If a pastor wants to nudge people toward changes in their opinions, I suggest the bottom-up theory. There's tremendous power to sustain the church if you start with a good nucleus and move out through groups.
—George Gallup, Jr.

I majored in religion at Princeton University and intended to go into the Episcopal clergy. Toward that end I worked one summer in a church in Galveston, Texas. It was a black church with a white rector for the first time in nearly one hundred years. My job was to help him run the summer Bible school, the baseball team, and similar activities.

It was a great experience. Indeed if I were yet to go into the ministry—and I sometimes still long for it—I would want to serve in such a setting. The rector I worked with was instrumental in breaking down racial barriers in the church.

While weighing the choice of ministry or survey research (my father's field), I realized that research gave me much of what I was looking for in ministry: a way to help people. It could give ...

You have reached the end of this Article Preview

To continue reading, subscribe to Christianity Today magazine. Subscribers have full digital access to CT Pastors articles.

Log InSubscribe

Already a CT subscriber? Log in for full digital access.