Young ministers face difficult search for stability in their chosen profession. The New York Times reports:
To them, she was still a promising young leader, an ordained minister with a master’s degree in divinity and an unpaid position in the church hierarchy. No one knew she had just lost the only paying job she had.
No one knew that she would be searching for work when she walked out of the red brick church, or wondering how long her savings and severance package would cover the bills. When she had urged the faithful to search for growth and possibility, even outside their comfort zones, she might have been talking about herself.
…
Profound social and economic changes are upending the working lives of many young ministers who feel called to a full-time religious life. Declining attendance has forced some churches to close or shift to part-time pastors, and the economic turbulence of recent years has made some older ministers reluctant to retire, leaving fewer vacancies for young clergy members to fill, said Daniel O. Aleshire, the executive director of the Association of Theological Schools, which is based in Pittsburgh and represents 233 seminaries and religious schools in the United States.