The attitudes of entering seminarians and high school and college students toward organized religion and religious professions were examined to determine why people enter the ministry. Various published sources, including a survey of 4,968 beginning seminarians that was conducted by the Educational Testing Service in fall 1992 and 1993 and a fact book on theological education published by the Association of Theological Schools, served as the data for a comparative analysis of the traditional images of the clergy in the Protestant, Jewish, and Catholic traditions and the images of the clergy currently held by young adults. It was concluded that the future pool of ministry candidates is likely to grow somewhat over the new few years and contain a larger number of men under age 30 than it has in the past 2 decades. The number of women under age 30 who are likely to consider a religious profession was not predicted to increase, however. The future supply of clergy was determined to be both a doctrinal and a demographic issue. Some cognitive dissonance between young adults' image of ministry and the traditional clergy roles was discovered. (Eleven tables/figures are included. Contains 25 references.) (MN)