I am sitting in class right now at Bethel Seminary in Minneapolis, MN. I have had several conversations with some of the best young leadership minds I have known. One of the interesting things about spending time with these friends is howthey have little to know drive to work in the local church. They love church and are actively involved in their respective ministries but there isn't the passion to work in a local congregation.

I came across this blog at www.nakedchurch.com and thought this might speak to why it is difficult to get young leaders involved to revive old churches.
Here are 10 possible reasons to why this may be true.

There is an epidemic occurring right under the nose of church middle judicatories and no one seems to notice. Young pastors (less than five years in the ministry) are leaving in droves. The Lilly Foundation has poured millions of dollars into “Sustaining Pastoral Ministry” initiatives and it’s too soon to tell whether or not their approach is working. Aside from the obvious reasons pastors leave the ministry (sexual impropriety, financial mismanagement, and marital dissolution) here are the top ten reasons why young pastors call it quits:

1. The discontinuity between what they imagined ministry to be and what it actually is is too great.
2. A life without weekends sucks.
3. The pay is too low (most pastors in my denomination make less money than a school teacher with five years experience).
4. They are tired of driving ten year old cars while their congregations trade in their cars every two years.
5. Many young pastors are called into difficult congregations that chew pastors up and spit them out because experienced pastors know better.
6. Even though the search committee told them they wanted to reach young people, they didn’t really mean it.
7. When the pastor asked the search committee if they were an “emergent church”, the members of the search committee thought he said “divergent church” and agreed.
8. Nobody told the young pastor that cleaning the toilets was part of the job description.
9. The young pastor’s student loans came due and the amount of money he/she owes on a monthly basis exceeds his/her income.
10. Working at McDonalds has alot less stress.

I know it is a little tongue-in-cheek, but I think there is some validity to the thoughts.