to be larger than typical.
The fact that there are so many changes taking place all at once is probably a matter of coincidence and unlikely to be repeated again soon, but all of the changes mean that there will be a certain amount of shuffling of church members and other changes in the congregations that serve our community. One factor that is frequently cited is the general low wages in South Dakota. In our denomination the South Dakota Conference has the lowest wages of all of the Conferences in the nation. Similar statistics appear in other denominations as well. But pastors are rarely primarily motivated by pay scales. It isn’t as if pastors are compensated as CEOs in any part the country. And the costs of living are higher in most other places. I’m not convinced that we understand the dynamic and suspect that each pastoral change is surrounded by its own unique circumstances and reasons. Several of the pastors who are moving are close friends of mine and knowing that they will be going to places far away from here means that our paths may7 never again cross in this life. It has been good working with such colleagues and they will be missed.
I spend a fair amount of time with high school and college students and young adults and have enjoyed conversations about “what do you want to be when you grow up?” What I find these days is that such conversations are not just reserved to people at the beginning of their careers. In fact the questions about where and how to invest the next phase of my own life seem more intense than they did when I was younger.
I am currently in regular contact with four different individuals who are in he process of seeking discernment about their calls to become Christian ministers. It is the largest number at one time that I can remember. For most of them, the sense of call is strong. It is also clear that they may need to have other streams of income to their families if they are to pursue ministry. That has been a part of Christian traditions since the earliest days of the Christian church. Whether is is Paul’s tent-making or other stories of how the early apostles obtained financial support reported in Acts, it is clear that the call of God does not come with a guaranteed income.
That is true of other vocations and professions as well.
Most of us, if we go back into our family histories, can come up with an immigrant story. Some ancestor came from another country and started with nothing. The image of hard work and perseverance paying off within a single generation is a common story in the United States. I think, however, that the path to success is significantly different for people today. In the span of a single generation, more new jobs and job titles have been produced than ever before. And many of the jobs that people are doing today will not exist in just a few years. Finding a calling and pursuing it as a lifelong venture, as has been my story, is unlikely to be the story of my grandchildren. They will need to be much more adaptive and be able to make multiple major career changes as they navigate their way through life. I am, frankly, bored with the talk of many of my age mates about “the kids these days.” The world is so different for them that it is unfair of us to make comparisons.
Whenever talk turns to careers it includes talk of money. We don’t want to say out loud that we are interested in becoming rich or that our goals for our children and grandchildren center around income and how much money they can earn, but we do think about it a lot. My conversation with my colleague yesterday drifted to money and income within a few sentences.
We’ve all read the book and we know that happiness, well being, service and loving are not the same as money and that they cannot be purchased with money. We all know the there are things that are more important than income levels and the balance in savings accounts. But assets and net worth seem to creep into every conversation about vocation.
I feel compelled to tell some of the people with whom I am regular conversing about call to the Christian ministry that their prospects for full-time employment in the church are very slim. If the reason they are pursuing ordination is to improve their financial stability, it may not be the right choice. This is something that they all know and acknowledge as soon as the subject drifts in that direction, but it is a factor as well.
We measure the success or failure of others in part by assessing their financial situation.
Looking back, I am grateful that I have lived in my particular part of history. I entered the clergy at a time when it was still possible to pursue that profession as a lifelong adventure. I have been able to provide a home and education and health care and food for my family. I am not confident about the future or my prospects for retirement, but I’ve been more fortunate than many of my colleagues.
Now if I can just figure out what I want to be when I grow up.
The fact that there are so many changes taking place all at once is probably a matter of coincidence and unlikely to be repeated again soon, but all of the changes mean that there will be a certain amount of shuffling of church members and other changes in the congregations that serve our community. One factor that is frequently cited is the general low wages in South Dakota. In our denomination the South Dakota Conference has the lowest wages of all of the Conferences in the nation. Similar statistics appear in other denominations as well. But pastors are rarely primarily motivated by pay scales. It isn’t as if pastors are compensated as CEOs in any part the country. And the costs of living are higher in most other places. I’m not convinced that we understand the dynamic and suspect that each pastoral change is surrounded by its own unique circumstances and reasons. Several of the pastors who are moving are close friends of mine and knowing that they will be going to places far away from here means that our paths may7 never again cross in this life. It has been good working with such colleagues and they will be missed.
I spend a fair amount of time with high school and college students and young adults and have enjoyed conversations about “what do you want to be when you grow up?” What I find these days is that such conversations are not just reserved to people at the beginning of their careers. In fact the questions about where and how to invest the next phase of my own life seem more intense than they did when I was younger.
I am currently in regular contact with four different individuals who are in he process of seeking discernment about their calls to become Christian ministers. It is the largest number at one time that I can remember. For most of them, the sense of call is strong. It is also clear that they may need to have other streams of income to their families if they are to pursue ministry. That has been a part of Christian traditions since the earliest days of the Christian church. Whether is is Paul’s tent-making or other stories of how the early apostles obtained financial support reported in Acts, it is clear that the call of God does not come with a guaranteed income.
That is true of other vocations and professions as well.
Most of us, if we go back into our family histories, can come up with an immigrant story. Some ancestor came from another country and started with nothing. The image of hard work and perseverance paying off within a single generation is a common story in the United States. I think, however, that the path to success is significantly different for people today. In the span of a single generation, more new jobs and job titles have been produced than ever before. And many of the jobs that people are doing today will not exist in just a few years. Finding a calling and pursuing it as a lifelong venture, as has been my story, is unlikely to be the story of my grandchildren. They will need to be much more adaptive and be able to make multiple major career changes as they navigate their way through life. I am, frankly, bored with the talk of many of my age mates about “the kids these days.” The world is so different for them that it is unfair of us to make comparisons.
Whenever talk turns to careers it includes talk of money. We don’t want to say out loud that we are interested in becoming rich or that our goals for our children and grandchildren center around income and how much money they can earn, but we do think about it a lot. My conversation with my colleague yesterday drifted to money and income within a few sentences.
We’ve all read the book and we know that happiness, well being, service and loving are not the same as money and that they cannot be purchased with money. We all know the there are things that are more important than income levels and the balance in savings accounts. But assets and net worth seem to creep into every conversation about vocation.
I feel compelled to tell some of the people with whom I am regular conversing about call to the Christian ministry that their prospects for full-time employment in the church are very slim. If the reason they are pursuing ordination is to improve their financial stability, it may not be the right choice. This is something that they all know and acknowledge as soon as the subject drifts in that direction, but it is a factor as well.
We measure the success or failure of others in part by assessing their financial situation.
Looking back, I am grateful that I have lived in my particular part of history. I entered the clergy at a time when it was still possible to pursue that profession as a lifelong adventure. I have been able to provide a home and education and health care and food for my family. I am not confident about the future or my prospects for retirement, but I’ve been more fortunate than many of my colleagues.
Now if I can just figure out what I want to be when I grow up.