Ministry Matters: Pastors, Their Life and Work Today

Congregations are shrinking and in decline. Fewer people are part of communities of faith. Michael Plekon’s previous book, Community as Church, Church as Community, traced the factors behind this as well as the resurrection of parishes that have reimagined themselves in diverse ways. Pastors have played essential roles in such transformation. But where are the ordained today? Ministry Matters is a sustained meditation on the vocation, lives, and work of pastors today. We listen to an ecumenical group of exceptional pastor-theologians on how pastors live and serve. These include George Keith, Nicholas Afanasiev, Barbara Brown Taylor, C. Andrew Doyle, Andrew Root, Sarah Coakley, Samuel Wells, Rowan Williams, Henri Nouwen, Pope Francis, David Barnhart, and Will Willimon, with commentary from Michael Plekon, who has served as priest in both western and eastern churches for over forty years. Many years of pastoral experience are shared here, providing a feast of reflection on the shepherds of God’s flock.

Michael Plekon (Yonkers born April 3, 1948) is an American priest, professor, author, sociologist and theologian. He has published more than a dozen books, as well as hundreds of journal papers, book chapters and reviews on faith and holiness. His works include religious social history, social theory and its connections with theology, the works of Søren Kierkegaard, contemporary Eastern Orthodox theology and theologians of the Russian emigration and saints. Living Icons, (UNDP, 2002) was one look at persons of faith in the Eastern Church. His research and publications have continued to explore persons of faith, seeking identity and God in their spiritual journeys. These volumes include Hidden Holiness (UNDP, 2009), Saints as They Really Are (UNDP, 2012), and The World as Sacrament (Liturgical Press, 2017) These studies examine persons of faith struggling for social justice and for ways of rediscovering holiness in ordinary life. He is especially interested in the encounter with God in the everyday.

Plekon's efforts to describe what holiness looks like in our time, the distinctive characteristics of women and men of faith, have been praised by colleagues. They see this work as an important "new hagiography" or writing about saints who are our contemporaries, like Dorothy Day, Mother Teresa, Thomas Merton or Daniel Berrigan.

Plekon has had a long career as an academic, theologian and clergy member. Since 1977, Plekon taught at Baruch College, first as an Assistant Professor, and eventually as a Professor within the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences since 1998. He retired in 2017 and is an Emeritus Professor. In addition to his academic work, he has served as an associate priest at several parishes since being ordained in 1983. He has been a priest in both the Western and Eastern Churches, serving parishes alongside teaching, research and writing. He continues writing about his pastoral experiences and is examining the importance of community, not only for church but for meaning in one's life in The Church Has Left the Building (Cascade, 2017) and Community as Church, Church as Community (Cascade, 2021). This work also deals with our need, in a diverse and conflicted America, to encounter other cultures and religious traditions with respect, learning from them and becoming deeper persons of faith from such experiences. This was something he experienced in his own family's ecumenical sensitivity.

Plekon's book, Uncommon Prayer: Prayer in Everyday Experience, was named by Spirituality and Practice as one of the best spiritual books of 2016 and was the Gold Winner of the 2016 Foreword INDIES book of the Year Award in the Adult Nonfiction, Religion category. In 2024 his book Ministry Matters: Pastors, Their Life and Work Today will be published.

Biography

Plekon's interest in studying religion began early on when he chose to pursue a bachelor's degree in Sociology and Philosophy from the Catholic University in Washington, D.C. in 1970. He later obtained a master's degree and a doctorate in Sociology and Religion from Rutgers University in New Jersey. Plekon's doctoral advisor was the late renowned sociologist of religion and theologian Peter L. Berger, who mentions Plekon in his memoir among his students of interest as an "expert in the Orthodox (Christian) diaspora in the West.". Under several fellowships, including from the NEH, Lutheran World Federation, Fulbright and ACLS, he did advanced research in the Theology Faculty of the University of Copenhagen, focusing on Kierkegaard's social criticism and theology.

Plekon met his wife Jeanne through a long-time friend while she was pursuing a master's in art history and museum studies at The Clark Institute, Williams College. They have been married since 1976 and have two children, Paul and Hannah, and several grandchildren.

Tim Vivian is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at California State University Bakersfield and a retired Episcopal priest. He received three degrees in literature before an interdisciplinary PhD from UC Santa Barbara and an MDiv from Church Divinity School of the Pacific (Episcopal), and was a post-doctoral fellow at Yale Divinity School. In 2018 he received an honorary DD degree from Church Divinity School of the Pacific. He has published numerous books, articles, and book reviews on early Christian monasticism.