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Apr 18 2019

As Pastors Get Older, Churches Start to Die: An Epilogue

by Darren Slade

Having received a larger than expected response to the blog post, “As Pastors Get Older, Churches Start to Die,” I have decided to address a few concerns that have come up. I am personally surprised at some of the negative reactions to what was written, which I thought was quite straightforward (and uncontroversial). What is apparent is that the blog post has struck a nerve with many people, most notably among older ministers and clergy. In one sense, I appreciate the sensitivity surrounding the topic. There appears to be a push in some areas of the church to oust older ministers and recruit younger, more “trendy” leaders. I can see this causing frustration and heartache for a lot of clergy, especially for those who sacrificed their entire youth and devoted their entire life to ministry. It begins to look like a pink slip that reads, “Thank you for your time, but your services are no longer needed. We found someone better.” Older pastors and older congregants start to feel discounted, shoved aside, and forgotten all for the sake of attracting “young blood.”

While this concern is both reasonable and expected, my bewilderment persists. A couple of responses received last week accused me of not valuing the wisdom of older pastors and even suggested that I must think professional pastors should go away completely. Nothing could be further from the truth, and (to be quite honest) I’m not exactly sure how someone could read those things into such a brief post. Another response demanded to know what I plan to do with older pastors, a strange request considering the blog post is meant to have you think about such questions. It’s not my responsibility to have a plan for your aging clergy. Others seem to view the blog as reductionistic, believing it suggests there is only one causative factor for the church’s death. This, too, is not the case. We must not confuse the reporting of one causative factor with the argument for only one causative factor. The post engages in the former, merely reporting about one problem facing the church and, in no way, argues that this is the only or even primary cause for the church’s decline. In fact, you can read an earlier post of mine here where I discuss the myriad of complex factors that lead to church growth and decline.

[Read more…]

Written by Darren M. Slade, PhD · Categorized: FaithX Blog, Posts by Darren Slade · Tagged: age, church demographics, Demographics, epilogue, follow-up, older pastors, retirees, senior citizens

Apr 04 2019

As Pastors Get Older, Churches Start to Die

by Darren Slade

In a survey of over 9,500 different congregations from 2008-2017, NCD America reports that 54% of pastors are above the age of 50*. Not surprisingly, there is a direct correlation between the age of the pastor and the age of the congregants who attend church every week. The older the pastor, the older the congregation. These same churches also have very little growth, where the older a pastor/congregation is the less likely the church is to grow numerically. In fact, the growth rate is so minimal that it is virtually nonexistent.

What’s more, these same churches tend to have very few children, adolescents, or young adults attending services, meaning there will likely be no new families to replace current church members as congregants begin to retire from services.

So, what happens when a church is run by and populated with senior citizens? The short answer: it dies. This will happen for a number of reasons. Retirees and senior citizens tend to be on a fixed income. Hence, church contributions plummet. Retirees and senior citizens become less active in outreach and evangelism, preferring to stay within the safety of familiar places and closed circles. Thus, new memberships plummet. Lastly, retirees and senior citizens tend to expire. Hence, attendance plummets.

[Read more…]

Written by Darren M. Slade, PhD · Categorized: FaithX Blog, Posts by Darren Slade · Tagged: age, church demographics, Churchianity, Demographics, NCD America, retirees, senior citizens

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