Ten Reasons to Wait Until 30
to ordain Ministers
Why I think we should
wait until nearer age 30 to ordain many ministers:
1. Candidates need time to know ordination is for a lifetime. When we ordain candidates too young they often have not even thought about being a minister at age 40, or 50, or 60. To some the notion of taking youth on ski trips and being paid for it appealed to them, but the notion of visiting in a hospital or leading a midweek prayer meeting brings a “Yuck!” Many candidates in their 20’s have not grown up enough to face the reality of what a lifetime ordination to ministry means. A person should not be ordained until they are sure they are in the ministry for a lifetime. Some know this at 23, many do not.
2. Delayed development. It is called “extended adolescence” to those in developmental fields. Ministers in their 50’s who dominate ordination committees assume 23 year olds today are as mature as we were at 23. We just can’t understand why 25 year olds seem as “immature and unsettled” as we were when we were 16. The answer is 25 is the new 16. Students today are far ahead of their parents in some ways but a long way behind in others. Many of today’s young people will be in “late adolescence” developmentally until almost 30. If you used to ordain 16 year olds then go ahead and ordain 23 year olds. But if you expect full adulthood of the candidates quit rushing these young men and women. We need to “let kids be kids” and give them time to grow up. Again, (as in all these points) there are some ready for ordination within a year after graduating from college. Not many.
3. They need time to face a crisis. Ministry is tough and most ministerial candidates have an idealistic view of the church. Candidates need a chance to see a really messy brouhaha in the church before they commit to ministry for life. Like getting married after three weeks of dating, it isn’t wise to make a lifetime commitment too quickly.
4. It takes time to fall in love with the church. When God gives us a call He does not automatically supply a deep love for His church. Loving the church is an acquired taste. We acquire it from God and it comes over time. (Some never acquire it at all.) And maybe we can’t fully love the church until it has hurt us. It is better to truly love the church before hitching up with it for life. And here I mean real love, not just puppy love. We don’t need more ministers who despise Christ’s body while earning a living off it. Falling in love takes time.
5. Ordaining people to “encourage them” has the reverse effect. Some districts in my denomination rush candidates to ordination because they’re afraid they’ll lose them if they don’t ordain them. That’s something like a girl giving sex to her boyfriend to keep him. Ordination is not a way to keep wandering preacher’s kids in the ministry—it is the conferring lifetime authority to preach the gospel and administer the sacraments. Waiting gives these candidates time for surety to develop.
6. Hasty ordination swells the ranks of unstationed ministers. Many denominations list more ordained ministers not in the ministry than those in the ministry. What does that mean? These folk were often fast-track ordinations of youngsters who later found more attractive work elsewhere or “discovered themselves” at age 27. For them ministry was a temp job. So they go run YMCAs, coffee shops or start their own businesses and denominations list them as “unstationed.” They are engineers without trains, pilots without airplanes. This would be no problem if ordination actually meant nothing at all—but ordination actually means something in most denominations and it should. It is irrevocable and unrepeatable. In my denomination if a minister commits adultery he or she does not even lose their ordination—they only “surrender their credentials” which are locked up in a walk-in safe at our headquarters (I’ve seen them). There is no procedure to un-ordain a minister, only take away their right to practice the ministry. We will lose some anyway, why swell the ranks of the dropouts by rushed ordinations? Pressuring these candidates into early ordination only swells the ranks of unstationed ministers later. (See footnote below)
7. Later marriage has changed family factors. While most of do not ordain both husband and wife automatically (like the Salvation Army) a spouse is still an important factor for a life of ordained ministry—just as much as the President’s spouse is for a nation. With later marriages so common (many now closer to 30 than 20) later ordination seems to follow logically. When I was ordained (right out of seminary) I had already been married four years and served as solo pastor of two different churches. Many of today’s low-twentysomethings have often not yet gotten serious about marriage and may have only served on staff in a position that could have been filled just as easily by a lay person. Waiting a while won’t hurt.
8. Delayed theological and denominational decision. Many youngsters enter a denomination tentatively. They check out a denomination to “see if it works out” like dating a guy to check out of they want to spend their entire life with him. Ordaining a person in a shotgun ordination before they’ve finally decided to “marry” the denomination (let alone the ministry itself) sets too many of these candidates up for the painful “divorce” later. But even more important than this is doctrine. Many of today’s young men and women know more about doctrine but still have not fully made up their mind about these matters (perhaps because they know more?) We 60something types know what is really happening in these questioning times. When we ask “What do you believe about tongues (or eternal security or entire sanctification) we are really asking about their submission to the church’s stand. The young men and women mistake this for asking what they have decided. As late adolescents they just have not yet decided on many of these things. They are still reading, still studying, and they want to think more about it. Many of the students I teach know ten times as much doctrine than I did when I was ordained but they are trying to figure some things out. When we ask them their position they think we mean they should study it and decide, not merely submit to “whatever the church says.” The period of the 20s is when most intend to decide. I think it’s better to give them time to decide these matters and reading and thinking about doctrine is OK. Some will take the whole decade of the 20’s to do that. We should let them.
9. With a later ordination the right people can attend the ordination. This is a little matter, I know, but still important. By ordaining folk soon after school it often becomes merely a P.S. to their graduation, which is almost always a bigger affair. The ordination ceremony of many 23 year olds is often less impressive and less attended by friends and family than that of the 30 year old. In an ordination ceremony of a 30 year-old all the relatives show up. Chums from college return—many they’ve not seen her since the wedding. Better yet, there are real church people from real local churches—even people who were converted under their ministry. This isn’t a big enough reason on its own, but it is at least an additional advantage of waiting for ordination.
10. Since we have a category for the not-yet-ordained why hurry? Most churches already have a category for the not-yet-ordained-but-still-in-ministry. For some it is deacon, and for others “Licensed minister” (as it is in my denomination). In my denomination (Wesleyan) the licensed minister can do virtually everything an ordained minister can do, and even the IRS treats them the same. What’s wrong with letting young candidates stay six or eight years in this category while they actively minister in a church and come to love the church and be sure this is their lifetime calling? When they are then we can ordain them. Until then why rush them? As these bright young men and women emerge from “extended adolescence” they will be surer of their lifetime calling. It will mean more.
OK, I know some candidates at 23 are more mature than those at 30 or even 40. And I know some 22 year olds are ready for a lifetime commitment and I believe we should ordain these. But there are a host of others that ordination boards are rushing to ordain—I say give them time, guide them for years, even a decade if needed, and mentor them as they embrace their lifetime calling and fall in love with the church. These twentysomething men and women aren’t in a hurry—why should we be?
That’s what I think.
So, what do you think?
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Keith Drury;
WESLEYAN
FOOTNOTE on #6 “Unstationed ministers”
After
writing the first draft of this my own denomination’s leaders helpfully clarified
this for me. Wesleyans do not have large numbers of unstationed
ministers because after four years of non-service they become non-ministers and
their credentials are withdrawn (we do not believe in eternal security either). For Wesleyans though there
are actually a distinction between those who are involuntarily deposed from
ordination because of (for example moral failure), versus those who do not opt
(or are no longer led) to accept a ministerial appointment.
DEPOSED MINISTERS will always be a “deposed
ordained minister” unless they are restored after a process of
restoration. They do not even have all the privileges and rights of being
a layman in good standing.
OPT OUT MINISTERS: In the case of one who is not
under discipline or threat of discipline who simple chooses to no longer serve
as a minister, they become a layman. This happens when they surrender
their credentials, or after four years of non-service as a minister. If the
opt-out ministers ever choose to try to reverse that process, they would have
to meet all the requirements of ordination again like any other layman. Would
they be re-ordained (which is the actual test of irrevocable ordination) We can’t
say yet in my denomination . We are still waiting for
our first test case on this. There are hundreds of Wesleyan ministers who
lost their credentials to practice ministry by non-service or voluntarily gave
up their credentials because they left the ministry. Nobody seems to be aware
of one even who has tried to come back into practicing ministry again for that
reason, so we don’t really know if they returned to ministry if we would re-ordain
them or hold some sort of service where we had them embrace their earlier ordination.