Classical Pastoral Care: Becoming a Minister
Overview
Becoming a Minister is concerned with the person and self-understanding of the caregiver. It discusses the call to the caring office, the way this inner sense of calling is affirmed in ordination, orders of ministry, set-apartness, and the shepherding metaphor. This is followed by discussions of authorization to servant ministry; the purpose of ministry; the relation of the general ministry of the whole church to the sacred or ordained ministry; the orders of diakonos, presbuteros, episkopos; women in ministry; and preparation for ministry through study and spiritual formation.
Top Highlights
“A decisive precondition of the calling of the pastor is the capacity to empathize with human hurt and alienation, to see that someone is hurting and help is needed—urgently.” (Page 14)
“Unless those who are in the office of preacher find joy in him who sent them, they will have much trouble.” (Page 27)
“This is just where we are today in the life of the church: the fire has penetrated into every part.… We are no longer able to counsel those who are under our guidance, because we ourselves also are possessed with the same fever as they. We who are appointed by God to heal others, need the physician ourselves. What further hope of recovery is there left, when even the very physicians themselves need the healing hand of others?” (Page 16)
“Christian pastoral care is sharply distinguished from the services rendered by civil religion. It is not a service rendered to Caesar or political operatives or business interests. It is a spiritual office for the well-being of the church, entrusted with three primary areas of responsibility: word, sacrament, and pardon.” (Page 20)
“Personal identification with the hurt and poor is an assumption of the call to ministry” (Page 18)
- Title: Classical Pastoral Care: Becoming a Minister
- Author: Thomas C. Oden
- Publisher: Baker
- Publication Date: 2000
- Pages: 192