When you put your opinions into a blog, you can expect some critique. Occasionally, a reader will suggest that my ideas about the work of ministry are too business or market-oriented and leave out the spiritual or pastoral concerns about being a minister. Guess what? This is the same conversation that is going on among lay leaders, seminary professors, denominational leaders, and clergy in many forums today. In an address to new theological faculty last year, Daniel Aleshire, who is executive director of the Association of Theological Schools, provided not only an overview of the history of American theological education but also discussed an emerging model of ministry based on being humanly authentic and how theological educators might address it. Aleshire cited a quote from Henri Nouwen where the Catholic priest and writer argued that “The minister is the one who can make this search for authenticity possible, not by standing to the side as a neutra...
Comments from a Christ-follower on things that matter to him