Stuck: Why Clergy Are Alienated from Their Calling, Congregation, and Career ... and What to Do about It

by Todd W Ferguson, Josh Packard

Stuck is a guide for understanding how and why a traditional approach to ministry does not align with the modern realities facing pastors, congregations, and seminaries. More than simply describing findings from their firsthand research, however, Todd W. Ferguson and Josh Packard offer a new understanding of why professional ministry can be so alienating today. Stuck shifts the dominant narrative around calling, vocation, and ministry away from a focus on individual traits and characteristics of pastors and congregational leaders and toward a more structural understanding of the social forces that impact modern ministry. The authors focus on the nature of calling; the need for modern, flexible congregational supports; and a different approach to training professional clergy. Stuck lets pastors who feel stuck know that they're not alone, they're not crazy, and it's not their fault. It helps congregations be more supportive of their clergy. And it participates in the conversation for reshaping seminary training and professional development.

189 pages, Hardcover

Published May 10, 2022

Reviews

[Joel Wentz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really excellent and approachable sociological writing. While I wouldn't quite put myself in the "stuck" category of clergy that the authors develop, I also resonated quite powerfully with everything they unpack and describe.

The book is a combination of their own qualitative research (interviews with pastors around the country) but also some broader cultural/sociological commentary. While I really appreciated the personal anecdotes and evidence they gathered from these pastors, I found the broader commentary to be where the book really shone. The writers' use of thinkers like Marx, and their diagnosis of the pressures that pastors feel today in the wake of capitalism and secularization (as well as the quasi-Darwinistic attitude toward church survival) was absolutely spot-on and crucially important. Honestly, I want every church leader in America to read those chapters in particular, because they describe exactly what ails pastoral leadership today, and why it can feel like a hopeless vocation at times.

The book is also extremely accessible, written in a friendly and conversational style, but I do wish there had been just a bit more development of some of the prescriptions in the final chapter. All told, this is a very valuable text that came out at precisely the right time.

[Nathan Chandler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I'm not personally in the ministry, I have a lot of family and friends who have been. Stuck is a revelation to read because you get real stories from real people who are struggling. So many people in the ministry feel like they are alone and this book shows that the same problems exist in every church. The stories and the denominations vary, so you get all sorts of perspectives. Everything is backed by solid data, but the narrative is what guides you through this book, it's not just an academic report. The authors do an amazing job of not just pinpointing the issues and the causes of them, but they also provide helpful solutions and guides for ministers, church staff, and church congregations. I'm going to tell anybody who is involved in church work of some kind to read this book. It doesn't matter if you are a minister or not. This will help you view those who support our faith in a different light and it will cause you to be more supportive of those who sacrifice so much in the name of God.

[Lydia Tate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started off super strong and carried you through the plight of congregations and pastors. I devoured this book as a congregant and community leader. However, the ending was abrupt and disappointing. I was hoping for a more robust discussion on engagement. It left the book feeling whiny instead of action oriented. The book brought about a flood of ideas for new engagement in my mind, but fell short on the “what to do about it,” as the title suggests, in the final chapters.