1 Florida United Methodist Review Online

Church should help youth respond to call

This article is the second in a series about the changes in pastoral leadership in the Florida Conference. Future articles will address how clergy respond to the issue. To share your views, please e-mail Michael Wacht at MWacht@flumc.org.

By Michael Wacht

LAKELAND — Current trends in the Florida Conference indicate the conference may soon face a shortage of seminary-educated, ordained pastors.

In previous years, the conference has had to recruit pastors from other conferences to meet Florida’s appointment needs. Additionally, the number of churches being served by elders has declined during the past 30 years.

One cause of these trends is the conference’s failure to attract young people to the ministry, according to the Rev. Bob Bushing, chairman of the conference Board of Ordained Ministry and pastor of First United Methodist Church, Winter Park.

“The problem is not that we’re not attracting people for ministry,” Bushong said. “It’s that we’re not attracting young people to the ministry. It’s something we’re not doing well.”

Bushong believes youth ministers and pastors who work with young people are hesitant to talk to them about the call to ministry.

Bushong points to an experience he had during a conversation with a youth minister. The minister told Bushong he had met someone whom he sensed had the call to ministry. “I asked the youth minister, ‘Have you ever mentioned it to the youth?’ ” Bushong said. “He said, ‘No. I don’t want to be in the position of pushing him into something.’ ”

Bushong said he’s not sure how many other people hold this view, but said it’s a dangerous one. “To be afraid to mention it is to miss opportunities,” he said. “We need to encourage youth ministers and clergy to be more intentional about paying attention…and floating the possibility, not in a pushy way, but just laying it out there. That needs to happen more than it does.”

Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker set that example at the Dare to Share Jesus 2001 Florida Annual Conference Event. At the end of the ordination service, he invited those who felt God calling them into ministry to talk with him at the front of the arena.

“It’s important to demonstrate visibly at the annual conference that God is calling people today and the church has a responsibility to answer God’s call,” he said.

The Rev. Dr. Keith Ewing, the bishop’s administrative assistant, said the same visibility is important in the local church. “Those who are ordained clergy ought to model what an exciting vocation the ordained ministry is,” he said. “Who else in society gets to stand in front of people for 15, 20, even 30 minutes to talk to them about the meaning of life? Staff-parish relations committees also need to take seriously their responsibility to help people of all ages sense and respond to the call to ordained ministry.”

Laity also share in that responsibility, according to Ewing. “The local churches need to give attention to their relationship with ordained clergy so youth see a supportive and encouraging relationship between pastor and congregation,” he said.

Before church members and leaders can help youth respond they need to have young people in church. “We need to be very intentional in seeking meaningful ways to minister to youth,” Ewing said. “We need to help them see the church as a place to find community and meaningfulness in life. To do that, we need to be open to change and doing things differently.”

Bushong agrees the local church is where future pastors will be found, but says the church needs to be careful about how it attracts them. “It’s touchy,” he said. “In one sense, it’s a career, but it’s more than that.”