Ministry in the Middle

The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers  by Maxwell King (Harry N. Abrams, 2018), 320 pages Won't You Be My Neighbor?  directed by Morgan Neville  (Focus Films, 2018), 94 minutes 2018 was a significant year in remembering Fred Rogers, the creator and star of "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood."  Over the summer, Oscar-winning filmaker Morgan Neville released a documentary on Rogers, which had significant popularity for a documentary.  It grossed almost $23 million and at one point was screened in almost 900 theaters in the US .  (It was also well regarded, earning a 98% fresh score from Rotten Tomatoes .)  This fall, a new biography, The Good Neighbor , was released.  And, to put the cherry on top of the sundae, a new film was shot, in which beloved actor Tom Hanks will portray Rogers; currently it's scheduled to be released around Thanksgiving 2019. By happy coincidence, I read the new book and then watched the documentary in a two-week ...

There Is No Good Card for This: What to Say and Do When Life is Scary, Awful, and Unfair to People You Love by Kelsey Crowe and Emily McDowell  (HarperOne, 2017), 272 pages Many of life's challenges can be devastating, such as the death of a loved one, a serious illness, or losing a job.  When someone we care about faces one of these awful challenges, we can feel powerless and inadequate to help.  Often, we don't know what to say, and we don't know what to do. Many ministers receive specialized training to help them navigate these situations with compassion and confidence.  Personally, I cherish the unit of Clinical Pastoral Education that I took years ago, and still draw on many of its lessons today.  It was especially useful to help me learn how to be spiritually present with someone suffering by making sure my own emotional baggage does not get in the way. Not all ministers, and few lay leaders, have such training.  Instead, they simply rely on the...

N. T. Wright, Paul: A Biography  (HarperOne, 2018) , 480 pages Noted scholar N. T. Wright attempts to present a unified portrait of the apostle Paul in this new biography.  Drawing heavily on the New Testament letters of Paul and book of Acts, Wright argues that Paul was passionate and consistent in his life-long faith in God.  Further, he argues that Paul's missionary teaching forms the backbone of all subsequent theology. Wright's central thesis is that Paul had a consistent overall theology throughout his life, from before his famous encounter on the road to Damascus until his death.  Repeatedly, he suggests that Paul's "conversion" did not offer any new insight into God except that the promised Messiah had come and was Jesus of Nazareth. The great benefit of this approach is that it strives to see unity in Paul's theology, linking his rabbinical education to his subsequent thought.  One could argue that Paul himself alludes to this unity in his lette...