Where Are They Now?

By Aaron Jayne
The 2004 cartoon movie, The Incredibles, begins with flashbacks showing superheroes ("supers") helping citizens, but also accidently creating bigger messes in the process. The supers are sued, banished and end up in a type of superhero protection program wherein they must live ordinary lives among ordinary people. A narrator says, "Where are they now? They are living among us, average citizens, average heroes, quietly and anonymously continuing to make the world a better place."

I am 35 years old, and at this time among my ministry colleagues, I am the youngest ordained minister in my district. Most of the ministers are in their mid-to-late-fifties or much older. An entire generation of ministers is MISSING! I remember seeing young guys in ministry when I was a teen, but now I wonder, "Where are they now?" I have sat on our district board as a sectional presbyter and wondered, "Where is everyone? What has happened to all the young guys?"

They still walk among us, but... Some have pursued other avenues of ministry. Some have joined with other organizations who have accepted them. Some gave up because they were not properly prepared for ministry. Others were banished because of mistakes. Some live in defeat wondering what life could've been like if they had only been given an opportunity.

I am thankful that I had both proper training and a pastor who had the patience to overlook or work with me when I made bonehead mistakes. When I first started preaching, I made plenty. One Sunday, I was filling in at a church that was pastorless. As I introduced myself to the congregation, something horrible happened. I was trying to say that I was not the type of preacher who spits and shouts, but my tongue crossed the "sp" and the "sh", and I said, "I am not the type of preacher who s**ts and spouts!" (When you pick yourself up off the floor from laughing, let me continue.) That was something for which some young preachers would have been crucified or had their credentials yanked.

I wonder how many minister "supers" have been banished and put into a "minister protection program." How many ministers who once showed great potential now live ordinary lives because some couldn't overlook errors or mistakes?

In Nehemiah 4:2, Sanballat and Tobiah stalked and mocked Nehemiah as they were trying to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. They said, "Do they actually think they can make something of stones from a rubbish heap—and charred stones at that?" Nehemiah and his crew were re-using old stones that had once made the wall a great fortress. They included has-beens in the midst of new stones.

God put it in my spirit that there are some who used to be in ministry and need to be restored – some who were run off because their antics weren't appreciated or their immaturity couldn't be tolerated. If old ones aren't restored and new ones aren't brought in, where will we be when I am one of the old guys?