For the last couple years, there has been a significant increase in male students at Starr King School for the ministry. In my starting year it was something like 19 women and 4 men. It is closer to even this year, if my memory is correct.
With some trepidation about the politically incorrectness of my thoughts on this subject, here goes.
I worry about fewer men in ministry, too. I also worry about other demographic and style trends which effect our ministry. Our proportion of gay and transgender seminarians and new ministers seems high in relationship to the overall population, an even greater balance issue than the male female issue. Of course, a good minister in any demographic nitche can minister well to our gloriously mixed congregations, but beginning and moderately talented ministers often have a hard time with this. Anyway, I worry about the drastic proportion issues I see. The question to ask in the seminaries is, where are the middle aged and young, hetrosexual men, and why is the demographic not attracted into ministry (ours or others' apparently) at this time?
That being said, two things about the male female balance issue. Firstly, there have been more women than men in church from time immemorial. Is it really getting worse? (But I do agree that a characteristic of a growing church is a good balance of men and women, as well as other kinds of diversity.)
Secondly my experience as a female minister is that it is style not gender that is the issue in who is attracted into congregations. To oversimplify, men want things to think about, (good preaching) and they are much more suspicious of and left cold by ritual. They'll go along if they are given something to chew on, sermon wise, but the sermon's the thing.
(Attracting men into leadership in congregations with female ministers has seemed to be much trickier, than simply attracting a balance of men and women into worship, btw)
Overall, though, one of the best things about serving a large church is having gender (and other) balance/diversity in a staff. Our denomination of small churches mostly misses this opportunity.
James--I'm not sure what the balance is in our theological schools right now, but I have run across more and more young men who are interested in going into the ministry. It may just be the crowd I run with, but many of these men are either youth advisors or religious educators. That's good news, as far as I'm concerned.
Christine--Sometimes I think that we're afraid of sharing our thoughts lest we be called politically incorrect. I'm glad you shared because I do think the issues you raise are worth discussing. Attracting any specific group to our congregations is a tricky issue, and I don't think it has as much to do with the gender or sexual/affectional orientation of the senior minister as we may think. It does take a lot intentionality from all of our leaders, professional or volunteer, lay or ordained.
I'm glad to hear that more men are interested in UU ministry. Today's report of the MFC meeting is that they gave fellowship to 18 women and 2 men.
That's not healthy.
I'm wondering how many men are among the "50 minority candidates...actively preparing for ministry" Bill Sinkford mentions in his plan for more diverse ministry.
among the 50 seminarians of color, 30+ participate in twice monthly teleconference that i facilitate. we have about 75% women, and about 50% glbt identified. we have remarked at the welcoming presence of glbt in the people of color community in uu as significant and notable. needs some more discussion. there are few men of color in general in my experience, in DRUUMM in particular. mentorship is something the youth and young adults of color have talked about.
This really fills in the that particular blank. Mentorship is a fantastic thing to be talking about. It's one of the identified ways of achieving youth empowerment in the working definition being shown at youth consultations. Those of us in the ministry benefit from it as we go through the fellowshipping process. It'd be wonderful if more people--youth, young adults, even older adults--could participate in mentoring relationships as UUs. Thanks.
Commenting by HaloScan
