What's Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander

In No Place for Truth, or, Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology?, David F. Wells reports:

Of the 221 who graduated from Yale College between the years of 1745 and 1775 and went into the ministry, 71 percent remained in the church to which they were first called until their deaths. Only 4 percent held four or more pastorates. By contrast, today the average pastoral stint is as low as two years in some areas and denominations and seldom more than three years. Lying between the eighteenth century and our own is a cluster of steadily declining graph lines indicating shorter and shorter tenures, growing pastoral impermanence, and increasingly shallow bonds between pastors and their churches. (p. 228)

The Lutheran Church also is witness to similar trends of pastoral impermanence. The ancient Church, on the contrary, steadfastly opposed clergy movement in the decrees of the Ecumenical councils as well as in practice. The extreme disjuncture, between today's practice and that of the ancient Church out to be reason enough to re-examine the Church's current practice in the light of her historic doctrine. (2 February 00 / 81K)

This essay was first delivered as an open/academic topic at the Sixth Annual Theological Symposium at Concordia Seminary (St. Louis).

Link: https://web.archive.org/web/20011108091400/http://members.aol.com/SemperRef/Mobility.html

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