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Reviewed by Kenneth H. Carter Jr., senior minister of Providence United Methodist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Resurrecting Excellence: Shaping Faithful Christian Ministry by L. Gregory Jones and Kevin R. Armstrong Early in this volume, Greg Jones and Kevin Armstrong reflect on what it means to “inhabit the intersections.” A beginning comment arises from this image, for intersections related to church, theology and ministry can be infrequent. Reflections on the church can seem foreign to any experience of congregational life that most of us have encountered. Meditations on theology can ignore pastoral realities or possibilities. And works devoted to ministry are often unrelated to the contexts of churches or the sources of theological wisdom. In Resurrecting Excellence, the authors teach us to “inhabit the intersections” of scripture, theological tradition, ecclesial context and pastoral call. They remind us, consistently, that parish ministry can be interesting, adventuresome, even beautiful; but they also model a form of theological reflection that is incarnate, earthen, and practically wise. My sense, in opening this volume, was not one of glad anticipation in encountering the term “excellence,” which has been so trivialized in the literature on managerial performance. And yet drawing upon the letters of Paul, and especially Philippians 4. 8, the authors are pointing us toward that which is visible, sometimes qualitative and at others qualitative, shaped by the very form of the dying and rising Christ (Philippians 2), a form that describes ministry at its best. This image of ministry is both worthy of praise and inclusive of human strength and weakness, inclusive of our personal flaws and yet clearly transcending them through the power of the cross, the ultimate intersection. We stay close to this intersection as we engage in a number of practices---I found the reflection on “holy friendships” to be especially helpful---and as we recover the fullness of the pastoral identity as call, profession and office. Again the cross (and the Christian community) helps us to avoid the distortions of a culture that sees the pastorate from a very different perspective (calling as therapy, profession as career, office as hierarchy). We discern faithful pastoral practice through a recovery of the language of gifts and vocation. I loved the reminder, by John Newton, eighteenth-century clergyman and writer of hymns, that “the ministry is the worst of all jobs and the best of all callings”! The authors conclude with chapters on how excellent ministries are sustained, and on the relationship between pastoral ministry and the treasures (artistic, institutional, economic) that are essential resources in the calling toward excellence. This volume, the result of a major Lilly Endowment study of the ordained ministry, can serve the church in a variety of ways: as a primer for those exploring candidacy in ordained ministry; as a text for pastor-parish relations committees who are seeking a common language; as a resource shared by Superintendents with clergy new to his or her district; and as a reminder, to those of us who have been at this for some time, of the higher calling that awaits us. Resurrecting Excellence is a thoughtfully argued, beautifully written book on a subject that cries out for such attentive engagement: the person and work of the Christian minister. There is surely more to say about ordained ministry, and there are perhaps sins of omission and commission here and there in these pages. But I can think of no better resource for an understanding of the pastoral calling in twenty-first century North America. It approximates what it intends to describe: this is an excellent book on the ministry!
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