In the July-August 2010 issue of Harvard Business Review, Richard Barker argues that management is not a profession.

He says, “Professions are made up of particular categories of people from whom we seek advice and services because they have knowledge and skills that we do not.”

His examples of true professions are medicine and law. A manager, according to Barker, is not a professional in the same way a doctor or a lawyer is:

The manager, however, is responsible for bringing together many inputs. The lawyer is always concerned with matters of law, whereas the manager’s focus may change significantly and unpredictably from one day to the next. In general, the professional is an expert, whereas the manager is a jack-of-all-trades and master of none—the antithesis of the professional.

What about pastors? Some might argue that “priesthood” is a profession. But priesthood isn’t really a job of any kind. It is a state of life—like marriage. A priest, like a married person, usually has to find a job or a profession. While most diocesan priests become pastors, not all do. And in some dioceses, lay people and deacons serve in the role of “pastor” when there are not enough priests for every parish.

So, using Baker’s criteria, is the job of leading a parish—whether as a priest-pastor or as a lay or deacon parish life director—a true profession?