When I joined the Wisconsin Annual Conference in 1962, there was quite an amazing feeling of closeness among the pastors. I learned one of the things which led to that was the support they gave each other back during the Depression, almost a quarter of a century before. Although it later seeped away as those older pastors retired, that "institutional memory" of the better off pastors contributing to a fund so that the pastors of very poor churches got financial help to survive the economic problems of that time was a very powetrful community builder in its day.
There are two signs of some serious financial problems ahead.
One is the huge national debt resulting from our war in Iraq, a debt that will be far more of a problem than the current mortgage problem.
The other is the diminishing size of local church budgets in most places at the same time that salaries of church officials and pastors have grown to where they can no longer be afforded in many places.
When I came into the ministry, I expected it to be a lifetime employment right on into retirement. But withn a few years, it became obvious that pastors had better have skills that could help them get jobs if the church could no longer afford them. That reflected the real situation of everyone else: have more than one marketable skill and expect to change jobs several times during your career.
Seminary students had better be aware of this dynamic. Many are coming over from other employment as mid-career changees. They would be wise to keep their certifications for employment in their former fields.
Other pastors need to be thinking about what kind of work they could do to support themselves and their families as the churches diminish in their financial capacities.
BUT ALL OF US BETTER BE READY TO HELP ONE ANOTHER JUST AS DID THE GENERATION THAT SUFFERED THROUGH THE DEPRESSION . . . TOGETHER.