“Yes, the baby boomer may have had a career, two careers, has raised a family, but millenials are coming from these colleges where almost all of them have some overseas studies, almost all of them have been on some kind of volunteer mission; they speak a second language.”
Twelve retired clergy came out of retirement to serve congregations that had lost their church homes in a schism. The Diocese of Fort Worth says thank you.
When I started seminary and began envisioning myself as a clergyperson, I started looking at the style of women pastors, particularly women head pastors. And I noticed that virtually without exception, they had “The Haircut.” The Don’t-Think-of-Me-as-a-Woman-Think-of-Me-as-a-Pastor haircut.
“It’s good to pull people out of the river when they’re drowning, … but it’s also good to go upriver to see who’s throwing them in the river.”
Who is this “pastorpreneur”? What additional skills or training must he or she possess in order to help the church be effective? What must happen within church for there to be enough trust between priest and congregation to allow such a role to come forth? And what in the world happens to “preach, teach, and administer the sacraments”?
Rev. Lyndon Harris, who was the priest at St. Paul’s Chapel (across Church Street from the World Trade Center) on September 11, 2001, reflects on
My children are too young – they hadn’t yet come into the world – but one day they’ll ask about it: not just the facts, but the mood, the tenor. I have no problem talking about drugs, sex, any of the the many things you hear parents dreading. And I don’t really even dread this. But it will be singularly humbling to have to be the one who will explain just how dark men’s hearts can be.
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What makes the clergy vocation and occupation really different is that you work for God ultimately. If that work environment isn’t meaningful to you, you’re doing a lot of things like, you know, doing budgets or checking spelling on a bulletin, or office management, that’s going to really hit home, because you think your job should be about God.
“If marriage were to become available in Pennsylvania … I would absolutely get married.”