My response to “…the youngest in an age old discussion…”

…the youngest in an age old discussion….

Kris,

I commend you on a wise and thoughtful response to the age-limit issue at our recent General Assembly. You are spot on.

Putting myself in the shoes of the older generation, I think I could build a reasonable case for asking young men to wait awhile before being ordained. For example:

• Jacob, through chosen over the older brother, had to wait until character was developed before stepping into his anointed role.
• David, through anointed to be king, had to wait for God’s timing.
• The novice issue (1 Timothy 3:6)

However, putting myself in the shoes of the younger generation I think I can build a reasonable case for allowing young men to be ordained:

• Levites could serve in the Tabernacle at age 25 (Numbers 8:24)
• Several young kings that did a surprisingly good job (Joash, Amaziah, Jotham, Hezekiah, Josiah). Oddly enough, several of these kings did well when young and blew it when they got older (so much for equating wisdom with age).
• When choosen by Jesus, many of the disciples appeared to be very young.
• Young men can study to show themselves approved (2 Timothy 2:15)

So as you can see, there is no easy answer to this debate.

As you observed, I think one of the pivotal issues concerning this matter is our need to be “useful.” In the same section in Numbers of that sets up the age a man could enter the ministry, it also sets the age that he is to retire from full-time ministry (age 55 no less!) Now we’re are not living under the Law, etc., etc. However, I never hear older men fighting for that right! Our culture (and church) has trouble with exit plans. For the first time in the history of humankind, we are living in a age where youth is more valued than age. Thus the elderly feel “not useful” and hang on, in many cases way to long.

So on one hand we have the “old guard” hanging on and on the other hand we have the “young bucks” itching to – using your metaphor – get the keys to the car. I’m afraid our younger men are so vocal and perhaps even a little belligerent because they see no reasonable exit plan that gives them hope for an entry; and I’m afraid the older men feel threaten and cornered and thus grip even tighter their power and positions.

Now this is a broad and very general response to a very important issue and I am under no illusion that you and I will settle the debate.  However, in the end, there are only two ways for there to be a transfer of power: a revolution by the young and powerless or a wise transference of power by the older regime that currently hold the power.

It is my hope that the older men in our denomination will do the homework that is required to discovered how to stay useful “till death do they part” while at the same time bring along worthy young men and women with them on the journey creating opportunities for them to share in the work of the ministry and to eventually inherit the work of the ministry. That is the legacy that I desire for my life.