I just found this article online from First Things: The Journal of Religion, Culture, and Public Life. The death of the mainline, highlighted by the aging of its members and of its clergy, has been much talked about but this is an exceptionally good evaluation of the situation.
At 44, I’m still young by my tribe’s standards – the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Top that off that less than 20% of us pastors are under the age of 45 (at least the last figure I saw), and that’s pretty scary.
If denominations are dying and increasingly irrelevant, then it opens the opportunity for local congregations to become more relevant and real, if people realize that they have a choice to live faith in a whole new way.
Say it aint so … Unfortuneately I see it happening and what is worse I see the older pastors fighting to their dying breath to hold on to their idols rather than to admit that Jesus is Lord.
Dan, Amen!!