Churches urged to create a culture of calling

CORPUS CHRISTI—A crisis looms on the horizon, said George Mason, pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas.

"In the year 2000, a Pew study determined that the percentage of clergy in Protestant churches in America under the age of 35 was between 2 percent and 7 percent in almost every denomination," Mason said. "In other words, almost all the clergy—95 percent, roughly—in almost every denomination was over the age of 35."

During a Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting workshop, Mason outlined three steps churches and pastors need to take in order to cultivate the next generation of clergy—notice, name and nurture.

"Notice" means paying attention to the children and youth who have the qualities needed to succeed in vocational ministry, he explained. Rather than targeting the "popular kid" who may be a leader in the church's youth group, congregations need to be looking for young learners with a deep inner life.

Drawing from his newly released book, Preparing the Pastors We Need: Reclaiming the Congregation's Role in Training Clergy, Mason said youth who are best-suited to become the next generation of pastors will have a sense of wonder, an appreciation of ritual, an understanding of the importance of human connection and relationship, and an enthusiasm for seeing healing in the world.

While it's one thing to notice young people, it's another to tell them they have attracted notice, Mason said.

"I would guess that if you are anything like me and most people in ministry that I've talked to, you have a story about someone sometime saying to you, 'You know, I don't know if God is calling you into ministry, but I see something in you that makes me think you ought to think about that.' In one way or another, somebody probably has named you for this work."

Churches have a responsibility to nurture young people, especially through informal and formal internships.

"There's nothing wrong with asking a sixth grader that you think has something going on to offer a prayer in worship on Sunday morning. Or the kid who is asked in high school, 'Why don't you lead the Bible study this Wednesday night?' Now there's a whole crisis of, 'I have to figure out how to do this.' Now you get some personal conversation.

"Sometimes we have gotten so professional in our approach to ministry that the only people that we trust to be up there leading in worship are the people you can count on to do it beautifully and perfectly," he continued.

"In other words, this is all about the pros doing for the people. That's not a Baptist thing at all. We need to have more kids playing the offertory on the piano or the flute. We need more kids praying and leading Bible studies to give them a feel, a sense for this life."

When students come home from college, he said, rather than working at the local Dairy Queen, churches should be asking students if they'd like to help out in the church. It offers young people the chance to be a part of a ministry team.

"That's where they really start to imagine themselves in that world," Mason said.