Remembering that one of the reasons for creating Social Security was to deal with unemployment during the Depression by getting older workers the funds they needed to retire, a piece of the solution lies with the Board of Pensions (as far as PCUSA Presbyterians are concerned).

1.  At present, the Board of Pensions actually provides significant incentives for retired pastors to keep working and for churches (in some circumstances) to hire a retired pastor over a younger one.  I would propose the following (for starters):

a.  (This is counter-intuitive)  Raise the normal retirement age so that it is synchronized with Social Security.  Few pastors can afford to retire in advance of their full S.S. age, yet the BoP grants pension credit bonuses to pastors working past 65.  I, for example, am in the age bracket where 67 will be my S.S. age.  In the present system, when the time comes I will get a bonus in my pension credits for working those two years from 65 to 67.  Recalibrating my base pension to 67 instead of 65 will put the pension fund into surplus, giving the BoP funds it can use to do the following:

b.  Incentivize early retirement.  In other words, recalibrate normal retirement to stay in lock-step with Soc Sec ... then use the actuarial gain from this maneuver to fund the ability to give a bonus for early retirement.

c.  Create a class of income similar to the FICA offset that is used to pay down seminary loans.  Like the FICA offset, this amount would be taxed as cash salary by the IRS, but would be exempt from BoP dues, saving churches 32.25% on the amount in this category - which hopefully they can then pass onto the pastor, helping pastors pay down loans more quickly.

d.  Eliminate all exceptions that ever allow churches not to pay pension dues when employing retired pastors.  (Right now, a church hiring a retired pastor in a non-installed capacity may be able to avoid paying BoP dues.)

These are some top-of-mind steps to help open up positions.  This is half the problem.  The other half is...

2.  Our younger pastors, IMO, need far better training in three core areas: leadership, communication, and administration.  There are, in my experience, two major myths: one, that it is easier to start new things outside of an established church than within one.  It is hard to overestimate the value of a facility, infrastructure, and people.  The resistance to new things is to be overcome with leadership.  Leadership is the art of getting people to voluntarily go where you want them to go.  The second myth is that a new generation can only be reached with a radically new way of doing church.  Again, not so.  This is not to deny the very stark reality of generational differences, but these differences are actually not intrinsically related to worship style or a rejection of traditional doctrine.  One need only look at the success of Redeemer in NYC to see a church that is very traditional in many ways yet broadly appealing to both younger and older - especially younger.

A capable leader understands that if a congregation won't follow, it's her/his failure as a leader, not their failure as a congregation.  A leader also has to be a very effective communicator and a leader knows the resources s/he has at her/his disposal (administration).

Finally, you have to work hard.  IMO, obsessively hard.  My congregation was a long- established church that had declined 75% from its peak in the early 60s.  Our traditional service is growing.  We now have a contemporary service as well - something the old-timers once would have guessed would be an "over our dead bodies" happening.  But we did it.  The contemporary service is accepted by the traditionalists because it is positioned as an addition, not a replacement.  The traditional service provides the infrastructure that makes the contemporary service cost-effective.  A single donor paid for the A/V installation for the contemporary service ... and he rarely attends it.  He prefers the traditional service.  And a part of the (unspoken) deal is that my work on the contemporary service (which many refer to as "my thing") is "over and above."  In some ways I'm a tentmaker in my own church where the traditional service is my "day job."

Summary: the Board of Pensions holds some of the keys to opening up positions.  But unless the younger pastors are properly trained and have the right mindset to move into those positions and thrive, it won't matter.

I am 57 year old Presbyterian woman pastor, 33 years experience, forced out of a 20 year position as Associate without cause, simply because the new younger head of staff did not want me to stay. (he has since been fired) No one wanted conflict, including me so I graciously left. But now after 3 years I cannot get anykind of position in the church or in the secular workplace. My PIF has been in literally hundreds of churches. You might suspect some secret indescretion or neglect of duty but that was not the case. I've been Moderator of the Presbytery, served at all levels of the church. There are 4 times as many PIF's on file as there are CIF's. It is true the retired clergy scoop up the Interim positions; so I do not get those either. So I'm at a loss. I'd retire but the BOP will not let us retire with full benefits after 30+ years of service. You have to be 65.  So I guess I can retire early, get food stamps and hope my brother does not kick me out in the street. 

Why don't you couple this young clergy crisis with the cycle of senior pastors to do something significant (building project, major transformation project, etc) or looking for a new call every 7 years.

I would love to look at solutions as well, but I am in a Presbytery who does not see Evangelism and Church transformation as the job of the Presbytery.  I would think that those two things are the cure for the crisis in churches today.

Thanks for the article though.

As an under-30 first-call pastor, I would suggest that CPM (in my presbytery of care and in those of many of my colleagues in seminary) is a large part of the problem.

My CPM undermined and discouraged me at every turn, largely because I was not a cradle Presbyterian and therefore my theology was suspect.  Ironically, my theology is much more in line with actual Presbyterian belief than many cradle Presbyterians, because I sought out the PC(USA) as a denomination in line with what I actually believed.  But I digress.

At my last meeting with CPM, they told me in no uncertain terms that I did not have the right gifts for ministry in a small church context.  I listed cross-cultural skills and ecumenical/interfaith work as two of my top skills, and was told that those are not what churches (especially small ones) in the Presbyterian Church are looking for.  They said that instead, the top skill for pastors in small churches needed to be hospital visitation.  I wanted to shout "This is why the church is dying!!" but I also wanted to get ordained, so I restrained myself.

Having ignored 95 percent of my CPM's advice and listened instead to the wisdom of seminary professors and other mentors who actually know and care about me, I am now happily serving a small rural church.

I would imagine that many of my peers who experience similar treatment from CPMs are so burnt out and frustrated with the church before they even reach the parish that it is no wonder few of us last 5 years, or give up on seeking a call at all.

I feel very blessed to be where I am now, but the process of getting here was not an experience I would wish on anyone.

Three friends about my age, two slightly younger and one slightly older, earned their degrees from theological seminaries. Two earned master of divinity or maybe bachelor of divinity degrees. One earned a master of sacred theology. Two were graduated from Harvard Divinity School; one was graduated from Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan. I think that each saw in seminary a fine form of education. None of them apparently ever intended to be a pastor, though one is an ordained Presbyterian elder. One works as an academic. One had a career in public service and politics. One works a film producer. All are political and religious liberals.

One paid for her education working as a computer programmer. I do not know how the other two paid for their studies. One is a woman. Two are men.

A slightly older mentor to two of these folks and to me earned his divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School. He died an ordained Presbyterian pastor but he worked most of his career as a professor of constitutional law.

I think that education in a theological school is a terrific place to study our culture and society. The mentor figure certainly believed that. I wanted to attend seminary and graduate because I shared this notion.

I do not know how one can justify paying for seminary studies. Perhaps, some people have the means; others of us did not. I do know that what little I studied in a semester and not even a half provided me with questions, intrigues, topic, and insights that have enriched all my subsequent days. Just watching some of my teachers at my seminary—Clark Williamson, Edwin Becker, Charles Ashanin, Calvin Porter, and several others was an immense boon to me. I know that one friend had the same experience with Richard E. Niebuhr and Gordon Kaufman. Anther had it with Paul Lehmann and James Luther Adams.  

Many pastors are never much more than bright boys but the churches do sometimes produce wise men and some of them teach in our seminaries. Think about spending time with Fred Craddock!  

There are romantic notions about churches—about congregations. Maybe, most congregations and those who would serve them cannot afford to sustain these notions. However, I understand why they persist.

I am not a wise man nor was I ever a bright boy, but I could have been an entrepreneurial pastor. There is a place for entrepreneurial pastors, though for me to have become one would have made it impossible to me to be the Christian I became. One has to come to Christ as he is—as one unknown--and one finds oneself in the journey.

I might have spent $32,000 on tuition for a seminary I like when I retired and it would have been money well spent. I did not do that. I do not regret not doing that but I understand anyone who would spend that money and much, much more. I love all but the last few lines (and those lines fine, just not necessary) of the great Philip Larkin poem “Church Going”. “Once I am certain nothing is going on/I step inside. . .  If only because so many dead lie round about.” Theological training is good but it is expensive—like that famous ointment.