Pendle Hill Pamphlets has just published a second submission of mine, Nurturing Vocal Ministry: Toward a Vital Culture of Eldership (#499).
The essay explores some ways to deepen our meetings’ vocal ministry and foster the gathered meeting through a vital culture of eldership – that is, the faith and practices, the attitudes and agreements through which we nurture the spiritual lives of our members. Since sidelining or laying down the practice of recording ministers and elders in many Quaker meetings, Friends have largely abandoned the proactive nurture of spoken ministry and the understanding of vocal ministry as an ongoing calling.
The essay discusses why nurturing our spoken ministry is so important and how meetings and their worship and ministry committees can nurture vocal ministry, including how to respond to troubling ministry. It answers some of the concerns that Friends have against a proactive culture of eldership and discusses its benefits, noting that Friends already nurture other kinds of ministry. And it explores the faith behind our practice of ministry.