I’ve taught pastoral theology to undergrads for seven years now and every year I struggle to find a textbook. As a Pentecostal who fully supports the role of women and men in every area of ministry, choices are limited!

This past year I used The Flourishing Pastor by Tom Nelson. Despite his Gospel Coalition bona fides, Nelson writes from a gender neutral position about the pastorate. His work explores what it means to shepherd a flock with integrity and skill. The pages are full of anecdotes and homey wisdom that illustrate his points clearly.

Not all of the anecdotes land well. Seeking to illustrate the invitation pastors have to apprentice themselves to Jesus, he tells the story of how his heart “skipped a beat” when he received an invitation in the mail from the White House with “the gold lettering of the official presidential seal” (86). The vicarious embarrassment hits strong!

More significantly, Nelson occasionally misuses scripture to make his point. For example, when David’s servants gave him a young virgin to keep him warm in bed, the text indicates that “the king did not know her sexually (1 Kings 1:4). Nelson presents this as a virtuous reversal of the Bathsheba ‘affair.’ In culture context, it was more likely an indication that the King was impotent. Nelson’s interpretation of the text according to modern Western purity culture rather than the culture of the ancient world makes it difficult to recommend to students.

The Flourishing Pastor is full of solid wisdom but it’s still not quite what I’m looking for. If any reader out there has a pastoral theology textbook recommendation, I’m all ears!

Nelson, Tom. The Flourishing Pastor: Recovering the Lost Art of Shepherd Leadership. IVP, 2021.