Ok folks. No satire here today.<\/p>\n
I really like this book.<\/p>\n
What Clergy Do: Especially When it Looks Like Nothing<\/em> is an interesting and encouraging read for those in ministry. The thesis of the book was that an underacknowledged metaphor for pastoring a congregation is motherhood. And this analogy was helpful in many ways. In particular, Percy\u2019s encouragement to pastors to be more present by understanding the depth of their valued contributions. Even when though it feels like nothing is being accomplished. This is a great analogy and I think Percy should be applauded for making the connection. Many can relate to the feeling of getting nothing accomplished, while in reality there was very important nurturing being done. Many times pastors themselves feel unaccomplished without the growth of the number of the three B\u2019s in their church (budgets, buildings, and butts). But remembering the subversive value of soul care should encourage them to keep the main things the main things.<\/p>\n The highlight that hit me most from this book was Percy\u2019s inclusion of the Phronesis in chapter 2. My dissertation is titled, \u201cLearning in the Midst of Action: Phronesis in the Seminary.\u201d Phronesis of course is a very important word for my argument, and this right away has become another source I can use to back up my claim that the church and seminary should consider Phronesis. It\u2019s kind of like the wisdom to know where the exceptions are, and the wisdom to when to bend the rules. If knowledge is knowing the principle, then Phronesis is the wisdom to know when the principle doesn\u2019t apply. Percy uses this word in talking about how mothers use this special type of wisdom as they discern which of their three primary tasks of motherhood offering protection, allowing exploration, and growing acceptability needs to be implemented at that moment. As Percy said, these three tasks can be in conflict with each other and it\u2019s the mother applied wisdom (phronesis) which helps her decide the right on for that moment.[1]<\/a> Percy\u2019s main point by getting to this is to explain that even when a mother looks like she is doing nothing, a good mother is in fact actively engaging in phronesis all throughout the day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n One question I am left wondering, If pastors should be more mothering, how can seminary teach and grow that in it\u2019s students?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n These concepts fit so nicely with the what Eugene Peterson talks about being a relationally grounded pastor. This is topic that Peterson tended to talk and write about a lot in his later years, as he discusses in this incredible video[2]<\/a>. It\u2019s the anti-celebrity pastor mindset. It\u2019s not that celebrity pastors are bad, but its when others begin to compare themselves to those ministries as the benchmark of fruitfulness. That\u2019s when damage is done. This is the type of pastoring that Percy says pastors should strive for. We need more pastors as nurturers. I see many pastors do have a nurturing side but they are just more driven with holy ambition to plunder hell and populate heaven, so to speak. Ideally, I supposed it would be more of both of these qualities.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n One point of contention I had with this book, is its lack of tie in to the chosen biblical metaphor for pastoring, which is the shepherd. For some reason God in his wisdom chose the shepherd to be the image to describe what he designed pastors to be. I deeply appreciate The biblical image that Percy has done by giving us a more familiar metaphor, but I would have liked to see more tie ins to the biblical metaphor. A few times on page 3,[3]<\/a> Percy mentions the biblical image of a shepherd but only that we are not familiar with it, and then does not mention it again. Of course, the maternal and nurturing aspects of God are Biblical and Percy draws a lot from this in her theological foundation for the pastor as mother.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I don\u2019t mean to be pushing back too hard against this book, because I really did like it, but\u2026 I wonder why, if this was the analogy God wanted to use, why wouldn\u2019t he have done it? Mothers were just as well-known back then, and in fact there was probably a more consistent idea of motherhood then, than there is now.\u00a0 I suppose some would say that perhaps God did not choose to do that since the biblical times were still far too hierarchical to have accepted the analogy of pastoring as mothering. Perhaps. I will be very interested in diving into the blogs this week from people who fall on both sides of the women in ministry debate.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Emma Percy, What Clergy Do: Especially When It Looks like Nothing<\/em> (London: SPCK, 2014). Page 26.<\/p>\n