The Contemplative Minister: Learning to Lead from the Still Centre

by Ian Cowley

Publisher:

Bible Reading Fellowship

, 2015

Overview

Eugene Peterson’s bestselling book The Contemplative Pastor has helped many church leaders to keep a strong spiritual centre to ministry as they are engulfed by the busyness of church life.

The church landscape has now moved on considerably since Peterson’s book was published 20 years ago, both in the USA and the UK. Electronic media, multi-parish appointments and the ever increasing stress and demands of modern-day ministry have continued to challenge church leaders aggressively. Today, many are looking for a different way of being in ministry, a better way of serving Christ than the relentless busyness and pressure that have become the norm. But how?

Ian Cowley, Coordinator of Vocations and Spirituality in Salisbury Diocese, offers direction for contemplative leaders in the 21st century, drawing on his South African roots and the influence of contemplative leaders such as Desmond Tutu. He explains practically how to prioritise a relationship with God and lead others into that relationship, creating a shared ministry to allow the leader to nurture faith and spirituality amid the hectic life that is ministry today.

Key Features

• Offers direction for contemplative leaders in the 21st century
• Explains practically how to prioritise a relationship with God and lead others into that relationship
• Draws from the author’s South African roots and the influence of contemplative leaders

Contents

Part I: Vocation

• Being and doing
• Knowing our vocation

Part II: Contemplative ministry

• Becoming a contemplative minister

Part III: Prayer

• Living from the still centre
• The life of prayer

Part IV: Rooted in Jesus

• Being led by the Spirit
• Finding our rootedness in Christ
• Jesus calls us to rest

Part V: Letting go

• Let go and let God
• Letting go in love

Part VI: Contemplative Living

• The rules and exercises of contemplative living
• Spiritual formation

Part VII: Becoming a contemplative church

• Learning servant leadership
• Reconnect: a contemplative church
• Transformation

Conclusion: Returning to the beginning

Praise for The Contemplative Minister

This book is concerned with the central vocation of those who are called to the ordained ministry. As priests, we are called to be people in whom others may see God. There is a great hunger for God among many people today. This is a hunger which is not just for things about God, for sermons, books, talks and videos, but for God himself. A contemplative minister is someone who is called first of all to God and to his heart of love, so that the world may also know God and his love for all that he has made.

—Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Product Details

• Title: Contemplative Minister: Learning to Lead from the Still Centre
• Author: Ian Cowley
• Publisher: Bible Reading Fellowship
• Print Publication Date: 2015
• Pages: 162
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• ISBNs: 9780857463609, 0857463608
• Resource ID: LLS:CNTMPLTVMNSCNTR
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-10-04T07:23:01Z

About Ian Cowley

Ian Cowley is an Anglican priest who has served in parish ministry in Natal South Africa, Sheffield, Cambridge and Peterborough. From 2008 to 2016 he was Coordinator of Spirituality and Vocations in the Diocese of Salisbury, where he set up and developed the Contemplative Minister programme. He is the author of five books on spirituality, discipleship, and the local church. Some of his works include A People of Hope (Highland, 1993), Going Empty Handed (Monarch, 1996) and The Transformation Principle (Kingsway, 2002). To read Ian’s lockdown blog, ‘Wild times and the love of God’, click here.