InternetMonk on the modern state of ministry. (Comment thread is here.)

The skills of the pastorate have always been exaggerated beyond the merely mortal. In Elizabethan times, one only needed to be able to read the prayer book. In the classic evangelical model, the pastor was preacher, shepherd and worship leader. As Protestantism succeeded, the pastor needed to be public speaker, administrator, therapist, fund-raiser, scholar, expert on family life, field marshal, television personality, growth expert and guru. Part of the current confusion results from the inability of churches and schools to hone the pastoral model into something that Joe Average preacher could achieve. As most every pastor knows, there is so much room for failure in the modern pastorate that competency seems virtually impossible. Pastors, more than almost any other profession, know what it is to live in constant failure.

There’s also some good stuff on why megachurch worship’s self-helpy pablum is the fault of youth ministers.