In his book Working the Angles, Eugene Peterson outlines three essential acts of pastoral ministry: prayer, reading Scripture, and spiritual direction. These three acts are, to use a metaphor from mathematics, a holy trigonometry of three inner angles that shape outer, visible acts of ministry: preaching, teaching, and administration. I turn now, in my journey …
Recovering our way: Thomas Oden on the Antinomian infection in North American Christianity
My continued reflections on pastoral ministry, the church, and what it means to be in ministry in North America led me back to Thomas Oden's Pastoral Theology: Essentials of Ministry. I first read this book while still an undergrad at Wheaton College but enrolled with special permission in a graduate level class entitle "Pastoral Ministry," I …
Matthew Erickson 