Why Choose Church

A Love Letter to the Parish, for Those in Discernment

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“If you can do anything else, you should.” This advice is commonly given by veteran clergy to people considering the vocation of congregational ministry. No one said it to me, but I have seminary friends that did hear it, and mentors who heard it too. While the advice is not new, perhaps more people are heeding it these days. Congregational ministry has, in recent years, fallen out of favor among clergy as a way to answer their calling.
 
That reality, plus the experience of taking a class that has put me in frequent conversation with a vocationally diverse group of religious professionals – and finding myself regularly speaking from the barely-represented parish minister’s point-of-view – has prompted me to write about why I love congregational ministry. It is a vocation with at least as many rewards to recommend it as drawbacks.
 
If you are in theological school (or considering it), and still in discernment about what you will ultimately pursue, I hope you will find this reflection helpful to your process. If you are doing some kind of community ministry, but considering a change, there might be something here for you too. Perhaps lay leaders will also find relevant insight here about how things look from a minister’s perspective, as you seek to retain a good minister – or when you need to find a new one. (My colleague Sharon Wylie’s post on How to Keep Your Minister will also be of interest.)
 
Drumroll please…
 
Ten Reasons I Love Congregational Ministry
 
1 – You get to be a generalist!  Parish clergy get to play many roles – preacher, teacher, pastor… prophet, administrator, servant leader in the community and denomination. Doubtless this aspect of parish ministry plays into the growing minister shortage – the role can stretch a person thin. [i]
 
But for some of us – me among them – the variable nature of parish ministry is central to its appeal, too. “I get to use all of me” in ministry, as one colleague put it. Earlier in my vocational journey, the need for variety and change led me to question whether I would be happy in academia, and to take a different path. It’s also why I never made it to the five-year mark in a non-profit job, prior to ministry.
 
Ministry is many things. Boring is not one of them. (I’m not saying no one ever gets bored in congregational ministry; but if you do, you can develop new skills, or start a new passion project that fits within your ministry.)

My own ministry discernment collage, ca. 2011

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2 – Sustained relationships. All ministry is relational. In churches, relationships with particular people and with the community as a whole are sustained over a significant period of time. While there is a continual flow of visitors and new members, you get to know many people in a way that allows depth and trust to develop. You learn their gifts and quirks, share in good times and bad, and build community together.
 
In this kind of ministry, you are part of the holistic development and healing that can happen in a religious community, as it does in few other places. Spirituality is for the whole person, and church is a rare part of society that does not relate to us on narrower grounds (e.g., learner, worker, consumer, patient, parent, voter).
 
You get to watch children grow up, and be part of the community that shapes them. You have the privilege of facilitating and honoring milestones in people’s lives, from Coming of Age and marriage, to child dedications and various kinds of coming out. Personally, I experience a particularly deep sense of purpose in the tender ministry of supporting people through the final transition, individually and in the shared ritual of Celebration of Life (memorial) services.
 
3 – Seeing people grow. A parish minister catches bright flashes of in-the-moment growth among churchgoers, and can also look back over years and recognize the positive development that the church has nurtured in various individuals. It happens in worship, and in classes and workshops. It happens in governance and in the work of Right Relations. It happens as people lean into your invitations and example, maturing in faith as we act on our UU values together. Congregational ministers help people grow, in ways small and large, every single day.
 
The young person who finds their voice and their tribe in youth group… the new member who explores new ideas and ways of being religious in their new UU home, and begins to heal from past spiritual harm; the established member who stretches their skills, as a committee chair or trustee; the young adult who finds their niche in a social action program, or on the Worship Arts Team. There are as many stories of growth as there are participants in the church. In time the minister will have the privilege of witnessing many of them – and of being inspired in your own continuing growth, in turn.

Photo: LorryM / Pixabay

4 – Developing an organization. Beyond the individual changes, as a parish minister you will be able to look back over months or years, and see how you shaped an institution. I believe there is greater potential for this in a church than in many larger institutions in which one might otherwise serve.
 
The first time this potential really “popped” for me was as I was preparing to leave the first congregation I served. We’d had only four years together – but I believe it was enough to matter for the long haul. New and younger people had joined long-timers in the ranks of lay leadership. With my encouragement and participation, the church had leaned hard into its prophetic voice and taken courageous actions on multiple justice issues. Committees were strengthened in their membership and processes. The worship culture had become more inclusive of spiritual as well as humanistic ways, while becoming more multi-cultural and multi-sensory, too.
 
But wait, there’s more! I helped build the staff, including one excellent hire who is still there. The new congregational covenant put down roots. The stable period of my ministry had also lent itself to success in a capital campaign and major building renovation effort, driven by lay leadership, that will serve them for decades. An institutionalist serves future generations of a church, helping to build something good that can endure long after you’re gone.
 
5 – Innovating for the future.  Don’t think of yourself as an institution-builder?  Never fear. The entrepreneurially inclined will find plenty of opportunities to channel their imaginations and try new things with their congregational partners. In fact, we very much need you in parish ministry! I believe that some of our churches need an injection of exactly that kind of enterprising spirit, if they are to survive and thrive in these changing times.
 
In many ways, existing communities are ideal laboratories for experimentation. Local congregations are where so many new things get tried, be they new styles of worship, innovative curricula and small group programs, intergenerational efforts, ways of connecting with the wider community, and more. You don’t have to start from scratch with infrastructure and audience-building when you are working with an established community. Almost every community will also have within it, already, allies for the imagining and implementation of new ways. You can spread your wings together.

Photo: Shiebi AL / Unsplash

 
6 – Using your unique gifts. Because congregational ministry is, by and large, a generalist’s playground, almost any gift you bring into it with you can be put to good use in the parish. You won’t be able to do it all – no one can. So go ahead and marshal your strengths and passions. The church will reap the most from your efforts when you do.
 
Are you an astute observer of the human condition? Pour it into your preaching. Have a soft spot for youth or young adult ministry? When you build it, they will come. A natural pastor? Dig into that one-on-one pastoral care, create support groups, or start an end-of-life program in your congregation, like one of my mentors did. Love to teach? People are hungrier for those opportunities than a Hungry Hungry Hippo. Maker of Good Trouble? Put on your clerical collar and get out there! There’s no shortage of need to champion our values.  You’ll embolden your congregation, too.
 
Or maybe you are theatrical?  Weave it into worship and more!  Musical?  Write and share liturgical music, like other mentors and I have done. Super communicator? Pump out those videos, do your social media thing… whatever the growing edge is, you can lead the way with your savvy story-telling. Administrator par excellence?  You’ll have a leg up on a lot of seminary grads, and will be valuable to any congregation you serve (even if they don’t realize it yet, or see it when you bring it). Advanced tech skills?  There’s more of that in ministry than ever these days – we need you! Nothing is wasted in the parish.
 
7 – Nurturing human connections. Religious communities are hubs of community connection – so vital in our lonely, disconnected country these days. Visitors and new members frequently identify the search for community as a driving force in their checking out churches I’ve served. It’s the first thing most long-timers name, too, when asked why church matters to them. Experiencing connection in corporate worship, finding one’s niche(s) in small groups or teams, serving and being served through the caring ministries of a congregation, developing individual friendships within the congregation – all of these help create a sense of belonging that is existentially essential to humans.

Photo: Kimson Doan / Unsplash

People who have community are healthier, happier, and more resilient. Congregations are unlike many other community groups in that they include and connect people across generations; at their best, they include economic and cultural diversity too. The social capital generated in a community like a congregation can benefit individuals in tangible ways, such as gaining clients or finding mentors.  Connections made in congregations can benefit the wider world, too; people are more likely to take positive social action when they do it with others they know, as is often the case with community service programs, interfaith relationships, and social movements that are rooted in or bolstered by congregations.
 
I recognize that fundamentally, a church is its people – that buildings are tools for meeting the mission, not ends in themselves. But having physical places of comfort and connection, places besides work, school and home where folks can meet and mingle, is important in its own right. Social commentators lament the loss of such ‘third places’ in Western life today. As people spend more time at home and online, they are spending less time in libraries, parks and coffee shops. Congregations are important third places, including when they welcome in groups from the wider community, to use space that could otherwise sit empty much of the week. Some are even figuring out how to use their facilities to foster friendship and inner nourishment, beyond the immediate members of the congregation. [ii]
 
8 – A platform for ideas. There aren’t many places outside of academia, these days, that will pay you to be a public intellectual. You don’t even need a doctorate to do it as clergy (though some of us wind up with one). In Unitarian Universalist congregations, the free pulpit tradition guarantees you can speak your mind and heart without fear of censure or reprisal, so long as it is consistent with your higher calling.
 
Opportunities to share and teach abound, both formally and informally:  from the pulpit, in classes and workshops, in church publications, on blogs, in videos, via social media… you can write books or develop curricula… speak to history, culture, theology, ethics, current events, and more… if your jam is anything like this, you can include it in your ministry as you serve a congregation.
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9 – Flexibility and warmth. Congregations are relatively low on bureaucracy. There are some policies and procedures, to be sure – one of the reasons for “the [slow] pace of church” – but far less than one would find, I expect, in hospital or military chaplaincy. The smaller the church, the less bureaucracy there is apt to be.

I give you evidence from the congregation I currently serve, which exhibits at least average levels of resistance to change... and yet look how many are saying, "bring it!" (Participatory whiteboard from church entry, 10-15-24. Granted, there may be a downward age bias in this self-selected sample.)

​As a chaplain intern, I experienced a hospital setting to be hard (literally, walking those halls made my feet hurt), aloof (with its large, hierarchical staff and ever-rotating patient population), and sometimes arcane (why do things work this way?). Churches, in contrast, are homey places. Here you will know others, be known by them, and generally have many possible ways to get any one thing done. Change efforts will still, predictably, draw resistance – there’s no escaping human nature – but strategic change agents can introduce new ways of doing things.
 
Ministry can be family-friendly, too. Congregational ministry never fit into a 9-to-5, Monday through Friday schedule. The flip side of being “on” more than you might in another vocation is that you get a high degree of control over when, where and how you do your work. You can set your hours to a certain degree, deciding on your day(s) off, your meeting night(s), and which portions of a day you work. You can flex work hours around the needs of others in your life (children, partner, an aging parent in your care). This means you can experiment with schedule, workflow, and when you are based out of the church vs. your home office, choosing what helps you be most effective.
 
While historically ministry was modeled on the life of a priest – a single person solely and wholly dedicated to religious service – newer cohorts of ministers have been pushing back on that unsustainable model in UUism. Norms are tangibly changing, including in contract and call letter templates. With good priority- and boundary-setting skills, you can establish a work-life balance that leaves you happy and resilient.

Photo: Sean Stratton / Unsplash

 
10 – Reliable income and benefits. Compared to someone building a client base, like a spiritual director, or an entrepreneurial minister starting a new organization from scratch, a congregational minister has a relatively stable source of support for themselves and any others who rely upon them. That includes health care costs and retirement savings supported significantly by the church. Depending on the size and resources of the congregation you serve, your compensation may be as competitive as, or better than, working as a chaplain, or for many positions at the denomination level.
 
Plus, parish clergy tend to have more robust professional development funding than many other ministry jobs may have built-in. This goes a long way toward sustaining relationships and support from peers, which is a lifeline in ministry, as well as continuing your skill-building and tool-gathering.
 
Notably, the choice of parish OR community ministry is not necessarily an either/or situation. As part-time parish positions become more common, due to changing realities in congregations, service to a congregation can provide a source of reliable income and benefits to your household, while leaving you some flexibility to pursue other kinds of ministry. Including riskier or less predictable (and sometimes less remunerative) ones like freelance officiating, PRN chaplaincy, spiritual direction, or entrepreneurial ministries in the wider community.
 
Ministry of the Future
 
Our current model of congregational life is heavy on fixed costs, both staff and buildings. Given the changing financial realities of churches, that may not be the way of the future. It’s not how church has always been done; many early Christian communities had neither – they had house church. I’m not suggesting a lay-led model is the ideal for most 21st-century churches, or that there aren’t benefits to having designated gathering spaces; I’m simply observing that the way we’ve long done church in U/Uism is not the only way.

Image: drawing of a circuit riding preacher (public domain / Wikimedia)

​Whatever ministry to congregations looks like in the future… perhaps a return of circuit riders in some areas (like the notable Universalist Quillen Shinn), or multi-point charges (like many Methodists today), more multi-site ministries and congregational partnerships (as some UU communities are now doing)… more online communities or churches without walls (like the UU Church of the Larger Fellowship and some LGBTQ-oriented entrepreneurial ministries of any or no tradition)… and more congregations sharing facilities in common across different traditions… one thing that seems clear is that there will probably be more part-time ministries.
 
There are changes afoot at the national level toward Widening the Pathway to Ministry. Leaders recognize the need to make the process of becoming a minister more accessible – more inclusive of many identities and stages of life, less demanding in time and money, more doable for people with families and geographic ties. As stated at the end of a report from an initial stakeholder conversation, “By embracing flexibility, transparency, and shared accountability, we can build a system that nurtures all who feel called to serve, sustains our institutions, and fulfills the promise of our living tradition.” [iii]
 
However the preparation process for ministry evolves going forward, and however ministry is delivered to communities, I believe most congregations can best flourish when they have the support of professional leaders – people who are firmly rooted in the values and history of their tradition, and who are trained for the unique challenges of leading a religious community. Service to churches by people called to ministry goes way back to the roots of our UU tradition.

Image: Theodore Parker, founder of Unitarianism, preaching to the gathered community (public domain)

Personally, I have zero regrets about answering my own ministerial calling in the context of congregations. I did get very tired, and am oh so glad to be on sabbatical currently (the minister shortage would no doubt be worse without sabbaticals!). But I have never second-guessed answering the call. I would do it all over again.

Yes, congregational shenanigans are A Thing, and sometimes a big one. But don’t let others’ war stories cast too long a shadow over the beautiful, meaningful vocation that is parish ministry. If you feel a pull toward the parish, I encourage you to take it seriously. You might just find your life’s calling.
 
To any current congregational colleagues reading this, I invite you to share your thoughts in the comments. What do you love about parish ministry?  Would you make the same choices again?
 
If you are in discernment about whether you’ll pursue ministry (and what type) –regardless of what tradition you call home – I would be pleased to hear your reactions to this piece, and any questions it prompts for you, in the comments too.

Endnotes

[i] I’ll share my perspective on Where Have All the Ministers Gone? (the minister shortage) in a future post. Meanwhile, you can check out coverage from NPR , a local paper in Pennsylvania, and many others available via your browser.

​[ii] For more on ‘third places’ and their decline, check out coverage by the New York Times, The Atlantic, The Week, and even research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. An intriguing example of a congregation connecting with the surrounding community – broadening its audience while bolstering its budget – is the Grace Arts program of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.

[iii] You can access the Widening the Pathway to Ministry report here, and read cover letters from UUA leaders that accompanied the report when it was shared with members of the UU Ministers Association.