Shepherds After God’s Heart
What is a pastor fundamentally called to be? Reading Ezekiel 34 alongside John 10 and 1 Peter 5, Raymond Hylton argues that the shepherd is first a revelation of God, and so a healthy and accountable model for ministry.
Tag
Ordination & Ministry
40 articles from 34 issues, 1996 to 2026
The Good Deposit of the Gospel
Reflecting on Paul’s final letter, Douglas Pratt traces the word “entrust” in 2 Timothy and asks whether the church is investing in the next generation of pastors and leaders to whom the gospel will be handed on.
Provisional Advice on the New Constitutional Amendments
The PCUSA constitution added two new categories this year and a new examination requirement that's already baffling presbyteries. Andrews offers pastoral guidance for sessions and committees on what's actually changed, what hasn't, and how to act faithfully without either overreach or quiet capitulation.
The Foundation of Our Calling
Burnett opens Ephesians 1 and finds Paul piling blessing on blessing: chosen before the foundation of the world, predestined in love, sealed for an inheritance. The piece sits with the dizzying generosity of Paul's grammar and asks what it means that our calling is grounded that deep.
Preparing to Vote on the Amendments
Two PCUSA amendments are heading to presbyteries for ratification, and Andrews lays out exactly what they say, what they don't say, and what's at stake. Drawing on his father's prayer that he be wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove, he urges presbyters to be both.
Keeping Our Vows: A Pledge of Presbyterian Officers
Theology Matters joins a public pledge for Presbyterian officers facing an overture that would compel them to affirm what they do not believe. Reading like an open letter, the piece calls clergy and elders alike to stand on the historic doctrines of creation and redemption rather than yield.
Encouragement for the Journey
Parish ministry is one of the most demanding journeys a person can take. Ray writes to encourage those discerning the call, and the older ministers who tend them, with a reminder that the calling is never private: it is always the church's gift to one of its own.
Pastoral Ministry and Scholarship
Why insist that pastors be trained as scholars? La Montagne separates the Reformed tradition's actual answer from the modern research-university definition that's quietly replaced it, and shows how the original conception still serves congregations better than the institutional one.
Six Observations about Presbyterian Theological Education: The View from My Window
Forty years into ministry, Bullock offers six observations about how Presbyterians have trained their pastors and where the model has thinned out. Stewardship of time, the witness of unlikely converts, and the irreplaceability of mentors all show up on his list.
Clothes Make the Man (or the Woman)?
What clergy wear in worship has changed in his lifetime, and Taylor isn't quite sure all the changes are improvements. Working from Lorimer's nineteenth-century painting of a Scottish Kirk ordination, he reflects on the theology of vestments and what gets lost when the gown disappears.
A Pastoral Rule For Today
Pastors are asked to be administrators, therapists, CEOs, organizers, and visionaries, and many are exhausted. Burnett interviews Burgess, Andrews, and Small about their book recovering the ancient practice of a pastoral rule, examining lives from Augustine to Bonhoeffer for what shaped fruitful ministry.
The Care of Souls Through the Centuries
Irenaeus, Gregory of Nazianzus, Chrysostom, Calvin: a remarkable continuity runs through the church's understanding of what pastors are for. Burnett gathers their voices into a single conversation about the care of souls and asks what's been quietly dropped from the trade in our time.