Sale on Seniors!
One of my jobs as writer of
this column is to spot trends and report them, especially trends among the
emerging generation now in college. The most recent trend I’ve seen is our
college seniors are willing to work for almost nothing if the working
conditions are right.
This started a few years ago
but it has escalated enough to become a significant trend. Many of this year’s graduating seniors are
quite happy to take “internships” at a church for a year or so—even for $100 or
$200 a week. We actually have
high-talented grads turning down $40,000 youth pastor jobs that were offered to
them to take $10,000 internships.
Why is this happening? What
has changed? Here is my take on why some
graduating seniors will work for less:
1. Extended development. It is no secret that today’s college students are
delaying adulthoods into the late 20’s and early 30’s. This period is variously
called Extended adolescence, Delayed adulthood or Provisional
Adulthood and it is a real thing. It is here to stay and can’t be scolded
away by boomers who got their first church at age 22. Most of the emerging
generation considers all of their 20’s to be a “Decade Development” and we can
no more change that than we could get 12 year olds to “get serious and take a
church.” Thus, many graduates expect
their 20’s to be a period of fun, growth, and development—in short “8 more
years of college life.” Churches
offering $40,000 jobs expect work and production out of these kids and they
want more freedom like they had in college—churches offering internships are
landing great graduates because they recognize college seniors want more time
to grow and develop.
2. Fear of failure. Most of today’s college graduates have been insulated from failure by “helicopter
parents” and “helicopter colleges.” The
expectations in the ministry are higher than ever—people just don’t accept
fumbling. They realize a “residency” program in a church doesn’t bet their
entire ministerial career on their first year’s success or failure. If they
take that high-paying job running the youth ministry in a church of 1000,
expectations are high and the consequences of failure are astronomical. So many
take the internship or residency job where the expectations aren’t as high, and there is a safety net for them to do their
wing-walking over.
3. Clarifying their call. I don’t like this but it is true. Many of today’s
college graduates are still clarifying their call. We boomers knew we were
called at age 18 and took our first solo pastorate at 22. Many of today’s graduates are still
“exploring my call” and intend to do so until they are about 30. This irritates
District Ordination Examination Boards that are packed with boomers but it is a
massive change and if we don’t recognize it we’ll be left in the dust with a
dry old wineskin designed for boomers. The denomination that does not provide
for delaying ordination until 30 or 33 will be left in the dust. You can’t force 22 year olds to get ordained
any more than you can force them to get married—they are delaying both. Many of today’s graduates
want to work part time in a church internship (and maybe work at Starbucks too
for 15 hours) while they clarify their calling. Getting today’s 22 year
old to be “certain of their call” would be like trying to get the boomers to
have done so at age 14. Today’s kids are not “immature” or “irresponsible” they
just are. Boomers weren’t
irresponsible because they didn’t walk 5 miles to school in 4’ snowdrifts and
start working 40 hours a week at age 12 like their parents said they did.
Neither are today’s kids immature because they didn’t
have the life of their parents—after all these are the Boomer’s kids! Times change and developmental patterns
change. A part time internship allows 4-5 more years for graduates to get
certain about their call. And an internship provides the place to clarify a
call—not in a college dorm, but in the local church.
4. ObamaCare. Political
decisions have religious consequences. Few political decisions will have a
greater impact on graduating college students than Obama’s
health care plan allowing kids to stay on their parent’s health insurance until
age 26. This law ratified age 26 as the
first date when a young person needs to begin transition toward adulthood. The
effect of this law is huge among young adults. It has functionally doubled the
college years—from four to eight. Graduating seniors do not have to worry about
the $10,000 health insurance policy that comes with a full time job—they can take
a part time internship, risk less, learn more and their parent’s health
insurance will pick up the tab letting the local church where they work save
the ten grand. This law has removed one major reason for college graduates
needed to get a full time job—the insurance. Knowing that your insurance is
covered makes it easier for seniors to take a part time job in a church.
5. Low debt. The wide perception that college graduates come out with about $40,000
debt per person--$80,000 per married couple is false. It is true that college
costs about $100,000 total. But as many as 40% of the
graduating ministerial seniors (especially the best students) have no
substantial college debt whatsoever. Financial advisors say a college
graduate should not have more debt than their first year’s salary. Well, for those students with no debt they
don’t have to get paid very much then! This low debt position
of many allows them to take a part time internship. And if they have a
“ministerial loan-grant” from their denomination, they might be able to pay
that down 20% a year by their service as an intern or resident pastor in a
local church.
-------------------------
There are other factors but
before this column gets too long let me outline how a church can get in on this
sale. From my conversations, the total
package doesn’t impress them—here is what they are looking for. Even average
churches (maybe especially average
churches) can hire top notch seniors for a hundred or two hundred dollars a
week:
1. A cool workplace environment. They want a church staff that works together as a
team, who likes each other, drinks coffee together, laughs at things, and has
fun together at work and even outside of work—in short they want “dorm life” in
a church staff.
2. Time off.
They are willing to work for less but in exchange they want to be able to take
a month off in the summer to hitchhike across Europe or go visit one of their
college buddies teaching in Somolia. And, of course
many graduating seniors are still not married so they need the freedom to
travel and date the people they forgot to marry in college. In short they want
time off something more like their college schedule.
3. Shorter commitment. One of the scariest things about full time jobs is
that many boomer pastors and boards are insisting on a “five year commitment.”
Five years is too long to commit for today’s seniors. We know when boomers make
such commitments they don’t take it that seriously and allow “the Lord to
change my mind.” These Christians take
such commitments very seriously—they think a five year commitment means they
can’t even pray about another offer for five years—and it is binding even if
they marry someone in Nebraska who won’t move, or they want to go to seminary
after all. They take their commitments so seriously that a shorter commitment
is very attractive to them—so internships are really attractive.
4. Mentoring. Boomer graduates didn’t know how stupid they were—we just planted
churches and grew them big on trial and error.
These graduates know. They believe they are woefully prepared for
pastoral work and they now want to get “the rest of my training.” College does a pretty good job of educating ministers but does a poor job
of training them. Ministerial training happens best in a local
church and these graduates know that. They know if they take a full time job,
boomer senior pastors will pay them well but expect them to “produce or
perish.” They don’t think they are ready to “produce” what is expected
today—they want more training. So, they’re willing to give up $20,000-$30,000 a
year of a normal salary to get it. So
you can get one of these quality graduates by offering your time to “finish
their training” in a local church setting.
---------------
I’ve held off on writing
this column until some of the churches already tuned in to this change have
landed the best grads—but there are still some loose at my school and in other
Christian Colleges if you can make up the right “package” for them—and I’m not
talking salary package, but a package of the things I just mentioned
above. Graduation at IWU, where I teach,
is this coming week, so many of the seniors I’m talking about have already
taken part-time internships and “Ministry Residencies” at churches. But this
column gives you time to figure out if you can get in on this “sale on seniors”
next year Hiring a promising college graduate to work
with you may not be as hard as you once thought. There’s a sale on now—a sale
on seniors.
So,
what do you think?
The
discussion of this column is on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=161502633
Keith Drury April 26, 2011
www.TuesdayColumn.com