Brother, Sister, can you spare a....

I'm all psyched from my meeting today with some of the younger clergy-types in the Annual Conference. They inspire me and impress me. God blesses us with wonderful people who are called to share in the building of God's kingdom.
We studied scripture together, shared our stories and our callings and talked about what goes into the petri dish to create a "culture" of the call. (Get it?! culture....oh, the science jokes!)
The conversation eventually turned to what we see as some of the justice issues we must address with "prophetic honesty." (thanks, Brent...) What became clear is that one thing we know is that young people might be willing to follow their call if it meant they could live with a level of comfort. We were not talking over indulgent lifestyles, mind you, but able to live without an overwhelming sense of indebtedness. (Many come out of seminary with embarassing amounts of student loans). And when the conference minimum (we acknowledged was lower than many other annual conferences with lower costs of living), young people look at young pastors and say, "Thanks, but it is not worth it." Another said something about this topic that really caught me-- "Many think that going into ministry means you don't need the money." While it would be nice to be like St. Francis, that's not the way we rock it in 2006. How do we find ways to make sure we have a living wage for pastors and for all church workers? There's a justice issue to chew on for awhile....