There has been quite a bit of discussion sparked by Besomami's musings about the progress--or lack thereof--in clergywomen becoming Senior Pastors of bigger churches.
Here's a statistic I'd like to see researched: Regardless of gender, is there a correlation between age at ordination and likelihood of becoming a Head of Staff type pastor. My completely unscientific mental review of pastors I know or know of supports the theory that most Heads of Staff were ordained in their twenties or early thirties.
Anyone seen any research on this?
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Don't have research but I think you are on to something. It's possible that pastors ordained in their 30s also are called to be Heads of Staff. But those ordained after a long term second career? Probably not.
Someone told me last week that Princeton Seminary advises women especially to seek solo pastorates out of seminary-- not associate positions. I'm also wondering if people (women especially) are more likely to be called to serve as Heads of Staff after being associate pastors or being solo pastors of smaller churches.
page 3 of some GA statistics cover some of these issues:
http://www.pcusa.org/womensadvocacy/clergywomen/clergywomen-report03.pdf
So...ordained two days after my 41st birthday?
Am I mommy-tracked forever???
:(
Cheesehead--I sure there are exceptions, and the real data may not even back me up on this theory.
My guess would be that if I'm right, there are two reasons for this. 1) It takes time to build up the reservoir of experience and connections that help in getting that type of call. 2) Folks who are ordained early in life tend to see ministry as their career and have a particular sense of what trajectory that career will take. Mid-life ordinands are more likely to have been surprised by their call to ministry, have re-thought their whole sense of career and so have a more open idea of what "success" looks like.
Just me thinking out loud.
One EP told me that HoS means someone who works with other full time ministry professionals--whether lay or ordained: so Assoc. Pastor, or DCE or Youth Director, etc. but not sec'y and custodian. Not sure how generally accepted that definition is.
"One EP told me that HoS means someone who works with other full time ministry professionals--whether lay or ordained: so Assoc. Pastor, or DCE or Youth Director, etc. but not sec'y and custodian." This is my understanding of what HoS means... when I compiled my stats, that is the definition I used. Great question and great info from PPB.
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