Response To Aging Pastors

By Todd Gaddis (Followed by My Response)

The average pastor in America is fifty-four years old, which is ten years older than what it was just 25 years ago. Yet, many pastors find themselves sitting by silent phones once they turn 50.
This means an unknown number of average-aged preachers await phone calls that never come, while search committees look to fill pulpits with younger pastors. Should this change? I think it should. As a pastor now in my 50s, I’ve considered at least four reasons churches should call as pastors men in their 50s.

We’re mature.

Certainly after 27 years as a senior pastor I still have a lot to learn. But thank God I’m not what I used to be. My heart has softened and my skin thickened over the past three decades. I’m now more sensitive to the things that should bother me and get less frustrated concerning the things that shouldn’t.
As a young pastor, I recall getting all wound up about denominational battles. Currently, I could get bogged down in theological debates large and small, but would rather keep Jesus as the focal point of discussion.
In my early years I’d attend a seminar or conference and then run back itching to implement what worked for the speakers. Apparently, I’m not alone. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard about a young preacher in an established/traditional church making major changes (eliminating the choir, changing the leadership structure) with the result of alienating the people.
As pastors, we won’t succeed without being “shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Change is great; most churches need it. But major change should only take place once a minister has built confidence and gained trust. Older pastors understand this.

We’ve banked more life experiences.

This is similar to but not the same as #1. Some lessons are learned and logged only through longevity.
It’s taken me a lot of years to experience the funerals of a baby, teenagers, and a young dad murdered by his brother-in-law. Add to that a few explosive business meetings, community disasters, and betrayals by friends. I didn’t enjoy these experiences but wouldn’t trade the lessons learned for anything.
Younger pastors may be able to relate to young adults, but may struggle on the other end of the generational spectrum: grandparents, adults with older children and aging parents, and the truly elderly.

To us, technology is a means to an end but not an end in itself.

A lot of churches still contain large contingencies of older congregants. And I’ve got news for you, their tribe is increasing. Today 1-in-7 Americans is 65 or older. In fifteen years, it will be 1-in-5. While those in this group will become increasingly tech savvy, they’ll always appreciate pastors who drop a handwritten note in the mail now and then, or, better yet, drop by for a personal visit. These are habits many 50+ aged pastors have been practicing for years.

We’ve established a library of messages.

My sermon cupboard was bare when I started preaching full time in 1990. The majority of my days were consumed with preparation for Sunday mornings, Sunday evenings, and Wednesday nights.
Today, thankfully, the cupboard is full. But rather than creating a license for laziness, it allows for invaluable margin in my schedule. I use that time for fresh study, book/blog writing, personal visits, community involvement, and prayer.
While many churches will look exclusively for a younger pastor, I think this is a mistake. Many younger pastors would benefit from the opportunity to learn under a mentor-pastor who can help them navigate through pitfalls and pot holes of ministry.
I’m thrilled about the young pastors that God is calling and using in churches. I just hope the phones start ringing for Baby Boomer preachers across the country who still have much left in the tank.

Response: 

Well I'm not sure why the article above sparked me to recall a couple lines from Star Wars ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, but it did. The quotes - albeit somewhat amended to suit the nature of this article above - are as follows, Yoda speaks in response to Luke's lack of foresight and presumption, both in relation to him and his mentor. 

 “Ready are you? What know you of ready? For 800 years have I trained Jedi". Yoda again admonishes Luke, “Size matters not” (or in view of this article, ‘age’). “Look at me. Judge me by my (age) do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the (Lord), and a powerful ally (He) is". 

Luke's reckless evaluation of Yoda, along with own exaggerated self-importance, was likely owing to a number of biases and assumptions like Yoda’s quirky speech, size and age. And if we were honest we would confess our own culpability at times when confronted with these issues.

The writers of ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ provide us with a scene depicting the arrogance / pride of youth. While I am not suggesting that the spirituality Star Wars proposes is less than pagan, however, it does reflect a inherent attitude within society. Deeply ingrained in our thinking is the opinion that growing old diminishes one’s worth to society. That’s likely due to a misplaced emphasis on productivity in Western civilization. True we loose some of our strength and vitality, but I would offer that while we may lessen physically, we have gained in other more beneficial ways – experience, patience, wisdom. Unfortunately many today wrongfully assume the greater the age the greater one is out of touch, irrelevant, stuck in their ways – useless. Society, and the church, seems to gravitate towards the high energy, showy, and spectacular over the methodical, organized and systematic – even traditional, as if the latter were a roadblock to the Spirit. And while we in the church love the extemporaneous speaker who jumps around, has a shake in their voice and a tear in their eye, we wrongfully assume it is always of the Spirit. Moreover, though we love to get all stirred up doing church, I wonder do we make all that noise at the cost of hearing Him Who often speaks in that "still small voice" (1 Kings19:12). I've seen a few charismatic individuals that I’m not sure are under the influence of the Holy Spirit, but I’ll leave that alone right now.

It seems that every generation is infatuated with youth. We fight to stay youthful. We spend heaps of money to appear youthful. We secretly tell ourselves it will buy our ticket to ‘belong’. Whether it’s 50 year old guys using Grecian Formula and wearing skinny jeans with pointy shoes, or whatever, we think these will earn us a voice in the emerging generation. Usually it just earns us a covertly placed grin. We tell ourselves, and others, we do it for ‘those guys’, or for the ministry. We say that’s what it takes to remain relevant, but is anyone asking what it really costs us, and them? Furthermore, I often wonder if we really do it for them and the ministry. I wonder if we do it because we too have bought into the mind-set that treats growing old like mold: a bacterial contagion, smelly and messy … so it gots to go!

What happened to our mentorship? Who took that responsibility from us? Has our aspirations in life been relegated to the sidelines because of our age? Have we traded commissioning for club membership, or worse permission to hang around with the hip crowd? There's been a paradigm shift. We now appear to seek the validation of the younger more than to validate the younger.

Furthermore, this kind of thinking has all the earmarks of ‘pop psychological’ babble. It’s a consumer mentality, a marketing gimmick that we have bought into. The new and improved. Why do we assume that new is always better? We get rid of the old to make room for the new. We trade in our old cars, our smart phones, our spouses, even our pastors, for a younger newer version. Why? Not usually because the former has stopped being effective. Could it be that we see these as a reflection of our own fears of diminishing value, a threat to the identity we want others to perceive?

Succinctly, I believe the devaluing of the aged is not only unethical i.e. ageism, it’s the same kind of thinking that justifies senicide. Furthermore, it is contrary to biblical notions found in scripture that esteem the aged like Leviticus 19:32, “Show your fear of God by standing up in the presence of elderly people and showing respect for the aged. I am the LORD”, Job 12:12 “Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?” and Psalm 92:12-14, “But the godly will flourish like palm trees and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon ... Even in old age they will still produce fruit; they will remain vital”.

No give me an older, stable, learned, and experienced pastor any day, and I’ll come sit at their feet. It didn’t have to take Star Wars to teach me this. I’ve just had the privilege of knowing a few remarkable, vibrant, older saints. And don't worry folks, quoting Star Wars doesn't mean I've gone over to the 'dark side', I merely wanted to throw this out there to stimulate a little interest and introspection. Blessings.

Psalm 71:18 Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come.