At the end of the day, it doesn’t necessarily have to do with IQ and smarts and charismatic gifting. It comes with the wisdom of trying at something for more than 30 years and all the failure that this entails. We may love the stories of wild success that seemingly find overnight at a young age, but these things aren’t reproducible.

Last year I wrote a post called “The Alexander Syndrome” that’s been coming back to my mind lately.

This was the basic premise: At the age of 30, Alexander looked upon his Kingdom and wept for there were no more worlds to conque. In evangelical folklore, we are constantly inundated with stories of wildly successful churches (read: BIG) with pastors who are almost surprisingly young (late 20′s to early 30′s). These stories have slowly seeped there way into the subconscious of many young pastors and there is an unspoken pressure that says, “by the time you’re 30, you need to have done something ridiculously significant and made your mark on the world.” This leads to a frenetic, stressed way of living for many of these pastors who find themselves not measuring up and constantly ”behind” the curve (at least in their minds).

But here’s what I’ve been thinking about lately.

What if the most fruitful ministry years are really supposed to be when you’re between the ages of 50-70?

For quite some time there has been a paradigm that has said a senior leader’s most significant time of ministry would be between the ages of 35-45. Why? Because in a traditional church setting, the senior leader’s most important contribution is the teaching they give on Sunday. Furthermore, within this model, a speaker can usually attract people who are 10 years older and years younger. The ages of 35-45 would mean you’re attracting people who are newly married (pre-kids) all the way to empty nesters whose kids have just gone to college. That means you get couples from their 20′s to their late 50′s AND all of their kids.

At least that’s the thought.

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