It’s happening everywhere The retirement numbers for ELCA clergy parallel statistics for
the country in general. According to AARP, about 10,000 baby boomers—those born between 1946 and 1964—retire every day. While the number of older people in the workforce expanded in the early years of this century, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics research says the retirements of people 60 and over may actually shrink the number of people in the national workforce. A study by the American Medical Association four years ago
showed that half of the practicing doctors in the U.S. were reach- ing retirement age, and that relatively few doctors kept working past the age of 65, at least in terms of providing direct patient care.
Heidi L. Torgerson-Martinez 19 Nancy Winder, an assistant to the bishop of the
Northwest Washington Synod, didn’t keep statistics but saw pastors delay their retirement. “Anecdotally, what happened [in the economy] in 2008 and 2009 defi nitely changed some people’s plans for retirement,” she said. But the improvement in the economy and the
advancing age of the pastors who put off retiring mean that the bulge in retirements is likely to continue for the next eight to 10 years, Strandjord said. “We are looking at the retirement situation in all our
conferences,” said Marie C. Jerge, former bishop of the Upstate New York Synod. “We know there is going to be a lot of turnover in the next few years.” As larger numbers of older pastors retire from active
ministry, some of the skill and wisdom they gained in decades of service also departs. “I’m retiring the all-star team,” said Bishop Jeff rey S. Barrow of the Greater Mil-
Making the decision Most pastors never lose their sense
of vocation or the idea that God has called them to a mission. Richard O. Johnson, a pastor who served in the Sierra Pacifi c Synod, actually retired a year early, at age 64. He said the biggest factor was an opportunity to teach, even if only part time. That was “combined with a weari- ness after 29 years in one parish and
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waukee Synod, who said future retirees would include “good pastors, some of whom have served 20 to 30 years in their congregations.” As those pastors leave the scene, some connection
between congregations and synods and nearby clergy might also be lost, Winder said. “We will lose,” she added, “the collegial relationships built up over the years.” But Jerge and other bishops said many retired pastors
continue to serve in some way. In Upstate New York, for example, three retired pastors who aren’t called to parishes are conference deans, overseeing colleagues in the synod’s regional districts. T e coming retirements also mean that virtually
all the pastors who were ordained before the 1987 merger that formed the ELCA will no longer be serv- ing parishes. T erefore the “residual memory” of the
a sense that it was time for a change, both for me and for them,” he said. But there was also a call: “[I felt God] was calling me to do something else, even though it wasn’t quite clear what that was yet.” Johnson was having second
thoughts, but then remembered a time early in his ministry when it looked as if he would be without a call and
income. As that situation neared a critical stage, a call arrived. “So,” he said, “as I was contem-
plating retirement, I remembered that God had been faithful in that situation, and so why should I be anxious now? If God was calling me to a new path, the way would be well-prepared.”
Charles Austin
MICHAEL D. WATSON PHOTOS
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