Today, half of American pastors are older than 55. In 1992, less than a quarter of pastors in the U.S. (24 percent) were that old.

To Ed’s comments:

• As long as you have Baptist churches, you’ll have autonomous churches, and that means you’ll see a million different ways of doing things, and nobody’s experiences will ever be quite the same!
• My only point about performance reviews is that there should be some mechanism for critical feedback - not from the folks who always say, “Good sermon, Pastor!”, but from people you know and trust to be brutally honest. We all know people who are awful preachers and pastors, and one reason may be because they’re never received critical feedback - or welcomed it, either.
• This is one area where a dual-pastor model will help.

To Bro. Barkman:

• You’re right - age doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t matter if a guy is over 55. Is he doing a good and faithful job? That’s the real question.

I am not sure whether the pastoral pickings are slim. I’ve heard anecdotes (here and elsewhere) that they are. My own experience as a deacon on a pastoral search committee eight years ago is that we had too many applicants. We’re starting a search for a new pastor ourselves now at my current church, and I’ll let you know how things turn out!

One thing that ought to be said about valuing ability/character over age is that if, as a rule, one doesn’t find increasing ability and character among people as they age, one ought to seriously question whether that church is actively involved in making disciples. No? We can quibble on the criteria of what makes a “seasoned saint” increasingly Godly or carnal, but we ought to see some growth over the years if we’re really being sanctified.