wfn.org | Commentary: Ageism poses growing problem for church

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Feb. 24, 2000   News media contact: Tim Tanton·(615)742-5470·Nashville,
Tenn.  10-21-30-71B{095}

NOTE: A head-and-shoulders photograph of Bishop Kenneth Carder is available.

 
A UMNS Commentary
By Bishop Kenneth Carder*

The growing acceptance of women as pastors in United Methodist annual
conferences is cause for profound gratitude and hope. Although some churches
continue to resist receiving a woman as pastor, the tide has turned toward
full acceptance, and some churches are now requesting women as pastors.
Also, more churches are open to receiving pastors of a different race.
Cross-racial appointments are becoming more common; even though 'open
itineracy' remains more of a disciplinary mandate than a practiced reality. 
Rejecting pastors on the basis of gender or race is less socially acceptable
in the church today. Few churches openly state that a woman or a person of
another race is unacceptable to them. When objections are raised to a pastor
of a different race or to a woman, it is usually done in an apologetic tone,
indicating that the objectors know that such prejudice is wrong.
However, a form of discrimination that seems to be growing and for which
there is no apology is based on age. 
Many churches of all sizes and locations unapologetically and aggressively
resist receiving older pastors. The demand for "younger pastors" seems to be
more widespread, and appointing pastors in their late 50s and early 60s is
becoming more difficult.
The assumption that age determines effectiveness is false. Even the notion
that energy and passion for ministry are age specific reflects society's
prejudice rather than reality. 
Effectiveness, energy and passion cross the generations.
Ageism hurts pastors and diminishes the church's witness and mission. It
hurts to be rejected on the basis of age as surely as it hurts to be
rejected because of gender or race or any other unavoidable trait. The
notion that one's effectiveness in ministry is diminished after 60 birthdays
is based on idolatry and prejudice, not facts and performance.
Had God's call been limited to the young, Abraham and Sarah would not have
been the parents of a new nation, Caleb and Joshua would not have led the
Hebrew people into the Promised Land, young Samuel would not have listened
to God's voice through old Eli, Elizabeth would not have been a special
instrument of divine revelation to young Mary, and the elderly Simeon would
have been in forced retirement when the baby Jesus was presented in temple.
Wonder what blessings God is offering to our churches through those whom
some label as "too old."
# # #

*Carder is bishop of the Nashville Area of the United Methodist Church,
which includes the Tennessee and Memphis annual conferences. This commentary
appeared first in slightly different form in the Memphis Conference edition
of The United Methodist Reporter.

Commentaries provided by United Methodist News Service do not necessarily
represent the opinions or policies of UMNS or the United Methodist Church.

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United Methodist News Service
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