Pastoral Ministry according to Paul: A Biblical Vision
Overview
What is the ultimate purpose of pastoral ministry? What emphases and priorities should fuel the pursuit of this purpose? These are perennial questions engaged by pastors, the churches that employ them, and the seminaries that prepare them.
As a New Testament scholar who works at the intersection between biblical studies and practical ministry, James Thompson suggests that we need to recapture the theological foundation for understanding pastoral ministry. In this careful, contextual study of Pauline letters, Thompson draws out Paul’s vision and purpose for his ministry. He concludes that the goal of pastoral ministry is “transforming the community of faith until it is ‘blameless’ at the coming of Christ.” It is corporate, spiritual, and ethical growth that Paul focuses on, as opposed to the frequent contemporary focus on numerical growth and individual needs.
Thompson recognizes the historical and cultural gap between Paul’s ministry context and our own, and he nevertheless believes that this vision of ministry has profound implications for us today. He goes beyond the emphasis on pastoral roles and mere pragmatics of much of the “how to” literature and offers suggestions for application that are rooted in the eschatological and ethical goals of Paul’s vision of pastoral work.
The Logos Bible Software edition of this volume is designed to encourage and stimulate your study and understanding of Scripture. Biblical passages link directly to your English translations and original-language texts, and important theological concepts link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. In addition, you can perform powerful searches by topic and find what other authors, scholars, and theologians have to say about the Word of God.
- Discusses pastoral ministry through the perspective of Paul
- Answers questions about pastoral ministry and its purpose
- Applies ideas and principles from biblical times to modern ministry
- Discovering a Pauline Pastoral Theology
- Blameless at His Coming: Paul’s Pastoral Vision in Philippians and 1 Thessalonians
- Living between the Times: Pauline Anthropology and the Problem of Transformation in Galatians
- Romans as Pastoral Theology
- Building the Community: Pastoral Theology as Community Formation in the Corinthian Letters
- Transformation and Pastoral Theology
Top Highlights
“Preaching is the central activity for creating a corporate consciousness.” (Page 158)
“After shaming the Corinthians for their factions (1:11–17), he challenges their secular point of view by offering a new epistemology in 1:18–2:16, explaining that the cross reveals a wisdom unintelligible to those who do not posses the Spirit and is a challenge to the wisdom that they celebrate.9 He then claims that the Corinthian factions are evidence that they have not advanced toward the goal of transformation. As ‘fleshly’ (sarkikoi) people (3:3), they are no different from the ‘natural’ (psychikos, 2:14) people who do not understand divine wisdom. As ‘children’ (nēpioi, 3:1) who divide into factions, they have not advanced beyond the time of their conversion. Their attachment to leaders is a sign of partisanship and a demonstration that they have not grown.” (Page 125)
“In every instance in which Paul declares his pastoral ambition, he indicates that the success or failure of his work will be determined only at the end, when he will either ‘boast’ of his work or realize that his work has been in vain.” (Page 22)
“Ministry becomes not the clarification of the congregation’s own values but the transforming of its values through the Christian message. By constantly reaffirming God’s grand narrative and the community’s place within it, the congregation has the capability of challenging the values of its culture.” (Page 155)
“His work will be successful only if his congregations live out the consequences of the gospel through transformed lives and are fully transformed at the coming of Christ. Thus all theology is pastoral for Paul.” (Page 24)
Without a trace of academic disdain for the hands-on, how-to skills of the practice of Christian ministry, Thompson proposes to bridge the gap that often separates biblical theology and pastoral skills. As a respected New Testament scholar, he stands within the biblical message and asks how it can be implemented in a modern pastoral context. He does not deal in generalities, but in-depth studies of 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, Romans, and the Corinthian letters keep the study focused on the concrete grittiness of both text and contemporary situation.
—M. Eugene Boring, Emeritus I. Wylie and Elizabeth M. Briscoe Professor of New Testament, Brite Divinity School
The contemporary marketplace of pastoral ministry is long on practical directives, short on biblical and theological wisdom and purpose. Urging that, for Paul, ministry is partnership with God concerned with transforming faith communities, James Thompson both models how to read Paul theologically and with pastoral sensitivity and reconfigures the motivations, aims, and measures of pastoral ministry today. The result is a vision of ministerial formation and congregational shaping that challenges and inspires.
—Joel B. Green, professor of New Testament interpretation, Fuller Theological Seminary
This compact book presents a unified vision of pastoral theology based on a careful reading of Paul’s undisputed letters. . . . [Thompson’s] focus remains unremittingly pastoral. One gets a fairly comprehensive overview of Pauline theology in the book. . . . This book admirably fulfills its goal. I highly recommend it for seminary students, pastors, lay ministers, and anyone interested in the pastoral dimensions of Paul’s letters.
—Interpretation
With a great deal of emphasis these days on numeric growth, it is refreshing to find an author who points the theological criteria for growth as seen through Paul’s eyes.
—Leadership Journal
This is a fine book worthy of being studied by seminary and theology school faculty as well as by members of parish pastoral teams.
—The Bible Today
- Title: Pastoral Ministry according to Paul: A Biblical Vision
- Author: James W. Thompson
- Publisher: Baker Academic
- Publication Date: 2006
- Pages: 176
