Overheard on a bus

I ride a bus between where I park and the hospital where I work.  I sat at the back of the bus on this day but another one of our Chaplains sat in the front of the bus where a woman was complaining because her church (UMC) got a new pastor and it is a young woman. She said, very ruefully,  "we just can't get a man pastor anymore."  This is not an old woman, I bet she was in her early 40s, maybe younger.  I found as a pastor that often it was those in their 40s and 50s that were the most ridgid. The elderly had nothing to loose and the young are still figuring things out.   My Chaplain friend did not say anything to this woman, but let her rant.  Afterward she said to me, "I guess she doesn't connect Chaplain with Pastor."  Well, probably not.  Around here most people think the Chaplain just distributes tracks to people in the hospital.  This Chaplain said, "I was wishing you would have been up here to answer her."  Well, I don't think she really wanted that as I know what I would have asked this woman.  I would have leaned over and said "So, are you planning to have sex with your minister?"  I mean, that is the only reason I can think of that one would be hung up on if the pastor as a *&^% or not.  This makes me think of a story that Fred Craddock tells..

"When I was in Cincinnati, I met a lot of people I was glad to see...One of them was a fellow in one of the churches in the Midwest; I'll not identify him any further. Grumpy sort. A controlling man---that was the problem I had with him. I gave Bible studies and preached in his church lots of times. He's a layman in the church, and a sort of controller, a very controlling man, one of those people that act like they're in the background-- 'Well I don't know, I don't know, I don't know"-- but they're really in charge. He controls his family, controls his kids, control his grandkids, controls the whole family, controls the church, but acts like, "I don't know, I don't know." But he did.

I saw him coming. There was nowhere to go. I shook hands with him and said 'How're you doing?' He said, 'I'm doing all right.' I didn't recognize him-- I didn't recognize him. I said, 'How's the church?' He said 'Better than we've ever been.'
'Really?' And this is what he said: 'God is at work in our church.' I never heard him say anything like that; I've just heard him criticize. 'God is at work in your church.' I said 'That is wonderful.' He said: 'We're in better shape spiritually and in every way than we've ever been in my memory.'

'This is wonderful! Who is your minister?'

He said "We have a woman.' He never did give me her name. he said 'We have a woman.'

I said 'You do?'

He said 'Yeah, I voted against her, and all my family voted against her but we got outnumbered.'

'And....'

He said: 'I was wrong. I was wrong in my estimation of women.' And then he looked at me and said, 'Brother Fred, if I was wrong about her, I was probably wrong about a lot of stuff.'  (From Craddock Stories)

Well, this poor lady is going to be dissatisfied for a long time I believe. According to this article, women make up 34% of the seminarians today

So the new pastors will tend to be women and at the very least, older men.  Pay scales are falling rapidly for pastors in light of inflation.  I found this salary survey

I don't know, but this salary survey seems pretty optimistic to me.  I believe that many clergy, despite their own strong sense of calling, leave the ministry or never enter because they cannot support their families on the salaries provided by churches. Indeed, I know several pastors who have several churches just to eke out a minimal standard of living.  The costs of medical insurance has gotten so high that many churches can no longer afford to provide it.  What is a family to do?  Pew and Pulpit from Duke University publishes some more realistic numbers for clergy pay.

Considering that the average church pays less than Starbucks (which has great benefits, even in the lowest paid positions) is it any wonder that the ministry pool is drying up?  I know in the mainline churches, denominational requirements are increasing, including the MDIV, and yet the church seems to want people who will work for almost nothing, yet be highly educated. 

Since women often face many people with attitudes such as this woman on the bus, their opportunites for a church are limited so women tend to take what they can get.  Often it is these little churches that want to pay $20,000 a year for someone with a master's of divinity.

"The percentage of female seminary students has exploded in the past 35 years, from 4.7% in 1972 to 31% (or roughly 10,470 women) in 2003, and it continues to accelerate 1 to 2 percentage points a year. Yet women make up only about 11% of the nation's clergy. This is not totally unexpected, since more conservative denominations do not ordain women and are exempt on First Amendment grounds from equal-opportunity laws. More startling, however, was a set of data on 15 Protestant denominations in a 1998 study called Clergy Women: An Uphill Calling. It showed that even in more liberal fellowships, female clergy tended to be relegated to specialized ministries like music, youth or Bible studies. Those who did achieve pastorhood found it difficult to rise above associate positions, and the lucky few who achieved their own churches frequently had to make do with smaller or financially iffy congregations. Regardless of title, women clergy earned on average 9% less than identically trained men in the same positions. " From: Rising Above The Stained-Glass Ceiling

Well, with church declines, it seems that the women will have to throw in some life preservers, if they are allowed to.  If not, maybe there is a reason for church decline and could it be that it is not wolf clergy but instead, it mindless sheep?

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