The tyranny of the urgent is a by-product of our fast-paced world. It affects many people, but when it impacts pastors they are often tempted to ignore the critical needs of the pastoral disciplines that ensure the effectiveness of ministry.
In Thinking, Listening, and Being: Wesleyan Pastoral Disciplines, Jeren Rowell offers theological reflections on what it means to live and work as a pastor. He examines different aspects of pastoral thinking, practice, and work, and challenges pastors to continually pursue prayer, the study of Scriptures, and theological reflection.
Working in this way, he writes, could not only be a gift of love for the church but also an important model for parish pastors who are tempted to surrender first things to the urgencies and temptations of contemporary life.
Jeren Rowell, ED.D., is president and professor of pastoral ministry at Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City. He served twelve years as superintendent of the Kansas City District for the Church of the Nazarene and twenty-five years as a local church pastor. Prior works include Thinking, Listening, Being: A Wesleyan Pastoral Theology and Preaching Holiness: Pastoral Considerations, both available from The Foundry Publishing.