September 7, 2024
ATHENS, Ga. – A fledgling initiative that pairs young church leaders with seasoned veterans is proving successful a month into its launch.
The Young Leaders initiative already has enlisted 220 people.
“We’re very pleased with where we are at this point,” said Dallas White, pastor at The Grove Church in Acworth and a consultant overseeing the initiative for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board. “We still have a long way to go, because we really do want to connect with all our young Georgia Baptist leaders, to provide a place where they can come to network, to build relationships.”
The initiative kicked off with a statewide recruitment tour that included stops in Albany, Athens, Warner Robbins and Woodstock over the past month.
White said he was fortunate when he started into ministry to have seasoned leaders to help guide him. He’s convinced every young leader would benefit from having an experienced mentor to serve as a sounding board.
That’s why the Georgia Baptist Mission Board started the Young Leaders initiative that matches ministers under 40 years old with some of the state’s most experienced pulpiteers.
White said he considers the initiative crucial in raising up the next generation of ministers.
“If we don’t do it, nobody will,” he said.
A research report, The Aging of America’s Pastors, the Barna Group found that the U.S. now more pastors over 65 than under 40.
“The aging of pastors represents a substantial crisis for Protestant churches,” says David Kinnaman, president of Barna Group. "It is urgent that denominations, networks and independent churches determine how to best motivate, mobilize, resource and deploy more younger pastors.
The Young Leaders initiative provides a combination of in-person and online gatherings for ministers from 20 to 40 years old.
“It is going really well,” White said. “I loved the diversity of the turnout. We had racial diversity. We had men and women. We had folks who pastor in cities, in the suburbs, and in rural areas, a great cross-section of our state.”
