Lovett H. Weems Jr. reports on how a changed culture for post-Boomer generations holds many clues for the absence of younger generations in churches and, thus, the historically low numbers of young clergy.
The Lewis Center for Church Leadership just issued its latest clergy age trends report, Clergy Age Trends Remain Relatively Stable in 2025. When the Lewis Center began issuing annual reports 20 years ago on clergy age trends in the United Methodist Church—and occasionally across multiple denominations, there were two common responses to the stark decline in the percentage of young clergy (under age 35). One was surprise and even shock at the findings. The other was suggestions and questions that might give logical reasons for the small number of young clergy.
Some suggested there may be less need for entering clergy since there are fewer churches and members now. Others said that young people are doing everything later now such as finishing school, getting married, even moving out of their family home! One person suggested we check to see if there were fewer people ages 25-35 in the population now. As it turned out, there was some truth in all the ideas shared. However, it turned out that in each case, even when taking account of the factors offered, those factors did not account for the degree of decline in young clergy. For example, young adults as a percentage of the population had declined, but the proportion of young clergy declined far more. The same was the case for fewer churches and members. And for young people delaying entry into professions, we compared the age trends among dentists (who have a similar length of education) with those of clergy and found no comparable absence of young dentists.
In a separate project around the time the annual clergy age reports began, the Lewis Center surveyed all United Methodist clergy younger than 35. The most common characteristics we found among them was that they were active in their local churches as children and as youth. When we look at church traditions that have declined in the past decades, it is among children and youth where the declines have been greatest.
But now that the United States is well into an overall religious recession sparing virtually no traditions, we may be seeing trends that have been at play for at least 25 years—primarily among younger generations. We frequently see surveys reported that show decline in religious adherence and attendance. What these surveys all have in common is showing that virtually all the declines have come from the post-Baby Boom generations.
The noted sociologist Christian Smith has a new book that documents this larger story of generational movement away from religious engagement, Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith in America (Oxford University Press, 2025). His reporting shows that fewer young clergy is an understandable result of fewer younger people in churches. And while this decline is partly the fault of things happening in churches, it is predominantly because of long-term shifts in “deep culture” of the United States.
Smith finds that much of historical cultural change occurs not within generations but between them. Key cultural shifts are driven by the shared experiences that shaped each generation. He describes two decades of “converging perfect storms” in the 1990s and 2000s. He finds that huge historical events and institutional changes were “driven by developments in technology, economics, politics, the media, education, business, social networks, law, marriage and family, and even warfare.” The result was “transformed assumptions, beliefs, values, norms, expectations, and aesthetics.”
This new “cultural zeitgeist” proved inhospitable to traditional religion. Thus, churches are left trying to reproduce themselves in a “profoundly altered ecosystem” in contrast to what they had lived before. No one factor alone—such as 9/11 or religious scandals—altered the culture. But together, dozens of forces, most of which were not designed to hurt religion, had the result of shifting the culture for post-Boomer generations away from religious engagement.
All this is a reminder to church leaders today that the challenges facing all congregations today are not the technical problems named often by the most active members but the estrangement those from the post-Boomer generations feel from the church and religious issues. Go ahead and make any technical changes that improve what you are doing, but do not think those steps alone will usher in a brighter day.
When things are not going well, churches normally fixate on “what can we do” conversations. But today’s problems are deeper than technical challenges. They are what Ronald Heifetz calls “adaptive challenges” in which either the problem or the solution is not known. In those cases, beginning to do things makes no sense because we do not yet know what to do. If we did, we probably would have already done it.
We now require “what do we need to learn” conversations. And those must begin somewhere. You may want to find a way to begin hospitable and open conversations with an easily accessible community of post-Boomers—those in your church but primarily with those outside, perhaps beginning with the children and grandchildren of your members for whom church appears to be “obsolete.” Open and hospitable conversations at such times mean listening. These listening times are without a hint of judgment. You are asking those who know church life but are not now engaged to be a sort of consultant. You want them to interpret what is different today from the past, especially for those their age or younger. If you respect and actively listen to what these post-Boomers have to say, they will honor you by sharing honest thoughts and observations. And your appropriate and faithful response will be, “Thank you.” You are not there to debate, defend, or explain. “Thank you” is always sufficient.
Listen for clues God may give you from what is said and unsaid. What are you learning?
Download the 2025 Clergy Age Trends Report.
Related Resources
- Close Generation Gaps, Deepen Relationships by Laura Buchanan
- Why Making Your Church Multigenerational Is Worth the Effort by Chuck Lawless
- Next Generation Leaders by Susan Beaumont
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