THE MINISTRY MEDICAL:
A health-check from 2 Timothy
By Jonathan Griffiths
PT Resources / Christian Focus.
141 pages. £7.99
ISBN 978 1 781 912 324
At last the kind editor sends me a book to review that I would actually have bought! For this is a good book.
Griffiths takes the text of 2 Timothy and turns it into 36 questions for a pastor to ask himself, running a self-check on the health of his own ministry. Each question then becomes the subject of a short chapter (4 pages or so) making it a very easy read, but a challenging one.
Questions such as ‘Are you praying for your people?’, ‘Are you entrusting the gospel to future leaders?’, ‘Are you avoiding entanglements?’ and — most basic of all — ‘Are you remembering Jesus?’ cannot fail to challenge and to stimulate.
It’s an ideal read for a young pastor just beginning; or for one a few years into his ministry. It’s ideal too for someone like me, who can just about see retirement looming and may be asking ‘what should I correct in these last years?’ There’s a blooper in the heading of chapter 19, which reads ‘Are you feeling youthful passions?’ rather than ‘Are you fleeing youthful passions’ — though most young pastors should probably answer ‘Yes’ to both. A really good book; warmly recommended for a month’s daily meditation, or for a pastor’s fraternal, or many similar contexts.
