Pastor: Revised Edition
Ordained ministry, says Will Willimon, is a gift of God to the church—but that doesn't mean that it is easy. Always a difficult vocation, changes in society and the church in recent years have made the ordained life all the more complex and challenging. Is the pastor primarily a preacher, a professional caregiver, an administrator? Given the call of all Christians to be ministers to the world, what is the distinctive ministry of the ordained? When does one's ministry take on the character of prophet, and when does it become that of priest? What are the special ethical obligations and disciplines of the ordained?
Pastor: Revised Edition explores these and other central questions about the vocation of ordained ministry. It begins with a discussion of who pastors are, asking about the theological underpinnings of ordained ministry, and then moves on to what pastors do, looking at the distinctive roles the pastor must fulfill. The book also draws on great teachers of the Christian tradition to demonstrate that, while much about Christian ministry has changed, its core concerns—preaching the word, the care of souls, the sacramental life of congregations—remains the same.
Ordained ministry is a vocation to which we are called, not a profession that we choose. To answer that call is to open oneself to heartache and sometimes hardship; yet, given the one who calls, it is to make oneself available to deep and profound joy as well.
Ordained ministry is a gift of God to the church—but that doesn't mean that it is easy.
Provides a theology of ordained ministry.
Details the distinctive roles of the pastor.
Offers practical guidance for the pastor.
Encourages pastors as they see their calling in the context of the larger Christian tradition.
Clarifies the primary tasks of the pastor and enables them to focus on the most important things.
Encourages pastors as they are faced with the hardships and heartaches of ministry.
Top Highlights
“Contemporary ministry has been the victim (or the beneficiary, depending on how one reads our history) of images of leadership that are borrowed not from scripture but from the surrounding culture—the pastor as CEO, psychotherapeutic guru, or media savvy hipster. One of the challenges of the ordained ministry is to find those metaphors for ministry that allow us appropriately to embody the peculiar vocation of Christian leadership. Uncritical borrowing from the culture’s images of leadership can be the death of specifically Christian leaders.” (source)
“Because of the pervasive influence of the media star, parish pastors unconsciously take on the mannerisms and style of the television or Internet preacher, particularly in their leadership of public worship. The pastor as performer, as grinning, impersonal personality supersedes the roles of teacher, priest, and leader of the congregation.” (source)
“Organizational change requires transforming people into different sorts of people than they would have been without the service of the leader. Specifically, Christian leaders are convinced that deep transformation is what God does. So one of the challenges of church leadership is to be the sort of leader whom God uses to change people.” (source)
“Becoming a Christian is something done to us, for us, before it is anything done by us.” (source)
“These preachers sought to exploit media for the sake of the gospel.” (source)
Product Details
- Title : Pastor: Revised Edition: The Theology and Practice of Ordained Ministry
- Author: Willimon, William H.
- Publisher: Abingdon Press
- Publication Date: 2016
- ISBN: 9781501804915
Feeling most at home behind a pulpit, Will Willimon’s deepest calling is to be a preacher and truth-teller of Jesus Christ. He is Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry at Duke University Divinity School and retired Bishop of the North Alabama Conference of The United Methodist Church, after serving for 20 years as faculty member and Dean of the Chapel at Duke University. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.
Will Willimon has published many books, including his preaching subscription service on MinistryMatters.com, Pulpit Resource, and Fear of the Other: No Fear in Love, both published by Abingdon Press.