Why Young Pastors Leave the Ministry

While thinking about Barbara Taylor Brown's book, Leaving Church, I stumbled across the the "Naked Religion" blog, where I read this:

There is an epidemic occurring right under the nose of church middle judicatories and no one seems to notice. Young pastors (less than five years in the ministry) are leaving in droves. The Lilly Foundation has poured millions of dollars into “Sustaining Pastoral Ministry” initiatives and it’s too soon to tell whether or not their approach is working. Aside from the obvious reasons pastors leave the ministry (sexual impropriety, financial mismanagement, and marital dissolution) here are the top ten reasons why young pastors call it quits:(To read more, go to: Why Young Pastors Leave the Ministry)

Perhaps more interesting than the "Top Ten List" the writer gives are the responses that follow. Even more interesting, I think, is the discussion on a different blog site that references the original. To read that discussion, go to: Monday Morning Insight.

It would be interesting to have a discussion with others, not about young ministers leaving the church so much, but about the nature of the institutional church in America today -- what that does or does not have to do with Christianity. I think the discussions on the two blog sites listed above would be an interesting discussion starter.

I wonder if St Markers might be interested in talking about this during our Lenten Study in the Spring.

The Lord be with you