Saturday, August 16, 1997

Pastor part of growing number

By LORETTA FULTON Senior Staff Writer

Elizabeth Kugel didn't have to think about it.

"If the Lord wanted me to be ordained, he would have to use a two-by-four," she emphatically told a classmate who suggested the unthinkable.

Instead of an attention-getting swat with a piece of lumber, however, the Lord took 52 years to get Kugel's attention.

"He was much more subtle with me," said Kugel, who is now Rev. Kugel, pastor of First United Methodist Church in Ranger and also the Erath County community of Hannibal.

At age 56, after earning a master of divinity degree from Perkins School of Theology at SMU, Kugel is settling into her first pastorate - and her third career.

She is part of a phenomenon occurring throughout the country. More and more people entering seminary are "older" and are moving from other careers into the ordained ministry.

In the fall of 1995, more than 40 percent of the people studying for the most common pastor degree - master of divinity - in North America were older than 35, according to the Association of Theological Schools in Pittsburgh.

his represents a rise of several percentage points since the fall of 1991, according to the organization, which accredits 230 Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox seminaries in the United States and Canada.

The fact that the association only started keeping such statistical information in 1991 is significant, said Nancy Merrill, director of communications.

"It's a more recent phenomenon," Merrill said.

The association compiles statistics every two years, so the most recent available are 1995. A significant finding in that data is the number of students ages 22-24 compared with those in the 40-49 category.

A total of 3,499 men and women ages 22-24 were enrolled for the master of divinity degree in the fall of 1995 compared with 5,739 in the 40-49 grouping.

At Perkins School of Theology, a major United Methodist seminary in Dallas, the average age of students entering theological studies in the fall of 1996 was 38.7. That statistic included all degree programs, not just the program leading to ordination.

Still, that is a significant jump from 30 years ago, said DeForrest Wicksten, director of admissions. A 1962 graduate of Perkins, Wicksten has been in ministry 35 years and has seen major changes.

In 1960, the average age of students seeking ordination was 24, compared with about 34 today, he said. The "older" student segment is so influential, that Perkins started a program in Houston two years ago which caters to that group with weekend and evening classes to accommodate work schedules.

Several reasons stand out for the age change, chief among them the fact that people are living longer, healthier lives and the emergence of women entering the ministry.

"The number of women has dramatically increased, said Dr. James Ward, a professor of Old Testament at Perkins since 1960. In the beginning of his career at Perkins, Ward said the typical student was a white male just recently out of college.

A few women attended Perkins for theological study but virtually none sought ordination, he said.

At Perkins, 40 percent of the current candidates for the master of divinity degree are women, Ward said. Because many women wait until their children are grown to start a career, their entrance into the ministry has raised the average age considerably.

"Almost always there has been some decisive life-changing experience that seems to precede the decision to go to graduate school," said Perkins' admissions director, Wicksten.

All the children leave home, a marriage dissolves or someone loses a job, precipitating the change.

"They rethink their life priorities," Wicksten said.

Among all students seeking ordination, surveys show three primary motivations, Wicksten said: a call from God, personal spiritual growth, and a desire to make a difference in the world.

"Their occupation hasn't had the edge they wanted to have in terms of transforming what they believe to be the evils of the world," Wicksten said.

Many of the older students seeking ordination have retired early from school teaching or the military, possibly to work toward something they have dreamed of for years.

"They may say they have lived 20 years with a sense of call from God," Wicksten said.

For Elizabeth Kugel, the call from God came not with the swift and unmistakeable blow of a two-by-four, but rather through years of interpreting that sense of call.

Kugel's first career was that of a microbiologist for Dow Chemical. After six and a half years, she resigned and joined the army, retiring as a full colonel after 23 years.

She believes maturity is the greatest asset an older person brings to the ministry.

"Having experienced life as well as having a work experience" is an invaluable gift, she believes.