Empty Pulpits
John van Popta
For several decades, various church magazines in the broader Christian world have predicted that with the retirement of the baby-boomers there would be many empty pulpits in the various denominations in North America. Some very large church communities, which have more than ten thousand congregations, are reporting a thousand more empty pulpits than a decade ago. Though many of these churches had thought that by permitting women’s ordination they would stem the tide of “vacant” pulpits, this did not prove to be so. (I use the word “vacant” in the popular way: defined as a church without a fulltime preacher/pastor). Also there has been a trend to entering full time ministry in various Christian churches as a second or even third career. However, many of these new clergy are not interested in working in small rural churches. Many who choose to enter the ministry later in life take positions in larger urban centers where they can work in multi-pastor churches. They also gravitate to the cities because they often need to take their spouses’ careers into consideration. This leaves the many small rural churches vacant.
So far, however, the Canadian Reformed Churches and the Free Reformed Churches of Australia have not had this problem.[1] “Vacancy rates” in the pulpit have not been too high. Twenty-five years ago, there were five vacancies (in Canada; I don’t have Australian data for that far back) in the 42 pulpits and mission posts in the two churches. Fifteen years later, there were four vacancies in Canada and one in Australia, and yet there were 20 more churches. On average, together the two federations have instituted about one new congregation every year for the past 25 years (29 since 1986).
Today there are 84 positions in our federations for ordained ministers: exactly double the number 25 years ago. Add to that number the five professorships at the seminary (CRTS) in Hamilton, and we have nearly 90 positions for ordained men, but only 63 ministers, 10 missionaries, and 4 professors.
These numbers reveal a remarkable trend. Not only are there twice the number of pulpits, we also have twice the number of missionaries. Fully one seventh (15%) of our preachers are missionaries! They are working abroad in foreign lands, as well as in our own country. These are good trends, demonstrating vibrant, healthy, growing, and missions-aware communities, both here and in Australia.
However, the data also show a serious threat to our church life in our federations. Whereas 25 years ago there were five vacancies, a number that remained stable for the next 15 years, the trend is towards more and more empty pulpits. Some have said that we were heading to a time of “surplus ministers” in our federations. But the demographics tell us different. Rather, it will be difficult to fill all the pulpits in our churches in the coming years.
Of the 63 active ministers in our churches, 12 will turn 65 in the next five years. (These are the first of the baby boom retirees.) That is nearly 20 percent of our preachers! As we noted above, historically we have added one new pulpit per year for the past 25 years. If that trend continues, we will have five new pulpit placements by 2016. However, there are now 12 vacancies (counting churches actively calling a second man, and the need for a “fifth” professor at CRTS).
If we assume that most men will retire at around 65, in order to fill the pulpits in our churches we need to ordain (or find) at least 28 men in the next five years. Six more ministers will turn 65 in the following half-decade. And if the trend to new churches continues, five more new pulpits will open up. This means we will need 35-40 new preachers of the gospel in the next decade!
Reviewing the last decade of the alumni of CRTS, we can learn that only 20 of 30 graduates were ordained to the ministry. Though the enrollment at CRTS has been significantly higher this past decade than in previous years, we are not keeping up. We will need to ordain twice as many men in the next decade than we have in the last decade. Enrollment figures at CRTS at present show that there will be perhaps 15 graduates in the next 5 years. That number, however, is not keeping pace with the number of potential retirees and newly opened pulpit placements.
It takes 10 years to prepare a young man for the ministry. Churches, consistories, families, need to identify young men with gifts for the pastorate already at high school age, groom them to study the humanities, prayerfully coach them through a bachelors degree, support and encourage them through seminary. If we fail to do this, our story will be similar to many other church communities around us. There will be many congregations with no full time pastors.
Pray the Lord of the harvest send out workers; the harvest is plentiful. May there be many workers!
[1] I have combined the data concering these two federations in this article, since our minsters are (mostly) educated at CRTS in Hamilton, and students who graduate may often just as well accept a call in one federation as the other, regardless of their “home” country.
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