In the reading meme I wrote about, I mentioned I would memorize a classic work of pastoral care, if I was in a Farenheit 451-like situation.
I probably wouldn’t take along The Reformed Pastor, but I definitely would take . . .
2. Minister’s Prayer Book, edited and with an introduction by John W. Doberstein
. . . and I take it on the bus and when I travel.
Pastoral care seems to have once included ministerial spirituality, formation, and health. If you can be well and strong, how can you pastor your people? The modern work (1986 edition of 1959 original) includes a lectionary and worship aids.
But it is definitely for personal, ministerial use. I got mine used and there was a crease in the spine that makes it open to a quote from John Chrysostom: Hell is paved with priests’ skulls. That’ll remind you to fly right!
The work is essentially Lutheran with huge doses of Martin L. and Caspar Calvör’s The Ladder of Devotion, which was a “simple illustration of evangelical meditation in the tradition of Luther’s meditatio, tenatio, oratio.” That is: meditation, self-examination, and prayer. The book is worth it for this essay alone.
Tons of Richard Baxter quotations, too.
Makes a great ordination gift.
