The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-06-03
ARE THERE roo MANY MINISTERS
Some Facts Concerning the Supply of Con-
 grecatiOnal NIinisters


 IRE THERE TOO MANY MINISTERS 2 Some Facts Concerning the Supply of Con-
 gregational Ministers.
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER.
 There is an impression among minis ters, and to some extent among lay men also, that the ministerial market at the present time is overstocked. But as mere impressions are often mislead- ing, the truth in this case can be ascer- tained only by a careful study of the facts. What, then, are the facts? Con lining our Investigations exclusively to the churches and ministers of the Con- gregational denomination in the United states, the facts are substantially as follows:
 Up to a comparatively recent date the impression has generally prevailed that our supply of ministers was made quate. Our official reports show, how ever, that while we had an average of over 1,400 ministers out of pastoral em- ployment during the past fifteen years, we had only about 900 churches with out pastors during the same period
 Apparently, therefore, we have had an excess of ministers all along. Never theless, these figures do not really prove that we have had too many ministers during the past fifteen years, for, while every church reported to be without a minister needed one, every minister re- ported to be without a charge was not t~I< Fz,- s safe to assume that nature and circum- stances had rendered many of them un- available.
 In considering the question of excess or deficiency in the ministry, therefore availability for genuine pastoral ser vice must be taken into account, other wise our conclusions will necessarily be erroneous.
 How many available ministers have we, then?
 According to our latest available re- ports, we had at the close of A. D. 1894 5,342 Congregational churches in the United States. We had at the same time 5,365 ordained ministers, 342 licentiates and 107 ministers of other denomina- tions serving churches of our order This makes total of 5,S15 men who are classed as Congregational ministers, ar apparent excess of 472 ministers. But how many of the 5,S15 ministers | reported were at the time available fol real pastoral service?
 The report itself states that 167 out o1 | the total number were at the time serv- | ing as missionaries in foreign lands They were, therefore, unavailable fol service in the home churches. Others | were equally unavailable for other req sons. It Is this unavailability that com. l plicates our problem.
 We had at the close of the year A. D 1894, 1,275 churches without pastors. We 1 had at the same date 1,so7 ministers ou1 1 of pastoral employment If we knew exactly how many of these were at the | time available for real pastoral seryict 1 our problem would be greatly simpli- | fled. But definite knowledge on that point is not at hand. It is obvious l however, that many of them were not available, for among the number giver were included college presidents, pro- fessors, teachers, editors, literary men business men still reported as ministers chronic invalids and the superannuated | The following facts warrant the in. l ference that the number of superan nuated ministers in our denomination | is abnormally large, and that the tra, | ditional dead line of fifty" is no myth | but a stern reality.
 | Our official report shows that only about thirty per cent of all the ordained ministers now serving our churche: have been ordained twenty years or up, ward Fully seventy per cent of then | have been ordained only for one veal up to nineteen.
 These facts are significant, especial! when considered in connection with tht following, viz.:
 l The average age of Congregations ministers at their ordination has hith erto has been about thirty-one years and their average age at death has beer about xty-eight years, which makes 1 their average length of life subsequent to ordination about thirty-seven years
 It is not reported what the average | length of actual ministerial service sub sequent to ordination has been hitherto | It must, in the nature of things, how | ever, be much shorter than the averag, | length of ministerial life subsequent t i ordination. But whatever it has beel | hitherto, it is surely growing shorte year by year because of the general anC emphatic demand in our churches fo ! young men as pastors. The followin, i facts illustrate the practical effects 0 this demand:
 We had at the close of the year A. D 1 1894 about 440 ministers who had beei ordained forty years or upward, o whom about twenty per cent were stil serving the churches either nominall, or actually.
 We had about 200 ministers who hal lbeen ordained from thirty-five to thirty