Clergy/Pastoral Career Mobility

 

Dr. Troy Denson, DMin, (PhD)Troy Denson, DMin, (PhD)   • YouVerified • YouPresident at National Collaborative Institute of Leadership | Educator/Researcher | PastorPresident at National Collaborative Institute of Leadership | Educator/Researcher | Pastor4h • Edited • 4 hours ago • Edited • Visible to anyone on or off LinkedIn

When I was a child, I witnessed my father, a Congregational Church minister, and his coworker peers receive raises and promotions on their jobs at Armco Steel, after acquiring certifications and licenses associated with local colleges in the Houston and the San Jacinto, Texas vicinities. Before departure to glory, his final words to me included, "Sonny, see to it that you get a good education." Fast-forward, thirty years and four graduate degrees later, times have changed, whereas formal college education and professional trainings do not consistently equal to career mobility nor financial advancement. Nowadays, after acquiring expensive undergraduate or graduate education, career advancement means acquiring certifications + industry licenses + years' of experience + additional continuing education units (CEUs) and engaging in professional development (PD) trainings. This exhaustive pattern reigns true even in corporate, educational, as well as ecumenical or non-profit industries. Thus, I highlight three popular trends in achieving career mobility, in 2025:

1.      Take responsibility for one's own career mobility. In yester-years, the opportunity for working for corporations that offered long tenures were major considerations when seeking job opportunities. The days of guaranteed promotions or tenured years of employment have decreased since year 2000. 

However, the idea of gaining tenure or seniority at a particular company has acquired new meanings. Often employees of large corporations achieve many years at that entity through transitioning to different departments, which are sometimes in different geographical locations locally, nationally or internationally. Also, the tenure idea has pivoted, whereas nowadays career mobility is achieved by professionals reaching vocational seniority by working in the same field spanned across different companies. Regardless, engaging CEUs or PDs have become necessary for mobility.

2. Take responsibility for one's own employment continuity. Over the past 20 years in the U.S., citizens' employment have been either changed or lost due to weather catastrophes, company reorganizations, pandemics, terrorism, government policy shifts, early or mandatory retirement, or happenings beyond individuals' control. In response, many sustain employment continuity through entrepreneurship. Some have either become consultants, developed institutes, or acquired work contracts via other consultants or businesses. For example, former college faculty now contract either themselves, or form a scholarly team, as an independent agency to temporarily serve various institutions in instructing students on selected topics as either a for-credit mini-course or a non-credit masterclass. In either case, these specialty contractors yet obtain CEUs or PDs for updating their own knowledge of topics or for using special technology for presenting online lessons or in-person.

3. Take responsibility for personal maintenance. Many clergy leaders hold on to religious organizations too long, unfortunately resulting in the demise of the leader and the institution. However, in U.S. church societies, noticeably since the year 2000, younger ministers' core convictions have led them to transcend allegiance to religious denominations. Numerous Congregational preachers now serve Episcopal churches, and some Presbyterian churches now appoint Episcopal preachers. Thus, to fulfill a coveted conviction of God's pastoral call, ministers have began departing particular religious traditions due to either prolonged inactivity, finances, vocation immobility, or other personal reasons. Nonetheless, as in other career emergences, the new is often preceded by obtaining relevant CEUs, PDs, or licenses.

Dr. Troy Denson