Where are all those pastors going?

I came across this post in a fellow blogger's musings- and it rang quite true. The Post while not authored by this blogger is sparking good conversation. And it reminds me of an earlier post I made in August, Industry: Religion.

It comes at a time when I feel like the program director of this congregation rather than the pastor. It is so difficult to find the time to develop my own spiritual capacities so I can minister to others. Rather, my time is spent fundraising, finding youth and sunday school curricula, hiring staff and organizing.

At seminary, I would often ask for classes in non-profit management and administration. As the daughter of a pastor, I had an idea that this would be necessary. To a time I was told not to worry, someone in the congregation would have expertise on staffing, finances and education. No classes on that here, just study your Hebrew.

Now, I would never trade my study of theology and Bible, but this seems to be an outright denial of the pastoral call as it plays out in congregations. My previous experience working at a non-profit helped my make some initial good decisions in administration- the rest, well, they come from a personnel savy husband, a book and gut feelings.

If I was called to "schedule, mediate and administer the programs" I would be less likely to find myself tired, sick and dreaming of a job on CSI where the cases are solved in 1 hour with commercials.

But my letter of call says "preach, teach and admisister the sacrements" to be a pastor to the church of God. If the former job description is a part of this call, let's just name it for all the future pastors.