R&E Newsweekly on shortage of mainline pastorates

Required watching for anyone with romantic ideas about going into the ministry. The “gone into nonprofits” is my story of the last ten years. Not sad, but the existential piece hits close to home

See the Religion and Ethics Newsweekly site for a transcript.
“Diminishing Job Prospects for Protestant Pastors” (May 2, 2014)

By Scott Wells

Scott Wells, 46, is a Universalist Christian minister doing Universalist theology and church administration hacks in Washington, D.C.

1 comment

  1. I think many of the employment dynamics for Protestant pastors in general, also apply to UU’s specifically. We have the extra dimensions of a glut of ordained persons, and a huge number of small congregations that can not afford full-time pastoral ministry.

    If I had it to do all over again, instead of getting the simple MDiv, I would have enrolled in a joint MDiv/MSW or MDiv/MAT program. And set myself up for a solid dual-career religious vocation. I am deeply devoted to the calling of pastoral ministry, but the religious ecology of the United States can no longer support the old full-time pastoral model.

    It seems to me that as we go forward, more congregations will be increasingly lay driven, dependent on volunteer member ministry, and staffed by smaller groups of part-time paid ministers.

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