Protestant Pastoral Ministry at the Beginning of the New Millennium

Viewing ordained ministry as “a troubled profession” is not new. In his 1956 book, The Purpose of the Church and Its Ministry, H. Richard Niebuhr referred to the ministry as “The Perplexed Profession.” Niebuhr attributed the problem primarily to the lack of “a clear-cut, generally accepted conception of the office of the ministry” which he thought, at the time was emerging. Unfortunately, history proved him wrong. The intervening years have brought considerable changes in the fortunes of the churches and new challenges to those who lead them. They have not, however, brought much additional clarity about a guiding conception of ordained ministry, as Matthew Price’s paper later in this session will make clear. It is still possible to describe ordained ministry as “troubled” or “perplexed.” A report by George Barna (1993: 59) describes clergy as “one of the most frustrated occupational groups in our country.” A similar comment comes from the writer, Paul Wilkes in an oped article in the Boston Sunday Globe. Based on visits to congregations and parishes across the country, Wilkes concluded that “in too many of our parishes, we have [clergy] who are sadly ordinary, . . .who had they ended up in any other field would be seen as second-rate practitioners” (Wilkes 1999).