The Relational Pastor

One of the Academy of Parish Clergy's 'Top 10 Books for Parish Ministry' When is the last time you asked yourself hard questions about why you were pursuing certain relationships in your ministry? Could it be that the end game for many of us is not relationship per se but loyalty, adherence, even submission? The sheep in our flock become the means to our end: pastoring becomes less about the people of God and more about maintenance of the status quo-and, if we are willing to recognize it, the elevation of our pastoral status. Here practical theologian Andy Root dissects relational ministry as we have come to understand it and searches for the seed of a more wholesome, more pastoral understanding of the relationships for which God has prepared the church: the place where, when two or more are gathered in his name, Christ is present.

Andrew Root (Ph.D., Princeton Theological Seminary) is in the Baalson Olson Chair as associate professor of youth and family ministry at Luther Seminary. He is the author of The Children of Divorce,The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry and Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry.