The Archives
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clergy, ordination, seminary
No pulpits for seminarians, no seminarians for pulpits
10.03.06 | Permalink | 5 CommentsA recent Washington Post piece says that only 50-65% of seminary graduates find ministry jobs, matching up with an earlier NYTimes piece that said much the same. However, the WP piece talks about pulpit shortages, but the NYT piece talks about twentysomething seminarians choosing not to go into the ministry. Add to that anecdotal evidence […]
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blessed-community, congregationalism, ekklesia, ordination, seminary, upaya
Follow up: The gifts and graces for ministry
07.31.06 | Permalink | 7 CommentsA People So Bold and Boy in the Bands have each responded to my recent salvo on what ministry is and ain’t. Some further thoughts: 1. Ministry is not a profession. The professions—law, medicine, and psychology, most typically—are necessarily self-serving guilds. By credentialing and policing their members, they preserve the power to control public access […]
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ministerial-formation, ordination, seminary
The gifts and graces for ministry
07.28.06 | Permalink | 6 CommentsIt’s no secret here that I grew up in the crossfire between free range charismatics and institutional Methodist bureaucracy, so it should come as little surprise that I have strong feelings about seminary, denominational credentialing and ministry. One half of my church life taught me that anyone with the gifts and graces for ministry was […]
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ordination, seminary
Seminary students getting ordained? Only 50%
03.18.06 | Permalink | Comments Off on Seminary students getting ordained? Only 50%Yup, I feel a lot better now. Only half of my fellow seminary graduates go into the ministry these days. The trend changed in the 90s, mostly among the under 30 crowd, which either makes me a stereotypical trendsetter or trend follower. Believe me, I’ll be using these figures in my next few job interviews. […]
