Loading ...RNS: In U.S., there’s now a clergy glut
flockwoodReligion News Service says there is now a clergy glut in the United States. A Protestant pastor surplus, to be precise.
Unlike the Catholic Church, which is short of priests, evangelical and mainline Protestants have more preachers than they know what to do with, RNS says.
This is a fascinating story and it’s well-written by RNS, but I would add one caveat. In my experience, there are many small churches which are desperate to find a pastor. But these churches typically have dwindling membership and simply lack the resources to pay would-be pastors a decent wage.
As a result, there is still demand for poorly paid pastors or bi-vocational pastors. But the number of churches that can pay a living wage is decreasing and will continue to decrease as average Sunday attendance drops.
May 10th, 2010 at 3:38 pm
The United Methodist Church is organized along geographic conferences. Each conference reviews and approves candidates for ordination. Conferences are not required to ordain everyone who may be qualified, and a candidate may be deferred for a year or two if there are not enough positions available. Some conferences need more new pastors than others, either through congregational growth or clergy retirement, and that leads some seminarians to affiliate with a conference based on a better chance of getting an appointment.
May 11th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
i think if you are willing, as a clergyperson, to work for little pay in an uncool location or generally thankless job, you will always be in hot demand
May 11th, 2010 at 8:28 pm
Ditto lawyers; we just don’t get to feel holy about it. Because we’re, you know, lawyers, and are thus able to corrupt most anything.
May 24th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
Would be nice if we had a doctor glut, instead. (You don’t even want to know my opinion on the lawyer glut.) :0