Introducing the Practice of Ministry

Kathleen A. Cahalan is associate professor of theology at Saint John's University School of Theology/Seminary in Collegeville, Minnesota. She is author of Formed in the Image of Christ: The Sacramental-Moral Theology of Bernard Häring (Liturgical Press, 2004) and Projects That Matter: Successful Planning and Evaluation for Religious Organizations (Alban Institute, 2003). She is the past-president of the Association of Practical Theology.

• ContentsPreface   viiChapter 1:  The Call and Practice of Christian Discipleship   1Chapter 2:  Gifts for Service:  Charisms and Vocation in the Christian Life   24Chapter 3:  Vocation to Ministry: Leadership in the Christian Community   48Chapter 4:  Jesus and the Spirit’s Charisms in Relationship to the Six Practices of Ministry   69Chapter 5:  Understanding Ministry as Practice   99Chapter 6:  Learning to Practice Ministry   118Chapter 7:  The Practice of the Trinity   149Subject and Author Index   172Scripture Index   178

Catholic practical theologian Kathleen Cahalan has written an outstanding book on ministry. It is a rare thing to find a book on ministry that is both theologically rich and broadly accessible. More rare still is a book that could be of value to one in the throes of discerning a call to ministry as well as to the wise pastor many years into ministry. . . . The Trinitarian, missional, and vocational frame of her argument make this a very welcome book for Lutherans and other mainline Protestants, and her deep focus on the Spirit’s gifts suggests a fruitful opening to a broad array of other Protestant churches.Word & World