Facing the Ambiguities

The typical U.S. Protestant parish minister is between 35 and 44, is married, and has two children. His church has approximately 400 members, with about 200 children in his Sunday school. Its budget is about $12,500 a year, some $3,000 of which is given away for good causes. And he is somewhat bewildered to find that his traditional function as preacher is being superseded by the functions of pastor, administrator, counselor, organizer, educator and promoter.

These facts were turned up in a careful survey conducted by Presbyterian Minister-Sociologist Dr. Samuel Blizzard, 40, who was commissioned two years ago by the Russell Sage Foundation to collaborate with Union Theological Seminary in "A Study of the Functions of the Parish Minister." Dr. Blizzard sent out some 1,600 detailed questionnaires to seven "panels of informants" in all but one (Nevada) of the 48 states, in every economic and social area, and from more than 20 major denominations.

Poll-Taker Blizzard found that the greatest single change in the ministry is caused by "the rapid shift that is being made from the life of the village and the countryside to the urbanized mass society." More than eight of the questionnaire's eleven pages were designed to draw out a ministerial self-portrait. From them Dr. Blizzard found that the ministers are asking themselves such questions as:

"Should the minister be a mediator between God and man or a servant of the congregation? Should he be a specialist or a general practitioner? Should the minister emphasize an all-knowing and all-powerful God or the ethical implications of the Gospel? Should he identify himself with the trends in the culture or be critical of our way of life? How should he divide his responsibility to the local church and the ecumenical or worldwide church?"

Purpose of his project, says Dr. Blizzard, is to "face the realities of these ambiguities, to see in what way the seminary can give the minister the understanding and the tools with which to meet them."

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