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SUMMARY
the key guestions related to the vocation of a pastor along nine topics. I regard
it as important that the interviews with individual pastors should not serve
as justifications or illustrations of pre-conceived schemes but that the topics
„enter into a discussion” with scientific models.
In the study the chapters of analysis follow the logic of chronology; thus the
first half of the analysis mirrors the human life-cycle (family of origin, youth
and university years). There are two subchapters that focus on important events
that are closely linked to key aspects ofthe life ofthe church (conversion) and to
the calling (vocation) for pastoral ministry. The analysis ofthe years in pastoral
ministry do not follow a chronological order; these are grouped around questions
that get special emphasis in the course of the interviews (work-personal life,
spiritual life, authority, and attitude to material possessions).
In the interviews questions related to the family of origin usually appear in
connection with growing up and the transition to adulthood, not with becoming
a pastor. When coming to important crossroads in life, our family of origin
functions as the foundation which we define our identity when growing up,
whether deciding for, against, or simply differently from the values passed on
to us at home. Early childhood is an important factor (also) in the formation
of our vocational identity. Ihe events of this phase of life may not destine the
child to become a pastor, but if later they do become pastors, there is no doubt
that it makes a difference whether someone grew up in a religious or a secular
environment, not to speak of being raised in a pastor’s family. Providing a model
works not only within the relational network of the child (spatially) but also in
the succession of generations (time dimension).
During adolescence, knowingly or unknowingly, the young person is looking
for mentors who can help him/her in the transition to adulthood. With respect to
the formation of religious identity it is important that he/she encounters credible
religious people who he may observe and copy if he wants to. Besides teaching
and modelling we must not forget the role of the individual in the formation of
his religious identity; how he processes external influences is everyone’s personal
responsibility. The young person must reflect on and emotionally digest issues
connected to faith and religion alone, and must try out and form religious
attitudes and conduct that he can make his own.
In my interviews with pastors conversion appeared as a concrete event as
well as a process. It seems likely that from the experiences of conversion and
being called the latter can be linked to a concrete event more often; also, in
the narratives of a pastor’s life calling usually figures more importantly than
conversion. In the pastoral vocation internal motivation is often related to a Bible
verse, which seems to provide certainty and a life-long perspective for the person
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