Fusing justice and holiness: Ministry in the 21st century

What is pastoral ministry like these days, and how is it being shaped in new ways? The Century talked to pastors about the challenges and surprises of their early years in ministry. This interview is the ninth in a series. Dennis Sanders is associate pastor at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Minneapolis. His primary focus is on empowering the congregation for outward mission; he also teaches classes in Christian formation and preaches once a month. A bivocational minister, Sanders works as communications specialist for the Twin Cities Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). In 2008, he was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, an autistic spectrum disorder. Sanders blogs at The Clockwork Pastor, part of the CCblogs network.

What excites you most about ministry these days? What’s been the hardest thing?

It’s hard to face the reality that what used to work doesn’t work anymore. First Church shares the classic mainline story: it was a large congregation in the 1950s and ’60s, and it lost members from the ’70s onward. Now it is a far smaller congregation trying to figure out how to do ministry in this day and age.