Journal: Trinity Journal
Volume: TRINJ 21:1 (Spring 2000)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

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TrinJ 21:1 (Spring 2000) p. 83

Book Reviews

Ray S. Anderson. The Soul of Ministry: Forming Leaders for God’s People. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1997. $22.00 paper.

All ministry is first God’s ministry, writes Anderson; but Creation is not the starting place for this particular theology of ministry. Anderson traces the roots of ministry to Exodus arguing that “Exodus precedes Genesis in the same way that the seventh day precedes the sixth day and that ministry precedes and creates theology” (p. 3). Anderson uses this seemingly illogical construction, to ground the underlying premise of the book that

all of God’s actions in history are what we mean by God’s ministry…. [that] God’s actions reveal God’s existence and make possible true knowledge of God. It is God’s ministry that expounds God’s nature and purpose. In obedience and response to God’s ministry, we gain knowledge of God and of ourselves. This obedient response to God’s ministry becomes our ministry which, in turn, serves as a theological exposition of God’s nature and purpose. (p. 3)

This central definition of the nature and purpose of ministry drives Anderson to find a theological starting place for God’s acts that provides meaning and content in a way that the Creation or the events in Genesis do not. Exodus is the more satisfactory starting place for Anderson because it establishes the “people” and God’s intentions with regard to this people and their role in his plan. “Exodus is the theological beginning point that serves as the exposition and explanation of all that precedes” (p. 4). Moses at the bush learns the content of the divine name; “And it is Moses who expounds the inner mystery and meaning of that name through the formation of a people” (p. 5). The literary device of using a subsequent event in a way that gives meaning and a sense of “Aha!” to that which in time is prior, is, of course, a legitimate device; but, in my judgment, the lengthy argument that Exodus “precedes” all that has come before is unnecessarily cumbersome and can confuse the issue.

From this point, Anderson begins in various ways to describe ministry. God’s ministry (his acts) reveals who he is; by extension, then, our ministry, in obedience to God, reveals something of whom God is (p. 7). “Ministry is much more than the teaching of biblical concepts and the application of pastoral skills in accordance with approved rules and guidelines” (p. 9). Every act of ministry, every decision, every position we take reveals something of God. Anderson further argues that it is the actions of Jesus that are as authoritative as his teaching. “It was the ministry of Jesus, not merely his teaching, that revealed the character and purpose of God” (p. 13). By positioning ministry ...

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