A fourth explanation proposes that pulpit committees seek pastors who will remain on the job for more than 10 years. Finally, some say that younger ministers will accept less remuneration than those with more experience. Whatever the reasons, I believe prejudice toward ministers older than 55 deprives many churches of the services of some of our best qualified pastors. After encountering many of the problems which arise in congregations, the more experienced ministers are better prepared to distinguish between situations which will respond to pastoral solutions and those that will not. More experienced ministers are likely to conduct church affairs in a less confrontational, more cooperative manner than many of their less experienced colleagues.
More experienced ministers are apt to be better educated than the less experienced.
Theological schools seek to teach their students to use the tools of their trade, and many persons assume that degrees accurately measure education. But experience reveals that ministers really learn how to use these tools only from practicing them in an actual pastoral setting. Like most Americans who measure success in numerical terms, many theological students evaluate churches by the size of their memberships and budgets and how much they pay their ministers. Expecting to ascend the ladder of success by rising from smaller to larger churches, they consider their first pastorates to be temporary. They anticipate that within three to five years they will move on to a larger, more prestigious church.