Leaders eye ways to recruit young clerics

United Methodist News Service
DALLAS—Concerned about the need for younger clergy members, representatives from 13 conferences are brainstorming ways to assist young people called to ministry.
“We stand a better chance at success in helping people hear God’s call if we are intentional about fostering environments in our communities of faith that make the possibility of hearing God’s call more plausible,” said the Rev. Brandon Harris, associate pastor of First UMC, Anniston, Ala.
Harris, of the North Alabama Conference, is one of the representatives already using some of the best practices for developing young pastors. Leaders from those conferences gathered Oct. 28-30 in Dallas to share what works. A compilation of their best practices is scheduled to be available at www. explorecalling.org in mid-December.
Sponsored by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, the October meeting acknowledged the critical role that annual conferences play in recruiting clergy members, said the Rev. Meg Lassiat, the agency’s director of vocation and enlistment.
The United Methodist Church has identified development of new clergy members as one of four areas of focus for the foreseeable future. A 2005 report showed that less than 5 percent of
United Methodist elders are under 35.
Attending the “best practices” event were representatives from the North Alabama, Baltimore-Washington, Central Pennsylvania, Central Texas, Florida, Holston, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas and Western North Carolina conferences.
Lassiat asked each conference to send a description of what it does to invite and train young people in leadership and to help encourage young adults to consider ordained ministry.
Participants said it was helpful to share effective strategies from across the denomination.
“One of the deepest resources we have is our connectional system, which provides an organic opportunity to collaborate with others,” said the Rev. Bart A. Fletcher, pastor of Belgrade Avenue UMC,
North Mankato, Minn.
“The best practices meeting reminded me that God is at work in all corners of the world, amidst demographic and theological diversity, to raise new leaders in the Christian movement.”
Participants talked about identifying and creating ways to encourage each other and other annual conferences to be more intentional and effective in helping young adults and youths hear and respond to God’s call to ordained ministry.
“As clergy, we often get so focused on our everyday ministry, where we are serving and what is coming up next, that we lose the ability to see in a wider context who God may be calling to serve in Christian vocations,” said the Rev. Amelia Sims, director of residency in ministry for the North Alabama Conference.
“For ordained clergy and those in the ordination process, it is helpful to look again at our own call-to-ministry stories. Many of us can see not only the hand of God in our call but the work of the Holy Spirit through other persons—clergy and laity alike.”
The North Alabama Conference had only 16 ordained elders under 35 in 2006.
“It is up to us to really think about and be able to articulate why younger adults would be able to grow and flourish in their ministry in this annual conference,” Sims said. “We need to be extending the invitation rather than waiting for them to just show up.”
The Rev. Carol Bruse, associate director of the Center for Clergy Excellence for the Texas Conference, said the meeting was a strong step forward in addressing an important issue across the denomination.
“I think I left that meeting most excited about the potential for us as a group—with the support of Bishop Janice Riggle Huie, president of the Council of Bishops, and the support of many of the bishops of the conferences represented at the meeting—to help create a culture of call for The United Methodist Church,” she said.
Bruse said such a culture can be developed “as we continue to meet annually, continue to share our best practices with one another and with other conferences, and continue to brainstorm ways we can work together to influence conferences not yet represented at that table.”