ABSTRACT
The foregoing studies indicate that the most decisive years in the lives of these five ministers were in the middle through late thirties— “the periods of settling down” and “becoming one’s own man.” Although their careers took very different paths, the one common feature in their development as ministers was the fact that these years were extremely important. Success or failure in the middle to late twenties was not nearly as critical to a given minister’s future as success or failure in the middle through late thirties.
