The Pastor as Servant Edited by Earl E. Shelp and Ronald H.

Sunderland
Introduction: The Pastor as Servant is one of the series among Pastoral ministries edited by Earl E. Shelp and Ronald H. Sunderland printed and published by the Pilgrim Press, New York. Earl E. Shelp, Ph. D., is a Research Fellow in Institute of Religion and assistant professor of medical ethics at Baylor College of Medicine, Huston, Texas. And Ronald H. Sunderland, Ed. D., is also a Research Fellow in Institute of Religion, Huston, Texas. As, The Pastor as Servant is one of the series among Pastoral ministries it has been published for pastors and laypeople, which addresses the nature and the scope of ministry as a task of the congregation through the various collections of articles. This book has been prepared highlighting the functions of pastor in three offices coinciding with Christ offices as prophet, priest and king, while king have been revised on pastoral ministry substituting the term servant for king. Thus, it reflects not only the developed understanding of Jesus, but also in perception of human character and conduct that is highly accepted by God. The book consists of six essays 1) The Servant Dimension of Pastoral Ministry in Biblical Perspective 2) The Character of Servanthood
3) Justice and the Servant Task of Pastoral Ministry

4) The Servant Church 5) The Service of Theology to the Servant Task of Pastoral Ministry 6) Plurality: Our New Situation And these six essays brings out three themes viz., (1) God is the Sovereign who requires absolute loyalty and obedience despite the presence and lure of false gods. (2) The relationship between God and Gods people who freely chooses to be in bondage to the other. (3) Authentic Servanthood must be expressive of Gods love for humanity and Gods passion for justice. The Servant Dimension of Pastoral Ministry in Biblical Perspective Paul D. Hanson:The word Servant as is unusual to be applied for profession the historical meaning ebed and doulos in Old and New Testament is slave. When bondage of slavery was remembered of the historical existence for Hebrews towards hope and a future, the Greek world where Christianity was born, slavery was most demeaning of all possible fates. The Human Dignity when was equated with freedom, slavery
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stripped human dignity. This essay portrays different perspective of Hebrew Bible, The New Testament and The Biblical Image of servant and Pastoral Ministry Today1. In the perspective of Hebrew Bible we see Servant or slave in the Yahwistic view was not a matter of whether an individual or a community would serve a master but rather a matter of which master would choose. The redemption would come as the result of Gods acting through the Servant, a person or a people so intimately identifying with the bondages of others. In the New Testament Perspective for example Paul portrays the negative aspect of slavery of captivity to a law of sin and a body of death. In Jesus we see God reaching out the lost humans, affirming the solidarity and even identifying with their suffering and alienation. IN Gods servant Jesus Christ, the disciples learnt the secret of the slavery in which there is true freedom. The Christological hymn of Phil.2 highlights only in One true God genuine freedom is found. In the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, slavery that frees one to love, troubles many as Jesus says If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple {Luke 14: 26}. As the Hebrew and Old and New Testament Perspective of a Servant are seen it demands to study The Biblical Image of Servant and Pastoral Ministry Today. Here, it is necessary to remember the human situation is mainly one in bondage, the social and personal forms that need not to be enumerated when we find for the image of Servant or Slave. The Servant of Christ experiences solidarity with one in bondage, awareness of Gods love embracing both. The Character of Servanthood Ronald H. Sunderland: - The roots of slavery as servitude in the secular or profane use is examined in the basis of exploring the reconceptualization of the term slave in the Judeo-Christian scriptures. The author here tries to give the ancient picture of slavery which was once a societal practice. The term slavery applied uses implication of servitude enforced by a superior or an inferior who voluntarily did not accept the status that could be changed only by the will of the master2. Plato compared to the slave to the human body; the master was the bodys soul and Aristotle identifies slaves as among the varieties of the chase. The character of servanthood as slavery was thus defined in relation to that of freedom is denied to the enslaved, the autonomy that is stolen, and the forfeiting of ones labor, as that labor is by the master of the slave. In the Jewish scripture we see the legal system discriminates two classes of servitude the servanthood of Jews and that of Gentiles. Within these Torah divides one as slave who is willingly sold and the other as those whom the court sold for the failure to make the good a theft.

Paul D. Hanson, Ph. D., Busey Professor of Divinity, Divinity School of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2 Ronald H. Sunderland, Ed. D., Research Fellow in Institute of Religion, Huston, Texas.

In the year of Jubilee it was contracted that all the Hebrew servants were to be set free from landowners bondsmen. A shift we see in the understanding of slavelord relationship from a secular to a religious in Hebrew religion was in the Servant of God figure in the O.T. and Jesus as the Servant King in the N.T. In the Hebrew Bible the image of servanthood reaches its fulfillment in the figure of the servant of the Lord, who fulfills the divine mission, not only to Israel but also to the world, which is the object of Gods love. The Lord thus in when the Israelites were under slavery of Pharaoh gives them a new status by calling Israel is my first-born son {Exo. 4:23}. God Chooses-adopts-Israel and therefore leaves an option for them to choose whether to live as slave for life. Though servanthood is delineated in pain the Psalmist highlights that the Lords servants puts their faith in Yahweh. The Christian scriptures Characterizes with examples and life of Jesus and Pauls approaches. Paul introduces servant of Christ as a new-birth in Christ. Its the servant who knows suffering, and the fellow servants are warned that it is common to the character for serving as a sign and a token of servant status. He also reminds that since suffering in inescapable coz baptizing with Christ is suffering with Christ. It is a reality that it is not only individuals who may become enslaved to impurity and lawlessness; as the church itself may choose slavery that compromises its identity and integrity. The N.T suggests that the character of the former servitude partakes the nature of slavery in profane sense, whereas the latter is embodied by Jesus of Nazareth. The Church as servant, the members must be open to serve, sensitive to the other groups so that the body can be built in love. Servanthood is therefore seen to shape ones relationship by loving our neighbor. As Christians we are to be a part in the sovergninty to which we have to be the subject to bear the responsibilities of the societies. Its not about playing part in politics but being prepared to bring their political decisions under Christ rule. Therefore it is very important to know that Lords servant have a greater responsibility of not only to act with justice and righteousness but to speak prophetically to their societies in the name of the Just and righteous. The Servant community as a sign we get to see the church as a company of servants becomes the sign to the world of that community which is Gods gift to all creature. We must become people who are capable of loving the strangers. The community of servants conforms to the character of servanthood embodied by its Lord, if their witness is to have integrity. The nature of servant community is manifested with the expression of love for the neighbor and the witness that fellow servants are called to make. Its not just to meet others need but confronted the other with the possibility of becoming a liberated being from the oppressed and soul-destroying slaveries to know the truth
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that Gods love makes one free indeed. It is evident that slavery in its profane sense was based on the assumption of obedience and accountability. The Churchs prophetic and pastoral tasks will only be discerned fully when they are seen as the consequences that of the character of its servanthood. Justice and the Servant Task of Pastoral Ministry Tom F. Driver: Justice and Servant task of Pastoral ministry though was complex to be dealt the Author focuses towards explaining that servant task of a pastoral ministry is as to serve God, to serve Gospel of Jesus Christ, to serve the church and also accountable to the service of justice. There are two modes of Justice highlighted by the author which are the structural mode and the communitarian mode3. As there is this dualistic concept the church has its liminality. According to Arnold van Gennep there is a stage in which the people are located ritually between the old and the new phases in the life. Victor Turner has introduced this idea into two modes. The Structural mode is the domain of justice and injustice while within it Justice must be understood in a structural modality. Before there were laws, societies expected justice from the rulers. Their wisdom like of the laws was measured by reason. Within this domain of social structure, wisdom, reason, and law had been pillars of justice which was a part in the society with its own structure. In its social modality, it is necessary to bring justice for the poor from rich, weaker from the stronger and so on from all those who dominate. It is the duty or responsibility of the pastoral ministry to pay attention to victims of such society and identify with such victims of injustice. A good servant of justice is one who hears and will teach others to listen for those cries and built people who will respond and act on behalf of them who seek help from heaven because of the social structure being unjust. Secondly, as we see through the Communitarian mode we find religious communities are alternative structures. Its the rituals in life for religion and in the context of Christians it is marked by grace, and its prime symbol we see is the Eucharistic table. Here in this communitarian mode justice is positive rather than its defensive aspect. Its not only protective but also joyful and revealed not in the absence of injustice but in abundance of life in harmony. The communitarian mode of justice always speak of love which is vital but we pay a high price for denying communal love the name of justice. Separation of love from justice leads to sentimentalizing of love, as that love becomes tender, privatized loses its connection with the life among the groups. Therefore it makes us to accept the reality that love is not something different from justice but something within justice. Pastoral ministers are called to be the servants of God whose love is made visible in justice.

Tom F. Driver. Ph. D., Professor of Theology and Culture, Union Theological Seminary, New York, New York.

Hence the crossing and re-crossing the threshold is that Church and world do not stand complementary in a relation to one another but in a dialectical relation. The problem is when a relation is not dialectical but complementary then the justice of God is what is betrayed. God wants us to serve him by making regular and frequent shifts across the threshold dividing the structures of society from the antistructures of religious praise and worship. Over a period of time the churches service had been patriarchal, which led the social structure sin of male dominance drive inside the house of God. The existing rationalism of our culture prevails the churches to think of justice in anything other than in the structural mode. A revolutionary Expectation is what is left out because the justice of God is not confined or identical with the structures of any give society. The Servant task of pastoral ministry is to make and encourage the victims of such social structure. A faithful servant of the gospel is prepared to seek their replacement whenever the way is open to the increase of justice in the world. The Servant Church James H. Cone: The church as servant or servant church raises lots of questions over the role of church in a society. The relationship of church and local congregation, between theology and sociology of churches etc., is the response what the poor wants to experience. The theologians speak of the church as the body of Christ without saying anything more about its relation to broken human bodies in society by focusing over doctrinal understandings. But only when the church tries to focus over the sociology of the churches the church and its people would be able to see themselves and others in them as well. Churches are often incapable of attacking root cause of oppression because in one way they are supporters of the sociopolitical system which is responsible for the oppression. For this very reason a social analysis has to be taken over the doctrine of churches. The presence of transcendent element in the churchs identity must always point a concrete, recognizable human community. A Christian church is the church of Jesus Christ can be an affirmative statement to show the relation between theology of the church and sociology of the churches. But unless this is put into relation or relevant to human being the church in the society goes meaning less4. In the Interrelation of the Church, Jesus Christ and the poor the author tries to bring out some views which today have to be the concern of every church and in pastoral ministry. The Christian church is a community called into being by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus is the subject in churchs preaching and in him is the mission of the world that personifies the church. And therefore without Jesus the church has no identity. Christian faith is therefore not the reflection of the values of the dominant culture. We see Paul very clearly expressed that God turns the worlds value system upside down. The main loophole in and across the globe we see is pastors are more concerned about manipulating people for an increase in
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James H. Cone, Ph. D., Professor of Systematic Theology, Union Theological Seminary, New York, New York.

salary than liberating the oppressed from the socio-political bondage. And therefore church is that of people who have been called into being by life, death and resurrection of Jesus, so that the church can bear witness to Jesus by participating in the struggle of freedom. Thus, the primary definition of church is not its confessional affirmation but rather its political commitment for the poor. In the coming future the church as the servant of God is possible only if Jesus Christ is the Lord of the church, then the church will be his servant. The church exists for others because its determined by the one who died on the cross. The servanthood of the church is defined by the cross and to be a servant of the crucified one is to be his representative in the society bearing witness to the rule that Jesus revealed in his life, death and resurrection. Servanthood is a call to action that challenges one in struggle for the poor. The church is a hoping community as it makes its political commitment for the poor, the actions bear witness to an ultimate hope in Christ. God is the power who transforms the suffering of the present into the hope of the future. Conclusion: Reading of this book has helped me to know the need of servanthood in the pastoral ministry. In the 21st century when we see pastors glorified in position and profession in the society it is essential for the pastors to remember and hear the cry of the oppressed. And for sure when the cry is heard no pastor will be thinking of the glory that the world gives but glorifies God by taking the role of a servant for the master the crucified One whose manifesto was to set the oppressed free. Thus the Pastor as Servant resembles Jesus and therefore equips the church as well to be a servant of God. To conclude God is still in search of servants whom he is willing to glorify as pastors. Pastoral ministry becomes even more meaningful by serving Christ and enjoying life as His servants than being served by people and unwelcoming the best part for which we are called for.