I'm not ashamed to admit I was one of those young girls who was slightly obsessed with Take That. I loved them; collected all the Take That stash – the pencil case, the Take That bag, the Take That birthday cake; the Mark Owen doll. I knew all the words to the songs, but as a pre-teen, my parents never let me go to their concerts.
Seeing them live remained but a dream until they announced their comeback tour in 2006. By then I was a fully-grown adult. So I went to see it not just once but twice. I stood with thousands of other women in a haze of nostalgia, singing along to the hits of our childhood – and seeing if we could still do the dance moves.
Last night, Jason Orange – otherwise known as 'the one who could dance' – announced he would not be making any new music with his Take That bandmates Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Howard Donald.
In an official statement, he said: "At the end of the Progress Tour I began to question whether it might be the right time for me to not continue on with Take That. At the start of this year and with my full knowledge and blessing the guys began writing new material. There have been no fallings out, only a decision on my part that I no longer wish to do this."
I wish more church leaders were like Jason.
Maybe some need to take a leaf out of his book and quit before they lose all joy for their ministries.
Recent years have seen a swathe of returns of bands of my childhood – no thanks to TV show The Big Reunion.
But there's something awkward about it all. Our world is so obsessed with celebrity culture and 'making it' that those who have had a taste of fame and being in the spotlight just can't seem to let it go. Long after they should have.
And there's a lesson here for all of us.
In Ecclesiastes we read that there's a time for everything. Maybe there's a time to pass on the baton.
Statistics from the Church of England ministry report in 2012 revealed that the average age of full-time stipendiary diocesan clergy is 52 years and 23 per cent of full-time clergy are aged 60 or over. The 2005 English Church Census similarly showed the average age of a minister is 54. And so it's no surprise that the average age of churchgoers is 55.
As leaders of the world's most successful organisations seem to get younger and younger, the Church seems to be going in the opposite direction. And so for my generation and those younger than us, church is increasingly being seen as something led and attended by our parents and their friends. The Church fits into the stereotype that we are an ageing institution on its way out.
The research showed, for example, that older ministers were more likely to have smaller churches: they are attracting fewer people. And then there's the stress of it all. Writing in Pulling Out of the Nosedive, Christopher Rutledge writes that an "unacceptably high proportion of clergy show signs of emotional exhaustion from their ministry". Surely this isn't sustainable for 30 or 40 years.
This is not really even about age; but about what's best for the kingdom of God.
There are of course older church leaders who are full of life and vibrancy; and who may only have been doing the Church Leadership thing for a short while, after having had a career elsewhere. But for career clergy – like is the case with any job – being in the same place for too long can lead to disillusionment, fatigue, stress and a lack of passion.
Working for a para-Church organisation I continue to be astounded by the amazing people God has called to lead churches and organisations for such a time as this. But I am even more humbled when I see church leaders who feel God might be telling them to hang up their dog collars once the passion fades exit the spotlight and make way for new leaders.
And – as much as I love them – I'd say the same thing to the Take That band members who remain. At the moment they are national treasures but they mustn't continue to cling onto the fame they once had, and keep performing long after the passion is gone. Maybe it's time to make way for a new generation – the ones with the energy to do the dance moves.
Chine Mbubaegbu is head of media and communications at the Evangelical Alliance.
