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Series Preface

Parish ministry can be an exciting and challenging vocation. This has always been the case, but it is perhaps even truer today. At least in the European and North American contexts, institutional forms of religion are finding themselves pushed to the sidelines. Their purpose and value has been questioned, and with these questions come further questions about the professional status of those who are called to serve these congregations.

A generation ago, congregational ministers might see themselves as members of a professional class, similar to that of medical doctors and attorneys. The Academy of Parish Clergy, the sponsor of this book series, was founded with just that vision – to encourage and enhance the professional practice of parish ministry. This was to be accomplished by setting professional standards, including the encouragement to engage in regular continuing education, and then providing a means of accountability to those standards. Although the broader culture has raised questions about the professional standing of parish clergy, the need for professional standards, continuing education, and accountability remains as important today as ever before. This is because the world in which ministry is being done is ever changing, and therefore clergy must adapt, learn new skills, and reposition themselves for a new day. It is helpful, therefore, to walk in the company of others who are also engaged in similar kinds of ministry.

What makes parish ministry both exciting and challenging is that most clergy are generalists. They’re like the family practioner, dealing with a wide variety of issues and people. No day is exactly the same, for they serve as teachers, preachers, worship leaders, providers of pastoral care, administrators, and social justice leaders. They may be more gifted in some areas than others, but ultimately they find themselves engaged in a wide variety of tasks that often push them to the limits of ability and endurance. It is not a vocation that can be undertaken on one’s own, and for a variety of reasons parish ministers need to find a community of others who share this calling, so that they might find encouragement, support, and ideas for dealing with parish life and ministry in the broader world.

Part of the founding vision of the Academy of Parish Clergy was to facilitate this need to find a community of peers, and with this in mind Academy members were encouraged to create and join together in Colleague Groups, where they could encourage one another and explore issues that confront clergy in their daily ministry, often using the “Case Study Method,” which was emerging at the time among the professions. That model is still available, but it is the hope of the editors of this series that these books will also provide a foundation for conversation in clergy groups.

This vision continues to sustain the Academy more than forty years after its founding, and the new APC book series, Conversations in Ministry, seeks to extend this vision by offering to clergy books written primarily by practicing clergy for practicing clergy dealing with the issues that confront them in ministry today. Each book, published in partnership with Energion Publications, will be brief and focused (under 100 pages). Each book is designed to encourage reflection and conversation among clergy. The editors and authors of these books hope that the books will be taken up by groups of clergy and inspire conversation.

It is important to point out the use of the preposition “in.” The conversations that are envisioned here are not simply about ministry, but are designed to emerge from within the context of ministry. While the initial book in the series covered a variety of important issues facing clergy, in this the second volume in this series, we are led directly into what can be for clergy one of the most debilitating experiences of ministry — congregational conflict. As was true in the first volume, this book will reflect the purpose of the series, but each author will take the conversation in the direction the topic suggests.

May this series of books be a blessing to all who read them.

Robert D. Cornwall, APC

General Editor