THE RENEWAL OF THE MINISTRY

by Thomas J. Mullen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 9, 1963

The pastor of the First Friends Church in New Castle, Indiana, seeks here to present an understanding of the professional ministry that will be relevant to our time. He addresses himself to the pastoral system of the Society of Friends, but reaches out to examine the predicament of the ministry and finds it ""sick"". Unfortunately he deals with symptoms rather than diagnosing deeper causes, using as illustrative material magazine articles, advertisements, other popular sources. From here he goes on, in the same somewhat cursory fashion, to deal with the minister in various roles:- as equipper of church people for ministry, as builder of the community, as catalytic agent, teacher and man of truth. In closing he discusses the minister's encounter with resistance. Frequently the tone becomes hortatory, and he rarely develops his allusions to experiments with important critical analysis. In view of the increasing body of critical studies in recent years, this is a major fault, since the reader would be unable to carry out the proposals given. All that can be said for this title, despite the high praise of Elton Trueblood, is that it adds one more to a growing list of books on the renewal of the ministry.

Pub Date: Sept. 9, 1963

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Abingdon Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1963

Categories: NONFICTION