Creative Ministry

Rating:
Summary: Correcting the Efficiency Bias
Review: A Master of Divinity or a Master of Business Administration: which degree program best prepares one for ministry? Whether it being pondered by divinity students or critics of seminary education, incipient in this question is a measure of misgiving regarding what best prepares one for life in the parish. Should the ideal minister be spiritual, sagacious, and scripturally grounded? Or have the intricate economic realities of modern days rendered such leadership a luxury and thus less requisite than skills of one formed by pragmatic, efficiency-minded, schools of commerce and administration? This question should not be taken as hyperbole as it is asked daily by search committees, fledgling ministers, and seminary curricularists.

In CREATIVE MINISTRY Henri Nouwen facilitates a possible answer to this question by advancing what he calls a "spirituality of ministry.E Nouwen posits that ministry is much more than the just skilled labor of a professional; it is the action that naturally grows out of an inner vibrancy made possible by the Spirit and one's own devotion. "A Christian minister will never be able to be a minister if it is not his own most personal faith and insight that forms the core of his pastoral workE(xx). Having this as a guiding conviction, Nouwen laments what he calls a "professionalizationEof the ministry.

Seeking to legitimize their vocation in the helping industry, Nouwen suggests that ministers have learned to trust so much in their competency that the vulnerable and spiritual sides of pastoral work lie neglected. This is not to suggest that the author advocates an ill-informed cleric who, in the name of relying on the Spirit, ignores the contributions of academic and clinical experts. In fact, CREATIVE MINISTRY finds Nouwen drawing more directly upon his psychological training than in his other works. The aversion to professionalization, than, arises out of his conviction that "individual pastoral care can never be limited to the application of any skill or technique since ultimately it is the continuing search for God in the life of the people we want to serveE(63).

Moving beyond the vaporous nature pre-packaged technique one can combine skill with spirituality in all of ministry's activities. In five core chapters he considers how (1) teaching is more than transference of knowledge, (2) preaching is more than retelling of the story, (3) pastoral care is more than skilled response, (4) organizing is more than manipulation of structures, and (5) celebrating is more than protective ritual. Each chapter moves in typical Nouwen fashion by dividing and subdividing the topic into separate, yet related components.

Though Nouwen saw his identity as a priest, one does not find a host of Scriptural references in CREATIVE MINISTRY (this is true in many of his other works as well). Perhaps this was to protect the book from being seen as the result of detached, sterile exegesis or to make it accessible to wider audience. Whatever the case, a possible outcome result of leaving Scripture out of this pastoral care text is an unaccountability to the biblical idea of a ministry. The text also exposes itself to marginalization, as one could argue that these are merely the eclectic and meandering ideas of one person's experience. While there are certainly strengths in such uniqueness, Nouwen could use this opportunity demonstrate that the most personal is also the most universal (a key theme in other works) by intersecting his distinctive experiences with the sacred text.

CREATIVE MINISTRY is one possible answer to the Skill vs. Spirituality quandary. While the book does not have all the answers and even admits its own ambiguity in a telling Epilogue, it does offer a needed corrective to efficiency-oriented ministry that results from the behaviorist curriculum of certain seminaries and the cookbook-like fascination with "how toEprograms proffered by Christian publishers. In illustrating how a minister can be a professional and yet not succumb to manipulative professionalizaion Nouwen has provided a curative salve to the sometimes one-dimensional pastoral care cannon.

Rating:
Summary: Inadequate
Review: In "Creative Ministry" by Henri Nouwen, pages are filled with unsettling information that both, would be ministers and those directing their energy toward a life of service, must read. He separates a ministry into five aspects: teaching, preaching, pastoral care, organizing, and celebrating. Although Nouwen concentrates on a life of dialogue and care that will naturally overflow into surrounding relationships and situations, he does not neglect the prevading questions and doubts that haunt those preparing to serve. His words are directed toward the one, who will serve the many, and does not allow that one to make a moral, spiritual, or social distinction between him or herself and those to whom he or she ministers.