In other words, the physician must be healthy in his own moral and spiritual judgment before the pastor can dispense spiritual healing to others.
This is a brave book, because the ministry of all Christian churches feel themselves in a state of drought -- beset from all sides, it is tempting to seek to proselyte, to draw in converts to becoming pastors, rather than to counsel potential pastors to look within themselves and to ask if they 'have what it takes' to oversee a community of Christians. Psychologist, social worker, friend, theologian, confessor, and traffic cop -- a pastor may have to play all roles, all of the time in his vocational life, and then come home and prove a father, friend, and husband. On top of all of these many 'hats' he must wear, or collars he must don, the pastor must also be good individual Christian that has….

Pastors of Promise by Jack Hayford
In Pastors of Promise, Jack Hayford, the founding pastor of The Church on the Way and chancellor of The King's College and Seminary, discusses the unique role that the pastor plays in the spiritual life of his followers. The book talks about the pastor, not only as a shepherd, but as a man. In it, Hayford talks about the importance of living with integrity, so that one can lead with hope. Furthermore, it outlines the type of character Hayford believes is necessary for one to take a position of leadership in the church. Hayford's goal in the book seems to be to inspire Christian men, in general, to live with more integrity and take a more active role in the spiritual lives and in their communities. His purpose in writing the book is to spread "passion, compassion and promise" in the Christian community (Hayford, 1998,….

There are some generalizations from the survey that are useful in the sense that they offer solid social reasons why pastors should be in touch with today's unmarried parents, in order to provide services for them outside their attendance for Sunday sermons: one, unmarried parents are "twice as likely to live below the poverty line as married parents"; two, unmarried parents are "twice as likely to have dropped out of school as married parents"; three, unmarried parents are "twice as likely" to have reported being in some degree of trouble with alcohol or with illegal drugs; four, unmarried parents "are younger than married parents" by an average of 7 years; and five, forty-three percent of unmarried mothers "have children with at least two men," while just 15% of married mothers "have children with different fathers."

In conclusion, Parke writes that the data from the research helps to dispel the myth that….

Child Abuse
Pastor's Responsibilities with Child Abuse

Comment by abina:

Pastor's Responsibilities with Child Abuse

It is important for pastors and youth pastors to become familiarized with the child abuse laws in the state in which they serve. Many youth pastors encounter child abuse in their service to their church, and there are specific guidelines that should be followed for reporting child abuse. Failure to report child abuse can result in criminal prosecution for the youth pastor (Hammar, 2010). If a youth pastor gains information about a child being abused in their home environment, he/she must follow the proper protocols for reporting child abuse. The youth pastor should also inform the senior pastor about the abuse.

The senior pastor should ensure that the youth pastor contact the local child protective services and report the abuse. The senior pastor should also ensure the church has procedures for handling child abuse that are in accordance with state….

Book Review of Social Analysis for the 21st Century: How Faith Becomes Action by Maria CimpermanMaria Cimpermans Social Analysis for the 21st Century: How Faith Becomes Action focuses on helping the pastor to be more socially aware of what his congregation is going through and where they are coming from in order to better serve them and address their needs. The main idea is that sociological analysis depends upon conducting an assessment of the society, the economy, the politics, the culture, the environment, and the religious experience of the people. It provides practical steps to assist in conducting these analyses and how to organize information and implement it into ones pastoral activity. Cimperman calls it the pastoral spiral, which consists of sociological analysis being used to shape faith reflection, which in turn dictates action that then provides experience for reflection and more sociological analysis.[footnoteRef:2] In teaching the reader about this….

Pastoral Counseling
A career as a pastoral counselor is fraught with several challenges but they are all offset by the many rewards. The primary challenge will be combining Christian ethics with modern psychology and therapy. I would like to specialize in pastoral counseling which focuses on youth who are wards of the state and have grown up in either foster homes or other group homes. Working with young people from troubled backgrounds in an age where the significance of religion is decreasing will be difficult. However, I believe that these adolescents are among the most vulnerable members of our society. I believe that faith which we are usually taught by our parents is likely to be absent from their lives. As a pastoral youth counselor I will be able to provide assistance to these youth both spiritual and practical in nature. I see a large portion of my work occurring in….

Mastering the Pastoral ole by Paul Cedar, . Kent Hughes, and Ben Patterson. Specifically it will contain a critical analysis of the book. This book is one of a series of "Mastering Ministry" titles that help pastors learn more about their avocation and how to manage it. Each chapter covers a different topic, from fundraising to personal growth and church management, and the authors are all pastors themselves.
This book is really a "Bible" for pastors at any stage of their career. It covers just about any situation that a pastor might face in their ministry, and it gives concrete examples that the pastor can understand and learn from. The main contributions include "been there, done that" essays by experiences ministers, so readers can learn from them, and learn from their mistakes, as well. The authors express themselves very well, and they share the difficulties they face every day, along….

Pastoral Ethics
"A pragmatic approach is a theoretical integration that attempts to bring various theories together through the development of a theoretical framework that can explain the environmental, motivational, cognitive and affective domains of the individual… [hence] with psychologists, truth is changeable… [and] new truth replaces old truth as new truth is theorized, conceived, or discovered…" (Kanu, 2011, Practical Roles of Pragmatism in Pastoral Counseling Ethics).

The Role of Pragmatism in Pastoral Ethics

Pragmatism in pastoral ethics should be embraced by preachers every Sunday -- or on Sabbath mornings, if the church observes Saturday as the day of worship -- which means that the pastor is basically being careful to not delve into subjects that are to controversial and may offend some in the congregation. This paper discusses pragmatism and ethics in pastoral situations.

Martha Ellen Stortz explains in her peer-reviewed article that two years after the terrorist attacks on the United States there….

All human beings are considered corrupt and sick and, because of the original sin, are in close relations with the powers of evil, rending them unable to make a significant contribution to their liberation. Ironically in some way, it can be said that Lutherans believe in faith. Faith is understood as trust in God's love and is viewed as the only appropriate way for man to answer to God's initiative. "Salvation by faith alone" is the distinctive and criticized (by catholic adepts) slogan of Lutheranism. Opponents of this doctrine argued that this position does not do justice to the Christian responsibility to do good works; the answer was that faith has to be active in love and that there is an indivisible connection between good works and faith: the former follow from the latter as a good tree produces good fruit.
Worship. The Lutheran church is, by its own definition,….

shepherding, which actually means to lead. It also points to the sources that the hierarchy of the Church relies on and how these sources define the shepherd of the Orthodox faith. It thus looks at different examples from the Old and New Testament where the notion appears, with the aim of better understanding the origins of the meaning and concept.
Christ is the ultimate shepherd, notably The Shepherd. From him, the ministry leads to shepherding in the body of the Church. The first chapter continues to point to the main function in the Christ's ministry, but also emphasizes that Christ and his ministry are one. This results from different elements, including the fact that it is Christ who is always at work and who is what he does.

Christ's ministry takes different forms, namely as Prophet, King and Priest. The chapter goes on to give several examples of where each of….

Elaine Graham's
Transforming Practice: Pastoral Theology in an Age of Uncertainty

Major Schools of Thought and Actors

In Transforming Practice: Pastoral Theology in an Age of Uncertainty, Elaine L. Graham addresses Traditional, Postmodern, Empirical, Liberation and Feminist perspectives on Theology and ultimately on Pastoral Theology. In order to address these perspectives, Graham traces the historical development of each, current theological realities, and prospective "horizons." The result is an extensive review of the Pastoral Theolog (y)(ies) of the Church and its faith communit (y)(ies), viewed very strongly through the feminist pastoral perspective.

As presented by Graham, the Traditional perspective is built on Scripture that is rife with patriarchy and an overarching patriarchal hierarchy. hile providing conventionally binding values and norms, the Traditional perspective is decidedly male-centered: traditionally-based pastoral theology tended to focus on the traits of a good male pastor and was essentially restricted to the pastoral ministry of ordained males. This Traditional perspective….

On the June 23rd, thanksgiving mass alone, over 600 people attended. Since hearing of Father Peter's departure, the Holy Cross Church has been inundated with calls from concerned and disappointed parishioners on the subject of who will replace him.
The community is disturbed because of the need for continuity between current and past policies. Father Peter has done so much work to help Holy Cross, but his mission is far from accomplished. Holy Cross is at a loss to understand why the transfer occurred at this time, given how many years of service Father Peter has committed to this specific location. While we understand the need for cost-saving and consolidation, the 'at risk' nature of the population served by the Church and its increasing numbers suggests that this is not the right time for such a move.

It must be stressed that the desire for Father Peter to remain in his….

Pastor Timothy (2013) points out, "The prophets spoke volumes on idolatry, social injustice, and religious ritualism." These are three of the most important topics in the Hebrew Bible. Idolatry was a primary concern for the God of the Hebrew Bible. From the time of the Exodus, when God offers Moses the Ten Commandments and states outright, "You shall have no other gods before me," God and the Prophets understood that idolatry was a major challenge to overcome. During the time in which the Hebrew Bible was written, idolatry and paganism remained common. It took great effort on the part of the Prophets to steer people away from false idols and to the one true God. Isaiah tries to frighten people away from creating idols, saying that craftsmen who make idols should be ashamed of themselves. "They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable….

Their primary duty is that of guiding the spiritual and religious aspects of the lives of their community members. They should give the highest priority to their duties towards the community including church service, counseling and other ceremonial functions required by their profession. As part of their professional and ethical duties, pastors are also required to show an interest in community development and increase their participation in community activities. This has become a necessity in modern culture because people expect institutions to take an interest and an active role in the community development efforts. Institutions cannot expect to benefit from the resources of the society and not give back. This is why business organizations, universities and even political parties make community development a part of their organization's commitment to the society and the people they serve. eligious institutions like the church are also expected to follow this example. The….

People of the parish won't know the difference." But the parishioners will know the difference if they wake up one morning and their church is closed; which many fear will be their fate.
If that happens many parishioners feel they would be lost without their church. Theresa Henry stated "I would be devastated if they closed this church. I found solitude coming here, it's helped me through hard times." Before anyone should panic however, Father Peter was quick to comment on the potential closing of Holy Cross Church stating "There's an ongoing planning process, it would be foolish to close down Holy Cross." He also attempted to raise moods by telling parishioners that there would be no decision any time soon and that a final decision won't be made for at least "two years."

Parishioners at Holy Cross Church in Times Square can read the writing on the wall and many….

We are starting with the assumption that the two movies in your assignment are A Twist of Faith and Never Heard.  We cannot locate a movie called Never Hear, but Never Heard is a popular movie for pastoral or theological classes because it explores the role that faith plays in redemption set against the backdrop of some pretty significant criminal activity.  We are proceeding as if that is the movie being discussed.

Both of the movies focus on crimes, specifically on the crime of murder.  In one movie, the main character is accused of murder, though he claims....

A surprising number of factors contribute to church leadership.  While many people think that either knowledge of religion or adherence to religious principles are the two most important characteristics in a church leader, they are often secondary to actual leadership characteristics.  Servant leadership has served as a model for the ideal Christian leader, both in and out of the church, but on its own is not enough to be an effective leader for the church.  Leaders have to incorporate some other management principles to be truly effective. 

Church Leadership Essay Topics and Essay....