Boomers go to seminary

Boomers take one last shot at lifelong dream according to CNN Belief Blog titled: Holy Enrollers: Why Boomers Are Going to Divinity School


In the 2002 film, “The Rookie,” actor Dennis Quaid plays a middle-aged high school baseball coach who tries out for a major league baseball team.

The movie’s plot line is now being replicated at the nation’s seminaries. A growing number of baby boomers are entering seminaries to take their last shot at fulfilling a lifelong dream, a recent article suggests.

Melba Newsome says in a Time magazine article that the nation’s seminaries are enjoying a baby boomers boom - the 50-or-older demographic group is the fastest-growing demographic at U.S. divinity schools, according to the Association of Theological Schools (ATS).
...
They include students [like] Patrice Fike, 64, who is using $100,000 of her savings from her career in pediatric nursing to enroll at the Episcopal Church’s General Theological Seminary in New York City...


Seems like all the work to attract young seminarians is being countered by 50+ students who can pay the tuition up front.

Posted by Ann Fontaine on February 16, 2011 1:30 PM | |
Comments (2)

This is not "new news." Second vocation clergy have been cycling through the seminaries for at least a decade. In fact, it's a trend on the decline, as boomers run out of life to reinvent. (A young one is no more than 48.) And, as much as I have welcomed their participation, boomer dominance is a mixed blessing. We have too many clergy, a declining number of leadership positions, and too few young clergy to shoulder the task going forward. At the same time, younger boomers (and women, in particular) have been shut out by older members of the same generation.

http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/Leading-by-Letting-Go-Frederick-Schmidt-02-15-2011.html

Posted by Frederick W. Schmidt [TypeKey Profile Page] | February 16, 2011 8:45 PM

Fred, this has been established for a long time. I graduated more than 30 years ago, and my class was mostly second-career clergy (albeit of varying ages).

I have often said that Commissions on Ministry have too narrow a focus on ordained ministry. As a result, I think folks end up ordained whose call doesn't really require it. There are also so many places (most of them good places) to be educated for ministry that many more have access than was the case all those years ago.

That said, I think we have more of a deployment problem than a clergy surplus. I think we don't think through enough how to appropriately integrate "tent maker" and healthy retired clergy, especially in congregations short on resource. I know that almost any urban or suburban congregation (certainly, any that is financially healthy) gets many more applicants than needed; while struggling congregations have a hard time getting any, much less enough to really compare several applicants to the congregation's needs. I think much more could be done toward meeting the deployment issues.

Marshall Scott

Posted by Execute [TypeKey Profile Page] | February 17, 2011 9:38 PM

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