Astonishing Article

Dear Reader:

The author detects a sea change in the media regarding church issues. Though only a drop in the bucket, the recent article in The American Organist (spoken of in a previous post) and the article below represent the frontline wave of a discussion that is long over-due. The minister-author whose work appears at this link, tells of the damage being done to clergy by new demands from church committees. There is no mention of musicians, but many of us know all too well the effects of sometimes well-meaning, but nevertheless poorly educated people making almost life-and-death decisions about staff based on nothing more than pure desire, and sometimes not much more than whim.

For essentially the first time in my memory there is an article in the mainstream press about clergy "burn-out" based not on overwork but on the demands of congregations on pastors which amount to a subversion of their calling. This is big news! It's not big news to many of us in the field. What is new is the fact this is even mentioned in the major media at all.

It is good to see the subject of the present blog being addressed in this way. Let us hope this will be the opening of a much-needed national discussion.



http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/opinion/08macdonald.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Congregations%20Gone%20Wild&st=cse