The Need for the Young

"...from the age of fifty years they shall retire from the duty of the service and serve no more."  Numbers 8:24

The Need for the Young
By Rev. William Dohle

The church I serve has a problem.  A rather big problem if you take statistics seriously.

In the November 2014 issue of The Lutheran, the problem is described as the "aging clergy wave."  Basically as the Baby Boomer generation nears the retirement age, more and more clergy and passing beyond.

"In the Northeastern Iowa Synod, for example, 60 of the 138 pastors under call to a congregation are age 60 or older..."(p. 19, The Lutheran, November 2014)

Other synods report the same numbers.  By and large, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America which I serve is an aging church.  Soon, most of the pastors will be at the age of retirement or beyond.  Soon we will struggle with finding clergy to serve all the parts of our denomination.

The Synod I serve, the Central/Southern Illinois Synod has faced the same issue.  Recently, they have taken a utilitarian approach the retired ministry, offering retired ministers interim positions and part-time calls.  The three Assistants to the Bishop, for example, are all retired pastors.  Not a single pastor not retired, besides the bishop, is employed by this synod.

In other synods, the same thing is going on.  Retirement is being postponed or replaced in favor of  continued ministry.

"We are seeing sort of a rehabilitation of age, and 70 is the new 60." says Bishop Kirby Unti of the Northwest Washington Synod.

While this may seem to have solved the problem of "what do you do with all these retired guys and gals" the issue still remains.  Our clergy are an aging population.  And while it's nice to have people or experience to turn to, the fact of the matter is we rely too heavily upon those who are older in ministry.

And I wonder...why?

Perhaps it's a number thing.  There are more older clergy than younger.  Perhaps we rely on our retired people because we have to.

Perhaps it is a matter of trust.  After all, the younger generation brings with it a whole host of new and different ideas.  Raised in the digital generation, they are more apt to use multi-media in their sermons.  Their creeds might not be as polished or neat as that of their older collegues.  And, if statistics are right, they tend to be more tolerant on issues of sexuality and community than the older generation is.

Perhaps we don't really want things to change, at least in our lifetimes, so we've entrusted it to those who won't change.  Maybe the thought of the church becoming something different is frightening and we'd rather have the pastors who've been schooled in the old instead of those trained in the new.

Or perhaps they young bring with them a host of costs and obligations that the older generation does not.  Younger pastors are more likely to have young families.  Sometimes that involves giving them parental leave or providing for expenses you would not have to provide with a retired person.  Sometimes it involves mobility.  Younger pastors are more likely to be "geographically restricted" than older pastors may be.

Whatever the reason, we are very much going against a tradition of retirement dating all the way to the book of Numbers.  A tradition of retirement that emerges out of commands God gives to Moses for the Levites.

The Lord spoke to Moses saying: "This applies to the Levites: from twenty-five years old and upward they shall begin to do duty in the tent of meeting; and from the age of fifty years they shall returne from the duty of the service and serve no more.  They may assist their brothers in the tent of meeting in carrying out their duties, but they shall perform no service." (Numbers 8:23-25)

Why would God have instructed Moses this way?  It seems rather odd to put limits and restrictions on the ages of the people who serve in God's temple.  It seems like God is micro-managing things or something.  Why would God care what the ages of his servants were, so long as they served?

Maybe God is setting a limit for their own good.  In the same way that God sets the boundries of heaven and earth.  In the same way that he sets apart the Sabbath day as a holy day.  God is setting up an age boundary here, separating the age of work from the age of retirement.  Why?  Well... God knows that we'll work ourselves to death if given the chance.  If left to our own devices, we will run ourselves out dead with no rest, even for the aging.

God is saying, "Enough!  There has to be a time for rest and retirement!  You can't keep doing what your younger collegues do.  You have to give yourself a break!"

How I wish our church would learn that lesson!  The lesson that comes from retirement.  I'm not sure if we can right now.  It might require a rethinking of the way we do synod and church.  It might require a change.  But I think we rely too much on those who are retired and eventually the time for rest will come for them, willingly or not.

Wouldn't it be grand if the older our clergy became, the more we learned from them what it means to rest in the Lord?!  Wouldn't it be great if the lesson our retired clergy were teaching us was: "This is what it means to rest in the Lord.  This is what it means to get older and retire from work.  This is what it means to give the reigns over the younger generation, for good or ill."  Instead of "this is what it means to work until you die!"

God gives us rest, not just to us each week, but also to us when we reach the age of Sabbath.  God still gives the gift of rest.  Are we willing to let go and let others enjoy that gift too?

Blessed are you, Lord God, King of the Universe, for you have set the limits between rest and work.  Teach us those limits that we might embrace both.  And when the time for rest comes in our lives, give us the grace to let go and trust the work to the next generation.  Amen.