Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Crucify Ambition

Bob highlights a new book:
This book sounds interesting: The Crucifixion of Ministry
Surrendering Our Ambitions to the Service of Christ
. From the blurb:

Theologian Andrew Purves explores at the deepest level the true and essential nature of Christian ministry. He says that the attempt to be an effective minister is a major problem. Ministers are "in the way." He radically claims that ministries need to be crucified. They need to be killed off so that Christ can make them live.

Interesting.

Reminds me of this great Bonhoeffer quote:
The Church does not need brilliant personalities but faithful servants of Jesus and the brethren . . . Pastoral authority can be attained only by the servant of Jesus who seeks no power of his own, who himself is a brother among brothers to the authority of the Word.

Related:
Kind of a Big Deal
The Entrepreneurial Pastor Trend
To God be the Glory

4 comments:

Rob Harrison said...

I commented on this on the Thinklings, but I thought I'd do so here as well, because this is a great book, and a critically important one for the church. I posted on it here and here; the latter post deals as well with Dr. Steven Seamands' book Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service, as I found it especially valuable reading the two books together.

Greg Mazunik said...

Scot McKnight blogged through a 6 or 7 part series on this book. Here are his final thoughts on it:

http://www.jesuscreed.org/?p=3115

Jared said...

Rob and Greg, thanks for the links!

Jimmy D. said...

A friend of mine and I have been slowly reading through the book as background to our weekly heart-to-heart discussions about our lives, marriages, children, and ministry. We've found it to be challenging and timely. These commnets and links will prove to be helpful as well. Thanks.