History & Theology
History of Ministry in America. Brooks Holifield of Candler School of Theology at Emory University has agreed to write a history of ministry practice in America, using biographies and a variety of other sources to present a picture of continuities and changes in the characteristics and work of ordained ministers. We are also considering a companion volume of primary source material on pastoral ministry to accompany Holifield's volume.
Rationale: To assess where we are today with reference to pastoral leadership, we need to see from whence we have come from and examine changing patterns and practices of pastoral leadership in relation to broader social and cultural changes. We anticipate that Holifield's work and the possible companion volume will provide important resources to theological seminaries for courses on the history and practice of ministry as well as being accessible to a larger general audience.
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Theology of Ministry: L. Gregory Jones and Kevin Armstrong are heading a small group of pastor-theologians and academic theologians who will shape one or two volumes focused on the theology of ministry. At present, two questions seem primary: (1) What does it mean to give one's life to ordained ministry, understood in the contexts of a rich Christian life and a vision of the church in the world? (2) What friendships, practices, and conceptual and narrative resources are crucial to sustaining a pastoral vocation over the long-term?
Rationale: The first of the two volumes will likely be co-authored by Jones and Armstrong and is viewed as serving something of the same purpose as H. R. Niebuhr's Purpose of the Church and Its Ministry. It will set the vocation of ministry in the context of a vision of the church. The book, like Holifield's, should provide an important resource to theological seminaries as well as being accessible to a larger general audience. The second volume will more likely be an edited collection of essays that should be especially helpful to clergy, seminarians contemplating ordained ministry, and denominational leaders with responsibility for support of ordained minister.
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We are supporting the preparation of two papers for a United Methodist Task Force focusing on leadership formation in the Wesleyan tradition. Bishop Kenneth Carder heads the task force of several U.M.C. bishops, Board of Ordained Ministry staff, and U.M.C. seminary presidents. Professors Richard Heitzenrader of Duke Divinity School and Randy Maddox of Seattle-Pacific University are writing papers on historical and theological perspectives respectively.
Rationale: This study will provide important historical and theological insight for the work of the Methodist task force, and it will contribute, from one tradition's perspective, to our overall understanding of what constitutes good ministry.
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