Thoughts from a Young Clergy

Tomorrow a group of young clergy is gathering with the cabinet and the bishop to discuss well... being a young clergy. I've been thinking a lot since this meeting was announced what I wanted to say, but I also fully realize that for a myriad of reasons I probably won't utter a word of it tomorrow. So I thought I would express myself on here.

I believe in the connectional system. I affirm as part of that system that we need each other as clergy, and I believe this is why we meet together as a cluster and a ministerium. We need to be with each other, because we need to be able to express ourselves and have someone come along side us who understands what we are going through. However, there are many times of the last two years that I have found such meetings, and others like it, to not be a safe place at all as a young clergy. Times when I have been degraded by such actions as being patted on the head, like a dog or a small child. Times when clergy have told me that my ministry won't be worth anything because I am young. Times I have been told that obviously God has not given me any authority (despite being told to "Take thou authority") because I am young and no one in a congregation will ever respect me. Times when the ultimate goal has been to stamp out my idealism and squash my passion. All of this from other colleagues. In our conference, the norm is not to have someone enter into the ministry at a young age - it may have been this way some time ago, but not any more. The norm is second or third career pastors, which changes both the face and education level of pastors, making young post-seminary pastors the minority, and like any minority, they are feared by some, including those who are supposed to be supportive colleagues.

I am not sharing this in hopes of having others be reprimanded, simply to bring it to the attention of the cabinet that as young clergy, in some instances we are not only not being supported by our congregations, who wonder what we have to offer at our age, our communities, who are ever growing accustomed to the face of older (male) pastors, but our colleagues as well. Even those who seem to be supportive demand that we mature in ministry by being like them - which is most cases requires setting aside our gifts, calling, and health to do so. Where is the place where I can be supported for simply being me, the me that God has called into ministry?

I also would like to ask the cabinet what they are doing to support young clergy. Yes, some of us as individuals have been sent to conferences, and others to trainings, specific to young clergy, but what are you doing for us as a group? How are you supporting us as young people in ministry? I would first like to suggest that changing the age of what is considered to be young, is in fact, not supportive. It is simply trying to make the group seem larger then it is. What at the age of 25 do I have in common with a 38 year old? We have enough disparities in the 23-35 year old age range because of life transitions - some of us are married. Some have children. Others are single. Some live with roommates. Others live alone. This is the time in life when their is the most diversity naturally, and expanding the age of what is considered to be "young" is not necessary. 38 is only young in terms of this vocation when it is compared to the median age, which is ever rising due to the influx of second career CLMs and Local Pastors.

Those of us who were at the Bishop's Day Apart heard from Belva Brown Jordan, the commitment of the Disciples of Christ to raising up young clergy in groups by praying for them. Sending them on retreats with mentors. Being intentional. How is the conference being intentional with us? For we are the church of today AND tomorrow. And sending us to a conference or even scheduling a meeting for us to periodically get together is not going to be what feeds us for sustainable ministry.

I have survived my first two years in ministry because of some awesome, supportive, pastors like Ed Zediers and Karen Urbanski who have embraced who I am as a young clergy. Who sat down and discussed my passions and gifts and growing edges. I'm not sure that my DS's even know those things about me - and maybe its not their job to. But I can say that people like Ed and Karen are the exception, not the norm. We need individuals, and the cabinet to be supportive of young clergy in profound and creative ways, if we truly are going to make it through our time of being considered "young".