The Archives

church-staff, clergy, disability, ministry
Is ministry a …?
09.16.07 | Permalink | 4 Comments

Church work can be a tough business. It’s never done. The needs—as I’ve heard so many people put it—are endless and nonnegotiable. It follows you home. It goes to bed with you. Lots of folks’ work follows them home. Lots of folks do work that encounters endless human needs. So I’ve put off writing this […]
afterlife, bible, ministry, protest
Friday Scribbler: 2006/08/18
08.18.06 | Permalink | Comments Off on Friday Scribbler: 2006/08/18

Stuff you should check out from some of my fellow Daily Scribblers: A People So Bold! reminds us why Garrison Keillor likes to pick on Unitarians. He also goes off on this-little-light-of-mine romanticism masquerading as ministry. A Pagan Sojourn fills us in on the Heathen (Norse pagan) afterlife—Wyrd, Ragnarok, Hel, and much more. Lo-Fi Tribe […]
burnout, depression, ministers, ministry
Death by ministry
05.31.06 | Permalink | 3 Comments

Some stats on ministers (emphasis mine): Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout, or contention in their churches. Fifty percent of pastors' marriages will end in divorce. Eighty percent of pastors and eighty-four percent of their spouses feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastors. Fifty percent […]
burnout, calling, depression, grief, loss, ministry
Killing a fourteen-year-old
03.28.06 | Permalink | 11 Comments

A little over seven months ago I left my steady gig as a communications/program director for a small university research center. This week I expect to sign my first website design contract and send out my second bid. Burnout is the easiest explanation for the quit, but there is a long story behind that explanation. […]
education, ministerial-formation, ministry, seminary
A better way to do ministerial formation
11.15.05 | Permalink | 6 Comments

Ordained ministry is been overprofessionalized. When you expect people (without ever coming out and saying it) to live in genteel poverty for their first ten or fifteen years, and when most new ministers take out huge loans and have children to support, well, it just isn’t right. Add to that the “entrepreneurial” bit, as Scott […]