TCR EDITORIAL –TROUBLING STATISTICS FOR THE MINISTRY AND THE COMMUNITY – ONE CAN BE EASILY RESOLVED, THE OTHER CANNOT BE EASILY RESOLVED: Dr. Calvin H. Sydnor III The 20th Editor of The Christian Recorder I received two emails with interesting statistics. The first email had statistics under the caption of “Pray for your Pastor” and it has made a wide swath on the internet. I don’t know who compiled the statistics or which pastors provided data, but for the sake of my comments, I am assuming that there might be some degree of truth in the data. Even if the stats were “pulled out of the air,” I can believe that the figures have some degree of credibility based upon my anecdotal observation and experience. I have said time and again that the ministry is a hard profession across the board and it’s hard in the AME Church. We require Itinerant Elders to possess a Master of Divinity degree from an ATS accredited institution, but we do not have enough local churches with either the ability or willingness to pay a livable salary, especially when the pastor is inexperienced. This makes things especially hard for the seminary graduates who are saddled with enormous loans they had to take out in order to finish their education. “In the day,” most of seminary graduates finished college and seminary debt-free; and many seminarians received their education gratis because seminaries were anxious to diversify their student bodies. Scholarships were plentiful and some mainline denominations had money set aside for seminary education and some of them were anxious to award scholarships to minority students hoping they would become part of their denomination. For the AME Church, seminary graduates were scarce and some seminary graduates received fairly nice pastoral appointments. On the other end of the spectrum in the AME Church, the Conference Course of Study process for ordination was effective for preparing individuals for ministry. It met the needs for ministry in the local church and pastors who were trained in the Course of Study process remained competitive because, for many of them, the local church was their professional lifeline. Some of them did not have college degrees, but pastoring a local church provided them with a profession and respect in the community. And, the goal for many of them was to accomplish and achieve the status of being a fulltime pastor. The Conference Course of Study process was cost effective and that system produced outstanding clergypersons. Clergy trained through the Conference Course of Study, like some seminary graduates “back in the day,” also entered the pastoral ministry debt-free. The student debt situation is not getting better, it’s getting worse and for black seminarians it is the worst or the worsest. I have met seminary graduates who were over $30,000 in debt between financing their undergraduate and seminary education. The problem of seminary debt was, and is, caused by fiscal constraints of church bodies and the easy availability of borrowed money, which institutions pushed on students because it in turn brought in easy revenue from the students. In the long run, seminaries benefited from what would result in seminary students’ indebtedness. A pastoral appointment paying $30,000 does not begin to help a young pastor get out of debt. And in the AME Church, a “Class A” church requiring full-time pastoral services only requires the church to provide a salary of $20,000 or more. The AME pastor not only has a problem of low pay, but also debt as a result of student undergraduate and seminary loans. And the problem is exacerbated when a young (or old) pastor is confronted by an obstinate steward board and a local church with a mindset that they cannot afford or should not seriously strategize ways to pay a pastor a living wage. In 2013, Concordia Seminary reported that 2 in 4 new pastors would leave Concordia Seminary with $39,000 in total debt and some would owe more. The Concordia Seminary Placement Office self-study also estimated that 1 in 4 new pastors would have an average indebtedness of $4,000 and 1 in 4 new pastors would have a total debt of $80,000. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the median wage for a pastor is $43,800. I suspect that a lot of recent AME seminary graduates, as well as graduates from other denominations’ seminaries would salivate if they received a salary of $43,800. The bottomline for all of this Debt is an enemy to many relationships and it can destroy marriages, wreck careers and derail and destroy ministry. Debt can mess with one’s mind, destroys dreams and can be the root cause for health problems. Debt causes stress, which negatively impacts health and the risk of premature death. The ministry has always been a low-paying profession for most denominations and moreso for African American denominations. In spite of the low pay, dedicated men and women of God continue to do the work of ministry, but not without serious emotional, social, spiritual and even health challenges. Imagine the challenging and sometimes negative impacts upon families when young pastors are mired in debt. Imagine the psyche of older pastors who have never made a comfortable income. Imagine the impact upon families, especially the spouses and children of pastors who can never conquer the “demon” of indebtedness. And, what about pastors, who don’t earn enough to purchase homes or send their children to college, must forego vacations, and make other sacrifices year after year, not to mention congregational conflict and pushback; but always preaching, “God will make a way...” It’s no wonder… Let me get back to the statistics that I received in my Inbox. There may be some truth in the statistics. - 97% of pastors have been betrayed, falsely accused or hurt by their trusted friends. - 70% of pastors battle depression. - 7000 churches close each year. - 1500 pastors quit each month. - 10% will retire a pastor. - 80% of pastors feel discouraged. - 94% of pastors’ families feel the pressure of the ministry. - 78% of pastors have no close friends. - 90% of pastors report working 55-75 hours per week. - It is estimated the 50% of pastors marriages will end in divorce. - 80% of pastors feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastor - 50% of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living. What do you think? I believe that we should all pray for our pastors. We must pray for our pastors. The second email The second set of email statistics received is a little easier to address and concerns Ferguson, Missouri where young Michael Brown was shot multiple times by a police officer. The community, black and white protestors and outside demonstrators marched in protest of the killing. Troubling statistics Two-thirds of Fergusons citizens are black, the mayor is white, five of the six city council members are white, six of the seven members of the school board are white, and ninety-four percent of the police force is white. How could that be in 2014 when there is so much talk about the need for citizens to vote in every election? Reporter, Steve Rose, wrote in the local newspaper, The Star, In the last municipal election only 12.9% of the citizens chose to vote. What apathy! The Citizens of Ferguson, in addition to marching in the streets of Ferguson and in other communities across the United States, need to register to vote and march to the voting booth! The Ferguson statistics problem, unlike the first problem of clergy indebtedness, can be more easily resolved – “Get out and vote!” The clergy indebtedness is not a problem; it’s a “condition” and cannot be easily resolved. **Statistics in this article concerning pastors was culled from the Focus on the Family, and Fuller Seminary, and from various internet research / sources.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 18:21:49 +0000
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