"Growing into the Fellowship of the Prophets: the Growth of Ministers Then and Now"
Key Terms- "Accountability" and "Mothers and Fathers in Truth"
Jeremiah 31: 33-34 and Ezekiel 36: 24-27.
I would suggest that you alternate them, reading one each day.
Chapter 3. Advices to Ministers in a State of Infancy (p. 49)
Chapter 4. Advices as to the Matter and Manner of Expression (p. 65)
Chapter 5. Advices to a Cautious Conduct and Deportment in their Travels in the Work of the Ministry (p. 80)
How is it with me?
Where have I been nurtured in my spiritual journey and in my growth in the ministry?
Chapter 4 makes clear how much the Bible story and Bible texts were a part of ministry during earlier centuries of Quakerism. As you read this chapter, which parts strike you as especially important for contemporary Quakerism? If you were called to re-write this chapter out of your experience of modern Quakerism, what would you add or alter?
Chapters 3 and 5 were clearly written out of a Quaker culture in which traveling inspired ministry was not only expected but welcomed. Can you, in imagination, sense what that culture felt like to the infant or young minister, to the ordinary Friend, and to the elder? How did it differ from the Quakerism you have experienced? What were the strengths and limitations of the accountability of former days? To whom or what is a minister accountable today? Are there, or might there be, appropriate modern forms of accountability for those who are called into vocal ministry today?
These articles are from Resources
for Fostering Vital Friends Meetings
See also: the FGC Quaker Library
