October 7, 2002

MENTORS IN MINISTRY MATTER:
For the sake of the call
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___FORT WORTH--Too many churches are like mules, according to Baptist theology professor Curtis Freeman. "They are strong, but they don't reproduce."
___Freeman, a former professor at Houston Baptist University who now heads the Baptist House of Studies at Duke University, is among a growing cadre of religious leaders who fear churches aren't doing enough to help students respond to God's call to vocational ministry.
___The result could be an impending shortage of pastors and church staff leaders in congregations nationwide.
___Nearly 30 percent of Southern Baptist ministers are older than 55, while only 10 percent are younger than 35, Freeman pointed out during a seminar on vocational ministry this summer in Fort Worth.
___That means one person is entering the ministry for every three ministers who retire, he explained.
___The problem is compounded by the fact that only one-third of today's seminarians say they intend to serve in local church ministries. Many others are preparing for a variety of para-church ministries, missions work, social-ministry roles and chaplaincy-type positions.
___The call to local-church ministry also may be dulled by the ministerial scandals of recent years, two decades of bickering among Baptists, low pay and diminishing status for ministers in society.
___"So why would you want a job that can't support a family, won't get respect, makes unrealistic demands and goes against the basic beliefs of society?" Freeman asked. "I can't think of a good reason unless the Almighty Master of the universe calls you by name and leads you there."
___God has not stopped calling people into vocational ministry, but too many churches and pastors have failed to do their part in amplifying and interpreting the call, he warned. "I don't think God ever stopped calling men and women. We just stopped nurturing and cultivating it."
___Seminaries and theology schools are acutely aware of this problem. But it's a problem that can't be solved in the halls of academia.
___Seminaries can effectively educate students the churches send to them, but seminaries are ineffective at recruiting people for ministry, explained Dan Aleshire, executive director of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada. "They're very good at educating people who have experienced a call. They're not very good at helping people on the street discern whether they have a call."
___The recruiting function begins in the local church, Aleshire insisted. "The church has got to help them with thinking about seminary and choosing vocational ministry."
___Where are the mentors?
___Men and women who have been called into vocational ministry almost uniformly point to certain individuals who helped them hear and interpret that call.
___New research conducted by the Baptist General Convention of Texas and Baylor University among Texas Baptist pastors examined this question of influence by asking, "Who was the single most influential person used by God in (your) call experience?"
___More than 80 percent of respondents cited someone as filling that role, while about 19 percent said the most influence came through personal devotions.
___By far the most frequently cited influence was a pastor. Nearly 40 percent of those serving as pastors in Texas Baptist churches today said their own pastor was the single most influential person in helping them hear and understand God's call.
___The influence of family members was cited the next most commonly, at 15 percent. Other individuals--such as youth ministers, Sunday School teachers, church staff members, friends, missionaries, campus ministers--also were cited as influential.
___A recent national study by Auburn University found that current associates--meaning pastors, spouses, friends--have more influence on a person's decision to enter seminary than do campus contacts or parents.
___By all accounts, the role of pastors, church staff members and other church leaders in calling out the called cannot be underestimated.
___The new BGCT study, for example, also asked Texas Baptist pastors who had been helpful as they sought to clarify or interpret their call to ministry. Nearly 78 percent said a pastor had been that positive influence. Family members, friends, teachers and youth leaders also received high marks.
___Historically, national research shows that certain congregations disproportionately send young people to seminary, explained Dan Aleshire, the ATS executive director. "Those congregations tend to be vital, effective environments with longer-term pastorates."
___In other words, congregations that send more youth into ministry provide healthy role models for ministry.
___That point isn't lost on David Ivie, a second-career student at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth. Ivie spent seven years working for Brinker International, including three years as manager of a Chili's restaurant.
___"When I was a restaurant manager, I noticed that the stores that were led by fun, challenging and positive leadership were also the ones that had the largest number of staff trying to get into management," he recalled. "The most important thing pastors can do to raise awareness is to provide a positive example for others to follow."
___Ivie saw that kind of positive influence in his pastor, George Mason, at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas.
___Mason has experienced a personal conviction in recent years that healthy churches like Wilshire ought to be more intentional in calling out and preparing future ministers. So in addition to appealing to youth and young adults to consider the call, he has led the church to launch a unique pastoral residency program.
___By Mason's description, the two-year program could be to ministers what hospital residencies are to physicians. Residents will receive intensive mentoring, opportunities to preach and teach and will be fully engaged in the ministries of the church.
___Jay Hogewood is the first pastoral resident in the program. Hogewood, who was in the first graduating class of Baylor University's Truett Seminary, is working toward the doctor of philosophy degree at Brite Divinity School.
___The Wilshire program also includes a variety of internship options for college students and seminarians. This summer, Wilshire employed four college interns, some of whom used the opportunity to "try out" ministry as a vocation as a way of testing what they perceive may be a calling from God.
___This is exactly what's needed to help restore the appeal of a call to ministry, noted Royce Rose, director of theological education for the BGCT.
___Churches must engage in "a more specific mentoring and encouraging approach one-on-one," he explained. "Pastors and other ministers must be with people of all ages as they struggle with vocational calling. ... Ministers need to involve potential ministry candidates in an intentional mentoring process. There need to be opportunities for people to try out their gifts in ministry situations where there is little risk and no long-term commitment that will guilt them into service."
___When viewed in a holistic manner, such a congregational emphasis could benefit all members by expanding their view of ministry as a life-calling for all Christians, Rose predicted. "We often do not help all believers find their ministry in vocation. Some people enter a ministry vocation because God is calling them to commitment and they don't know how to define that call in any way but to enter vocational ministry."
___Where will they serve?
___Just getting a student enrolled in seminary does not guarantee he or she will land on a local church staff.
___By various accounts, only 30 percent to 50 percent of seminary graduates end up in local-church ministry.
___Bill Tillman, a professor at Hardin-Simmons University's Logdson School of Theology who previously taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, has been tracking this trend for 15 years. Each year, he asks students in his class about their career plans after graduation. Among several hundred students who have passed through his classrooms, roughly half indicated they intended to serve in a local church.
___And even that data should not be confused with assuring a steady supply of pastors, Tillman warned. Among the 50 percent of his students headed for local-church ministry, many will take non-pastoral roles.
___A related but often unexplored factor in this mix is the increasing number of women entering seminaries and the reluctance of many Baptist and evangelical congregations to call women to staff minister positions, especially the pastorate.
___In many cases, the career track toward ministry begins at the undergraduate level. The BGCT, for example, identifies ministry students through BGCT-affiliated schools and campus ministries at other universities. Some ministry-bound students receive scholarship assistance based on their declaration of a call; they also may receive help from in-service guidance counselors.
___Two years ago, the BGCT surveyed students on 11 Texas university campuses who have identified themselves as called to vocational ministry. Less than 70 percent of those students said they intend to enroll in seminary. Males were far more likely to say they were headed for seminary than females.
___Overall, 70 percent of the undergraduate ministry students said they anticipate serving full-time in ministry rather than part-time or bivocationally.
___Pastor did not come out on the top of the list of ministry roles these students expect to fill, however. The largest group (20 percent) said they intended to serve as missionaries, followed by 18 percent who were looking toward youth ministry. Pastor came in third, at 15 percent.
___While some want to sound an alarm about a future pastor shortage, Tillman and others say there's another side to this coin.
___"Trends regarding calling reflect the definite movement of God among us," Tillman said. "In other words, there is a need for both more preacher-pastors and for more who will do other kinds of vocational ministry."
___Comparing the percentage of seminarians today who will enter local-church ministry with statistics from 30 years ago may not yield an accurate comparison, added Aleshire.
___"Ministry is so much more widely distributed today," he explained. "Think of all the para-church organizations that 35 years ago weren't there for ministerial employment. A lot of people can imagine ministry that's not local parish-oriented, but it's a normal part of ministry in communities. If you look at the data 50 years ago, virtually all were going to local-church ministry of one kind or another. Now the program options have diversified and ministry opportunities have diversified."
___Second career influences
___There is one significant variable influencing how likely seminarians are to desire service in local-church ministries, however. Second-career seminarians--those who respond to the call to ministry after graduating from college and working some time in other jobs--are more often headed toward church staff positions than students who come to seminary straight from college.
___The upside of that trend is that the number of second-career seminarians has been increasing over the last two decades. The nationwide study by Auburn Seminary found only one in five of today's seminarians entered seminary straight from college. On average, entering theological students have been out of college 10 years.
___The downside, according to some critics, is that second-career students as a group don't possess the same levels of academic achievement as students who head straight for seminary after college.
___The national study by Auburn Seminary found that younger seminarians have more of the academic and experiential training thought to make for successful ministry training. By making an "early" decision for ministry, youth may become more involved in church leadership and may chart an undergraduate course of education that provides better preparation for seminary studies.
___At the same time, the Auburn study notes, older students balance this disadvantage with other advantages. "Older students, for instance, bring with them to theological study much stronger commitment to ordained ministry and much more interest in serving congregations. ... Two-thirds of older students but just over half the younger ones plan to be ordained; 40 percent of older students but less than 30 percent of younger students, say that congregational ministry is their first choice."
___What's next?
___Just when churches might look toward second-career ministers as the answer to their prayers, the tide appears to be turning yet again.
___After at least two decades of rising ages among entering seminarians, some schools report they are seeing a slight reversal of the trend. More young adults are going to seminary as a first-career choice, although second-career students still account for more than half of seminary enrollment nationwide.
___While it's too early to know why this reversal is occurring or whether it will last, some observers speculate about causes.
___One explanation, Aleshire suggested, is economic. "We know that when the job market tightens, graduate enrollments tend to increase. If you can't get a job out of college, going on to do more school is an acceptable thing."
___Another explanation, he added, could be a greater emphasis on ministry as a desirable vocation. "What's been happening is sort of a recovery of a sense of mission and recovery of a sense that this is important work."
___With additional reporting by John Hall
___

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