Called To Love: Discernment, decision making and
ministry
Raymond Tomkinson
SCM Press £19.99
(978-0-334-04417-8)
Church Times Bookshop £18 (Use code CT231
)
Mindful Ministry: Creative, theological and
practical perspectives
Judith Thompson and Ross Thompson
SCM Press £19.99
(978-0-334-04375-1)
Church Times Bookshop £18 (Use code CT231
)
MINISTERS who read books about ministry run risks. They may be
so utterly depressed by the author's wisdom that they never dare
lead worship or visit the sick again. Alternatively, they may be so
utterly impressed by the author's faith that they rush out and
implement every last thing that the book recommends.
Overnight.
Ministers who read Raymond Tomkinson's Called To Love:
Discernment, decision making and ministry or Judith Thompson
and Ross Thompson's Mindful Ministry: Creative, theological and
practical perspectives are unlikely to do either. That is not
to cast any aspersion on any of these authors' wisdom and faith,
which are evident in every word on every page. It is, instead, to
comment on the maturity of what they offer their readers here.
Behind both books lies a great wealth of practical and pastoral
experience, and within both books a patient, considered, and
reflective style predominates.
Tomkinson's current appointment as chaplain to one of the Church
of England's theological colleges has afforded him a unique
perspective on those who are seeking to move into a training curacy
after their initial ministerial education. In Called To
Love, he explores the theological, spiritual, pastoral, and
practical implications of transitions in Christian ministry. He
relies upon the stories of 12 ordinands (his "Cuddesdon Twelve"),
and, although they occupy the greater part of his exploration, he
also considers movement -
into retirement, and the other transitions that punctuate
ministerial life.
Judith Thompson and Ross Thompson reflect on two lifetimes of
ministry in Mindful Ministry. If Tomkinson asks what the
secular world's experience of decision-making can bring to the
world of the Church (and concludes that the distinctions between
these two worlds are less rigid than some might believe), then
Thompson and Thompson apply the practice of "mindfulness" - an
attitude of awareness advocated in many disparate disciplines - to
ministry. They understand the practice of mindfulness in this
context simply as that of "waking up to what you really are"; of
priests and laity waking each other up so that together "they may
reflect the glory of the rainbow that is Christ."
There are irritating distractions in both books. Tomkinson's
habit of putting references in brackets embedded in the text,
instead of in footnotes, is surprisingly off-putting. Thompson and
Thompson might helpfully have dedicated a chapter to their
understanding of mindfulness, instead of compressing it into the
preface, which is also compelled to deal with the details of their
proposed methodology. But the cumulative effect of these does not
distract from the books' gentle, persuasive flow.
The authors enjoy a common lightness of touch. Tomkinson's book
is more impressionistic in style and format. He meanders
endearingly, picking up subjects
that intrigue him, and flitting from one to another: it would have
been good to hear more from him on the generally untouchable
subject of vocation and ambition. On this he lingers only briefly.
Thompson and Thompson have a more coherent approach throughout.
They identify mindless ministry, absent-minded ministry, and
ego-minded ministry as the opposites of mindful ministry. They
devote eight different chapters to eight different ministries
(Apostle, for example, Leader, or Servant) drawn from the Pauline
epistles, and consider in turn what each ministry might look like
when exercised mindfully - or exercised other than mindfully.
Both books are illustrated with plenty of anecdotes, but
Thompson and Thompson also include Ignatian-style biblical
reflections, questions for discussion, and a table of connections
to the familiar Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Enneagram.
Their book could be widely and profitably read by many at any stage
of a ministry, and it will aid a more profound evaluation of
it.
God's call to God's people is that they are to love, and to live
for love. This is Tomkinson's conclusion, interestingly reached in
the seventh of his nine chapters. Few would challenge it, but it is
followed by the refreshing assertion that a fully "discerned"
decision is the will of God when it brings a sense of freedom.
"Where there is potential to demonstrate or to receive love," he
writes, "such a place is mission territory because God's mission is
to love us into his kingdom." Whether a ministerial move is the
right ministerial move should be judged thus. Does it allow the
minister such potential?
Heady stuff. It could and should be read by all who are
contemplating a move in their ministry, and by all who advise them.
God's service is, after all, perfect freedom. We pray it often
enough. Yet, as we scan the clerical advertisements at the back of
the Church Times, attend ministerial reviews, prepare
presentations on "What My Ministry at St Murgatroyd's Would Mean
for . . .", or await the outcomes of applications, shortlistings,
and interviews, which of us really believes it?
The Revd Nicholas Papadopulos is the Vicar of St Peter's,
Eaton Square, in London.