Study finds local pastors playing larger role in UMCUnited Methodist News Service
NASHVILLE, Tenn.—The number of United Methodist elders dropped 2.25 percent from 2000 to 2005, even as the number of licensed local pastors and deacons increased.
That’s one finding of a study released last month by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
An analysis of church membership and clergy data shows 754 fewer ordained elders. The number of deacons increased 28 percent, from 964 to 1,237, and the number of licensed local pastors rose 31 percent, from 5,088 to 6,660.
”The study shows the dramatic changes that have taken place in The United Methodist Church in its clergy leadership,” said the Rev. Mary Ann Moman, an executive with the board’s Division of Ordained Ministry.
The study is based on an examination of annual conference membership provided by the General Council on Finance and Administration. Michelle Fugate, the board’s director of research and data management, did the analysis.
”The continuing decline in the number of elders and the increase in the numbers of local pastors is a clear sign of the change in clergy demographics of our annual conferences,” Moman said.
Those changes, she said, suggest that the denomination may need to consider returning to a circuit system in which a group of clerics shares responsibility for a group of churches.
“That could mean a local pastor would be assigned to a particular church, but there would also be an elder and possibly a deacon on a circuit ministry team,” Moman said. “The elder would be responsible for training, support, supervision and would have sacramental responsibility for the membership churches.”
With more congregations being served by local pastors who aren’t ordained and don’t have master of divinity degrees, Moman said the church must ask whether it still holds the degree as the standard.
Fugate found that while the number of congregations and laypeople declined, the number of clergy members increased. That jump was largely the result of growing local-pastor ranks.
Membership in U.S. churches dipped just below 8 million in 2005. The number of U.S. congregations decreased 3.5 percent from 2000 to 2005.
Total annual conference clergy membership increased from 44,118 in 2000 to 45,148 in 2005, or 2.3 percent. Nearly 15 percent of all annual conference members in 2005 were full-time or part-time local pastors.
Of the 1,572 new local pastors, nearly half were in the Southeastern Jurisdiction, and 22 percent were in the South Central Jurisdiction, which includes the Southwest Texas Conference.
If licensed local pastors are excluded, the number of clergy members declined from 39,030 to 38,488, or 1 percent.
Fugate also looked at the number of districts. It has decreased in all jurisdictions, from 518 districts in 2000 to 488 in 2005. That means 32 fewer district superintendents.
”That has implications for the church, too, since fewer districts mean district superintendents supervise more churches,” Moman said.
The increase in the number of deacons has implications as well.
“Again, we might look at circuit deacons who could serve a group of churches and their communities,” Moman said. “A lack of an appropriate support structure for deacons has caused many problems in the appointment system.”
The present system hasn’t helped the church get deacons to the places where they are needed most. The statistics show that most deacons’ primary appointment is to a congregation. It is much more difficult to negotiate a ministry setting outside a congregation. ”Part of that difficulty, Moman said, involves getting approval within the denominational structure. ”If the bishops and district superintendents were more involved in this process, we might find many more creative ways to appoint deacons,” Moman said.” After Katrina, The United Methodist Church could have deployed deacons to New Orleans and surrounding areas to set up community Sunday schools, provide medical care, offer legal support and provide safe child care. We have deacons who are trained in all of these areas. Moman said the analysis should prove useful as the Study of Ministry Commission prepares its recommendations for the 2008 General Conference, the denomination’s top lawmaking body.
