When I conclude a sermon series, I usually share resources I utilized in my study and preparation for sermons. Here is the bibliography for our recent series, "Family Tree," which is the first part of an extended walk through the Gospel of Matthew and focused on Matthew, chapters 1-2. Bibliography for “Family Tree” [Gospel of …
The Pastor as Spiritual Director [Working the Angles with Eugene Peterson, part 9]
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 …
Real Shepherds: Thomas Oden on pastoral leadership as service
In Thomas Oden's Pastoral Theology: Essentials of Ministry, he takes one chapter to reflect on the analogy of pastor as shepherd. In the midst of that chapter, he strikes at the heart of what I think is missing within much of pastoral ministry as it is currently practiced in North America: pastoral authority approached as service. The …
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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 