Recent Books on Pastoral Leadership

Evolving Visions of the Priesthood - 2003
by Dean R. Hoge and Jacqueline E. Wenger

Evolving Visions of the Priesthood traces the movement of the Church in the United States during the first forty years of the implementation of Vatican II. This research gives the U.S. Church a good picture of itself and its struggles during the post-conciliar period. These studies are important for what they tell us of priests who were already ministering the theology of the Council, at the time of the Council, and also consider those priests ordained more recently and their perspectives on Vatican II. How the different groups of priests perceive each other in their respective desires to be faithful to God offers the reader insight into today’s presbyterate. By following what has been happening we get a glimpse of what the future holds. Given the struggles of the scandals recently confronting the Church, the studies also offer indications of why the particular problems arose so suddenly and why they were so related to a given time frame.

Ministries: A Relational Approach - 2003
by Edward P. Hahnenberg

A comprehensive text for every student, minister and teacher. Presents extensive scholarship on the concept and practice of ministry in a clear and accessible format. Tracing the profound developments since the Second Vatican Council, Dr. Hahnenberg sheds light on both traditional structures and new forms of ministry today, offering a prophetic vision of the church as an ordered communication calling ministers to relationships of service. This project was funded in part by a Pupit and Pew Dissertation Fellowship.

The New Rabbi: A Congregation Searches for Its Leaders - 2003
by Stephen Fried

For the last seventy-five years, Har Zion Temple on Philadelphia's Main Line has been one of the largest and most influential congregations in America. As it sought a successor to its legendary retiring rabbi Gerald Wolpe, investigative journalist Stephen Fried was given unprecedented access to Wolpe and his family, to the daily life of the huge synagogue, to the powerful national "union" for Conservative rabbis, and to a remarkable search process largely unknown to the lay world. The result is a riveting book--updated with a new afterword--about the search for personal faith, the tension between secular concerns and ancient tradition, the nature of leadership, and "the retail business of religion."

Open Secrets: A Memoir of Faith and Discovery - 2002
By Richard Lischer

In the tradition of Garrison Keillor, Open Secrets captures the friendships, rivalries, and rumors of small-town life by chronicling the lives of the citizens of a small Midwestern community through the eyes of a young minister.

Fresh out of divinity school and bursting with enthusiasm, Richard Lischer found himself assigned to a small conservative church in an economically depressed town in southern Illinois. It’s an awkward marriage at best--a young man with a Ph.D. in theology, full of ideas and ambitions, determined to improve his parish and bring it into the twenty-first century, and a community that is “as tightly sealed as a jar of home-canned pickles.” In Open Secrets, Lischer tells not only his own story but also the story of New Cana and its inhabitants. With charm, openness, and humor, Lischer brings to life the clash of cultures and personalities that marks his pastoral tenure, including his own doubts, as well as those of his parishioners, that a twenty-eight-year-old suburban-raised liberal can deal with the troubled marriages, alcoholism, teen sex, inadequate farm subsidies, and other concerns of the conservative, tightly knit community. But the inhabitants of New Cana--lovable, deeply flawed, imperfect people who stick together--open their arms to him in their own way, and the result is a colorful, poignant comedy of small-town life and all it has to offer.

Pastor: The Theology and Practice of Ordained Ministry - 2002
by William H. Willimon

Ordained ministry, says 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? In this book, Willimon explores these and other central questions about the vocation of ordained ministry. He 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.

Pastor: A Reader for Ordained Ministry - 2002
by William H. Willimon

One of the great sources of discouragement for those in ordained ministry is the perception that they are alone. The challenges and difficulties they face seem all the larger for their frequent lack of mentors and friends with whom to discuss them, and from whom to learn. Yet, according to William H. Willimon, a "cloud of witnesses" surrounds those in ordained ministry, forebears from whom they could learn if they had the opportunity to listen. The challenges and joys of ministry are not new; they have been present since the first Christian congregations began. From the age of the church fathers and mothers, into the Middle Ages, through the Reformation, and down to the present faithful leaders of the Christian Church have contemplated, debated, laughed, and prayed about the life of ordained leadership. In this new volume Willimon brings together the best voices from 20 centuries of Christian pastors and leaders, introducing what they have to say on the tasks and roles of ministry. A companion to Willimon's Pastor: The Theology and Practice of Ordained Ministry, this volume will serve as as a guide to all who week the wisdom of those who have followed the call to ordained ministry before them.