Study guide
ur church is changing, and the leadership of the church is changing with it. In the next decade thou- sands of our pastors will retire. It may present short-
term difficulties in finding people to take their places, and our church may suffer from the loss of so many experienced clerics. But their retirements may open the door for younger clergy with new ideas to lead our church.
Exercise 1: Pastoral experience • Invite your pastor to your study group to talk. How long has your pastor served your congregation? How many years of experience does your pastor have? • Ask your pastor (and others) to reflect on how your con- gregation and the church have changed since his or her ordi- nation. How has the world changed? • How does your pastor “stay sharp” amid all the changes? • What has been the biggest challenge your pastor has faced in his or her ministry? • How will the church need to evolve in the next 20 years? • If your pastor is facing retirement in the next 10 years, ask what a new generation of ministers may bring to the church. What advice would your pastor have for the next leader?
Exercise 2: Retirement loss • In the foreseeable future thousands of pastors will retire. How much of a blow will this be to the leadership of the ELCA as a whole? • From your observations, what leadership assets do older, wiser, experienced pastors bring to a congregation? • How will the loss of centuries worth of collective experi- ence impact the church? How will the loss challenge the church? Change the church? How will the church cope?
Exercise 3: Retirement gain • How much of an opportunity will the expected retirement wave create for the ELCA? • From your observations, what leadership assets do younger, less-experienced pastors bring to a congregation? • How may the turnover in leadership challenge the church? Help transform, renew the church? How will the church cope?
By Robert C. Blezard
Get set: Retirement wave is coming O
Exercise 4: New leaders • What are the biggest challenges facing the ELCA in the 21st century? Your congregation? What changes will be nec- essary to meet them? What kind of leaders will be needed to address them? What skills, attitudes and gifts will that leader need to possess? • From where will those leaders come? How can your con- gregation help nurture and raise up those leaders? • When a new pastor comes to your congregation, will mem- bers support that leader in making changes that may be hard?
Exercise 5: Elijah’s retirement What can we learn from the “retirement” of Elijah, the great- est of the Old Testament prophets? Read 1 Kings 19:11-18 and discuss: • What is Elijah’s state of mind? His confidence level? • Fear is a normal part of living, but why is his fear a detri- ment to his ministry? • Is he really “alone” as he says in verse 14? • Why is it time for him to retire? • Does his current state negate his past accomplishments? • Does God have a successor in mind? • Does a pastor ever work totally alone? • When is it time for a pastor to retire? • Will God always provide leadership?
Exercise 6: David’s selection In anointing a successor to Saul, God revealed the divine cri- teria for leadership. Read 1 Samuel 16:1-13 and discuss: • What was Samuel’s mission? Why did he think Eliab was the one? • How does God evaluate candidates? • Why was David an unlikely choice? • What conclusions can you draw about how God raises leaders for God’s people? • Need we fear t h e co min g retirement cri- sis?
This study guide is offered as one example of the more than 400 that are currently available on The Lutheran’s website. Download guides (includ- ing a longer version of this one)—free to print and Web subscribers—at
www.thelutheran.org (click “study guides”).
Author bio: Blezard is an assistant to the bishop of the Lower Susquehanna Synod. He has a master of divinity degree from Boston Uni-
versity and did subsequent study at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (Pa.) and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia.
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