These words about leadership just leaped off the page — because they are provocative, and because they sound true.
“The hope for dying organizations,” wrote business leadership blogger Dan Rockwell, “isn’t found in old leaders who don’t have the guts to say they created the problem.
“Organizations reflect the age and attitude of their leaders. The older some grow, the more they lean toward no, and ‘no’ isn’t going anywhere.
“Transform organizations by integrating young leaders.”
This is a critical insight for mainline congregations. No shaming, no blaming, just the reality: our leadership cadre is far older than the people around us. Our ministers tend to be mid-50s and older and our average age in the pews is over 60. The world around us is about age 25.
And as any growth-minded, change-minded, future-minded church leader can attest, we do hear a chorus of “No!” when fresh ideas and fresh strategies are offered.
I faced this from the beginning of my ordained ministry in 1977. Every strategy for developing and strengthening the congregation met resistance from established, older leaders. Not just skepticism, but fierce resistance.
Many pastors get worn down and stop trying. Some leave the ministry. Some turn frustration into self-destruction. Ministers have an above-average incidence of obesity and chemical dependency. The word goes around and cuts into seminary enrollments: this is a killer profession.
Ruling elders, deacons and other congregational leaders get discouraged, too, especially those who do accept the flaws of former decisions, who do want their congregation to change direction if it is to survive and thrive, and who do welcome collaboration with younger leaders. They get beaten up just as harshly as the ministers, and these abusers are — or were — their friends!
The outcome is tragic and predictable. Mainline congregations are dying. Plain and simple. Not all, but so many as to worry anyone who is paying attention.
They aren’t dying because of denominational decisions or inadequate spirituality or ineffective ministers. They are dying because older cadres of leadership won’t let go, won’t allow change, won’t embrace new ideas that are working elsewhere and won’t look outside their homogeneous ranks to a faith world and a larger world that are profoundly different from themselves.
The solution isn’t to purge the elderly. “Youth alone isn’t the answer,” says Rockwell. “I’m advocating for respectful age integration.”
Age integration doesn’t mean forcing prospective young leaders to toe the line. “Organizations that force young leaders to conform end up with more of the same,” says Rockwell.
In other words, lowering the average age of leaders to 40 from 62 doesn’t mean much in itself. The ideas have to get younger and fresher, too. So do the strategies, the tools being used, the attitudes toward faith and the bridges between a changing world and a faith community.
Final point: we can’t ask young leaders to fight harder to get in. That’s unrealistic. They have other places where they can invest their faith energies. It is older cadres who must open the door and choose to listen.
TOM EHRICH is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is a founder of the Church Wellness Project churchwellness.com. His Web site is morningwalkmedia.com.
