If the article below is true in the American Lutheran synods, then all you 40-year-old-ish pastors out there who started 20 years ago, you better like it at the parish you're at now because along with the dearth of calling congregations comes this:
"Holy Enrollers: Why Boomers Are Going to Divinity School"
Seminaries now are starting to remind young seminarians of old folks homes, it seems. A good share of the professors are quite old and now the students are increasingly old. Instead of just second career students coming to study, the retiree crowd (64+) is too, as the Time magazine article reports (thanks, There is a God). Many churches themselves are that way.
I suspect that mega-churches are set up specifically to attract the young and exclude the old since the older set doesn't like all the steps and walking, and crowd noise and hearing aids just don't mix well, especially if one has tinnitus, I'm told.
It will be interesting to be around in 10 or 15 years after there is a great turnover in the church, that is, as the boomer generation continues to thin out as it meets its maker.
All conservative Lutherans in America should be supporting St. Catharines Lutheran seminary because it is affordable enough for younger seminarians to attend--not just second career students and retirees. Who wants a geriatric ministerium? Besides, no one should recommend a seminary that a student couldn't possibly afford.
Even if a church chips in, say $2,000, each year towards his seminary education, that's just loose change compared to the seminary bill and cost of living. Moreover, these churches often don't give any money during the vicarage year thinking that the seminarian is employed, but yet the pay is so very low that during that year the seminarian runs up great credit card debts.
He might enjoy the seminary while he's there, not thinking about how many experience crushing debt and penury afterwards, especially if the seminarian doesn't receive a call. (The reasons for not receiving a call a myriad, and often quite petty.) That's no reason to put any seminarian at risk. Just recommend St. Catharines to be on the safe side.
4 comments:
Another post, and more links on seminary costs are in the Comments section here:
LCMS Seminary Costs:
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2010/12/bruce-church-httpsbruce-church.html
If the article below is true in the American Lutheran synods, then all you 40-year-old-ish pastors out there who started 20 years ago, you better like it at the parish you're at now because along with the dearth of calling congregations comes this:
"Holy Enrollers: Why Boomers Are Going to Divinity School"
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2043476,00.html
Seminaries now are starting to remind young seminarians of old folks homes, it seems. A good share of the professors are quite old and now the students are increasingly old. Instead of just second career students coming to study, the retiree crowd (64+) is too, as the Time magazine article reports (thanks, There is a God). Many churches themselves are that way.
I suspect that mega-churches are set up specifically to attract the young and exclude the old since the older set doesn't like all the steps and walking, and crowd noise and hearing aids just don't mix well, especially if one has tinnitus, I'm told.
It will be interesting to be around in 10 or 15 years after there is a great turnover in the church, that is, as the boomer generation continues to thin out as it meets its maker.
All conservative Lutherans in America should be supporting St. Catharines Lutheran seminary because it is affordable enough for younger seminarians to attend--not just second career students and retirees. Who wants a geriatric ministerium? Besides, no one should recommend a seminary that a student couldn't possibly afford.
Even if a church chips in, say $2,000, each year towards his seminary education, that's just loose change compared to the seminary bill and cost of living. Moreover, these churches often don't give any money during the vicarage year thinking that the seminarian is employed, but yet the pay is so very low that during that year the seminarian runs up great credit card debts.
He might enjoy the seminary while he's there, not thinking about how many experience crushing debt and penury afterwards, especially if the seminarian doesn't receive a call. (The reasons for not receiving a call a myriad, and often quite petty.) That's no reason to put any seminarian at risk. Just recommend St. Catharines to be on the safe side.
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