Excerpt from The Princeton Seminary Bulletin, 2001, Vol. 22

T has finally come true: The long-predicted pastor shortage in mainline Protestant churches is upon us. Just two years ago there were two ministers seeking every one pastoral opening in the Presbyterian Church (usa). Today there is one minister open to a call for every two pulpit vacancies. It is a crisis of major proportions. We Presbyterians have been deaf to the warnings because our ten seminaries have been and continue to be filled with students. What we have not noticed is that only fifty-six percent of our total enrollment is Presbyterian. Moreover, and this is more drastic, only fifty percent of our Presbyterian graduates enter pastoral ministry. Of these, twenty percent last only five years. This is not a Presbyterian crisis alone, however. For years we have Shared annual reports of shrinking and graying memberships with our sister denominations. Now we participate with them in this new factor - the sudden shortage of pastoral leadership.

Those of us who teach in theological schools created to train pastors may not excuse ourselves from this emergency. For we may be a part of the problem. Neither can those enrolled in seminary ignore the challenge. For you may be a part of the solution.

So tonight, on the occasion of this convocation of the Seminary's r8oth academic year, I speak in praise of the pastorate. I am in the recruiting mode, and I am especially addressing that fifty percent of you wondering what it is God wants you to do with the rest of your lives. Before I do, however, let me declare my bias. There is no work in the world that is more demanding, more difficult, and more risky than the pastorate. At the same time, there is no work in the world that is more interesting, more challenging, and more gratifying than being pastor of a congregation. I speak out of twenty - nine years of pastoral experience.

Consider the office of pastor in terms of its biblical origins. In the New Testament the title pastor occurs only once in standard English translations, and that in the Letter to the Ephesians. In its context the verse reads.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.