I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet (cf. Amos 7:14); my grandfather was a pastor, as was my father. From my early teens I, too, felt called to pastoral ministry. This has been my vocational self-understanding since I had a concept of vocation. As this call deepened and expanded, I came to conceive of the pastoral vocation as a distinctly theological vocation. As such, I am grateful for the opportunity to be included in this panel on the future of theological vocation, with the task of speaking to the intersection of theological vocation and pastoral ministry. As a way to introduce the main thesis of my presentation, I thought it might be helpful to share my personal story.
Gerald Hiestand, "Theological Vocation and the Church," Journal of Markets & Morality 18, no. 2 (Fall 2015):419-427.