Parish Ministry

-a nine-step strategic thinking and acting model
-useful ideas for developing a ministry strategy
-diagrams to help illustrate concepts
-a new section on spiritual formation

The methods in this book are proven to work, having already helped many churches articulate their vision and implement their mission.

Feminist and womanist theology has reoriented an entire way of understanding our relationships to one another, to creation, and to God. Feminist social theory has reshaped education, psychotherapy, leadership, decision-making, collaborative work, and family life. Little has been done, however, to bring these fields together to enrich the theory, theology, and practice of ministry. This book brings together the best in feminist and womanist scholarship that deals with the work of ministry in a one-volume format. It offers the most relevant, effective, and transformative approaches to ministry as it develops a feminist and womanist practical theology.

"For anyone responding to a call to the ministry, this book will be an excellent guide." --Jimmy Carter, Thirty-ninth President of the United States and Nobel Peace Prize Winner

The Fund for Theological Education (FTE) annually invites our nation's premier preachers to address a group of young adults who are considering a vocation in pastoral ministry. As part of the FTE's honoring of their outgoing president, Dr. James Waits, for his remarkable service, they have collected these superb sermons. These eight sermons on vocation offer an important resource for high school and college students making vocational decisions, for older adults considering vocational changes, and for all who teach and mentor in the area of vocational discernment and who help others sort out a commitment to professional ministry.

The purpose of the Ministry Conference, and the sermons delivered at the event, intersects well with Abingdon's mission to help form pastors who will serve the church faithfully and effectively. The preachers are highly recognizable and respected individuals who will serve as trusted and wise guides for discerning a ministry vocation. They include Fred Craddock, Walter Brueggemann, Tom Long, Barbara Brown Taylor, and Brad Braxton.

The volume includes an annotated bibliography of publications on ministry as a vocation, and a foreword by Dr. James T. Laney, former Ambassador to South Korea, President of Emory University, and Dean of Candler School of Theology. He is currently a faculty member of Emory's Center for Ethics. He chairs the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, is a trustee of the Henry Luce Foundation, and chairs (with Andrew Young) The Faith and The City Program in Atlanta.

To John Buchanan, mainline churches have an obligation to be in the world, and their effectiveness requires that they not abandon their traditions. Churches need to steer a course that allows them to maintain a singular way in the world and to creatively respond to questions of meaning, hope, vocation, and values. In this book, Buchanan explores the specific ways the church intersects with community life. He vigorously affirms the Reformed tradition's unique strength and heritage, as well as its ongoing relevance in today's world.

As a church leader, it's easy to make the wrong move and find yourself in a bad position.

"What to teach; How to teach; What to do," were the three questions Wesley employed at his first conferences. In sixty previous books Will Willimon has worked the first two. This book is of the "What to do?" genre.

Many believe the long decline of The United Methodist Church is a crisis of effective leadership. Willimon takes this problem on. As an improbable bishop, for the last eight years he has laid hands on heads, made ordinands promise to go where he sends them, overseen their ministries, and acted as if this were normal. Here is his account of what he has learned and - more important - what The United Methodist Church must do to have a future as a viable movement of the Holy Spirit.