A Shortage of Preachers?

Across America, thousands of churches are without pastors. Some are turning to lay leaders or using satellite links to utilize pastors from larger churches. Others are closing their doors, forever. The denominational church world is approaching a crisis point in clergy supply and demand. Unlike other vocations in which the work force is often greater than the need, in the church world the opposite has become true.

Although the Apostolic movement defines the role and call of the minister in different terms than many churches in the denominational world, it is still wise to consider whether this clergy shortage may impact our ranks, as well. Bill Tammeus, Small Towns Feel Pinch With Higher Costs, Fewer New Members of Clergy, writes, “In the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the number of pastors in active ministry has fallen from 13,841 in 1990 to about 11,100 today. In the Catholic Church, the number of priests in the United States has fallen to 44,500, down about 15,000 in the reign of Pope John Paul II. The average age of priests is 61. In the 2.4 million-member Presbyterian Church (USA), about 4,000 of the 11,100 congregations are without pastors. Only 55 of the 108 churches in Heartland Presbytery, covering western Missouri and eastern Kansas, have installed pastors.”

Keith Wulff, Ten Numbers I Think Are Important, writes of the Presbyterian Church (USA) that, “33 percent of congregations did not have an installed pastor at the end of 1998. In 1990, 28 percent of congregations did not have a pastor. This number is influenced not only by the ability of congregations to afford a pastor, but also by the supply of pastors. Today, 2,900 (Presbyterian) congregations with fewer than 100 members do not have pastors. In 1990, 2,496 congregations of that size did not have a pastor.” In 1990, the United Methodist Church ordained 820 seminary-trained clergy. Ten years later, that figure had dropped by 200, forcing churches to rely on "local pastors" with less training. Only about 60 percent of the 54 churches in the Methodist district that includes Kansas City, Missouri have full-time pastors.

Anecdotal reports are telling us that many smaller or rural Pentecostal congregations cannot find qualified, interested pastoral candidates to consider their pulpit. In other situations, pastors are postponing retirement because of fears that their church will not be able to find a replacement. Even larger Apostolic churches in major cities, are frustrated with the smaller pool of available ministers showing an interest in their congregations. Statistics from Church Administration of the United Pentecostal Church report that in May 2006, in North America there were 9,066 UPCI ministers. 430 are under age 30, 301 are women with a median age 65 and there is an overall median age of 49. Another interesting fact is that the UPCI has a two-to-one ratio of ministers to churches. This may be explained by the fact that not all those called to ministry are also called to the role of a pastor. In the five-fold ministry, there are those called to preach which are not called to pastor.

These non-pastoral licensed ministers are not necessarily men who are ‘unemployed’ in the Kingdom. They may include retirees, ministers in training, evangelists, teachers, missionaries, church planters, assistants, organizational workers and others. On the foreign mission field it is not unusual to have more churches than licensed ministers.

In the next blog, we will explore some of the causes of this problem.