The State of the Pastorate

I want to introduce you to someone you'll be glad to know. Raised in Alabama, Richard Clark earned his Master's at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, where he worked as classroom technology manager, helping faculty communicate more effectively through media. Along way he also founded and edited Christ and Pop Culture, a highly regarded online magazine and podcast network dedicated to thoughtful and discerning engagement with culture.

Richard and Jennifer have a son, Atticus, whose name reveals their esteem for novelist Harper Lee.

Recently named managing editor of Leadership Journal, Richard's love of good writing and engagement with culture and church leadership all come together. I asked him to introduce this edition, "The State of the Pastorate." Here's his story behind the theme.

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I felt a call to ministry back in 1998. I was 16. My youth pastor let me shadow him for a semester and then sent me to Wisconsin to intern with a church-plant for the summer. By the time I got back, I had a sense of the varied nature of ministry. After all, I'd taught youth group, preached a sermon or two, organized an outreach event, counseled youth, helped plan a worship service, driven the church van, even trimmed the hedges in the church planter's lawn. Clearly, ministry was multi-faceted.

Still, nothing could have prepared me for the degree and speed with which the nature of ministry work would change. I watched firsthand as youth ministry philosophy swung from emphasizing fun and games as outreach to emphasizing making disciples. I remember executing the purpose driven model as a youth pastor only to discover the emergent church. Within two months I was inviting my youth group to approach prayer stations with their supplications and praise.

Each time I embraced a different ministry philosophy, I remember thinking, This is it, the correct way to do ministry. Looking back, I now know that anytime I find the new "right way to do ministry," I'll probably use another phrase a couple years later: "What was I thinking?"

Doing ministry well requires perspective. And this issue of Leadership Journal is all about providing perspective. In our conversations with pastors while preparing this issue, we were struck by the seismic shifts taking place: smart phones and reliance on the internet, changes in the economy, political shifts, and renewed racial tensions. All have impacted the pastorate.

I love being a part of this journal because the church is the only institution I know of that grows stronger as more pressure is applied. Pastors are responding to these challenges in astute, creative, and inspiring ways. In this issue, we feature pastoral responses to new challenges, spotlight the ever-evolving ways aspiring pastors are being prepared for the role, and clarify that some challenges actually aren't that new at all.

Maybe there's not one "right way to do ministry" because our context is ever-changing. That's why I'm so relieved when I remember that the foundational nature of our ministry will never change.

"On this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it," said Jesus, words that guarantee the foundation will never change, and that victory is sure. Our ministry is what taking part in the church's journey between its foundation and its victory. Now that's perspective. —Richard Clark