ABSTRACT
Levinson compares the sequence of advancement that produces a fundamental change in the life structure to the first sequence in which advancement occurs within a stable life structure. 1 As noted in the case of Phillips Brooks, advancement in the first sequence does not change the basic life structure. The minister may move to a larger church and take on expanded obligations, but the basic contours of life and career remain unchanged. His professional activities and the nature of the context in which they are carried out are largely the same as they had been before the advancement. In contrast, the sequence that I will be discussing in this chapter involves some fundamental changes in life and career. As a result of new opportunities in the settling-down period, a new way of life, a new career pattern, begins to emerge. Although still a minister, the basic functions of ministry have changed, or the context is so different from what it was that the same functions, carried out in a new context, have a very different set of expectations and goals.
