Looking for New Blood in Church Leadership
The average age of Protestant pastors in the United States has increased by a decade over the last 25 years, putting it just six years below the current Minimum Retirement Age of 62, according to a recent study by the Barna Group.
In discussing the study, The State of Pastors 2017, which was done in partnership with Pepperdine University, Barna President David Kinnaman called the data on aging clergy significant.
"When it comes to church leadership, this is one of the more significant findings that we will talk about today ... the average age of today's Protestant leader in the last 25 years has gotten 10 years older. In 1991 when George Barna wrote his book, Today's Pastors, the typical pastor was 44 years [old]. And now, just 25 years later, the typical pastor is 54 years old," said Kinnaman. "This is a critical issue if we're going to have the ranks of young leaders filling the pipeline of spiritual leadership today."
Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/average-age-of-pastors-closer-to-retirement-barna-study-173800/#xPssxW6gjeG2X2mF.99
