This is a small handbook written by a couple that were engaged in the pioneering and establishing of a church in South East London. Written after some twenty five years of experience in this church and others linked with it the book is really based upon their own experiences. This element contributes to both the charm and the limitations of the book. Although there are lengthy biblical quotations throughout the personal element must be firmly borne in mind as you read. Perhaps part of the value of a book of this nature, so heavily reliant upon personal experience, is that the writers are what you could call an ordinary couple. The church they pioneered is not large, rather they and the church would be more typical of church life as it really is in the United Kingdom. We are inundated with the stories of the exceptional ministers and the mega churches and this more modest account of church life is a welcome relief. This is a book of lessons learned and being learned. There is a mixture of spiritual vision and down to earth application of that vision. Here is an attempt to marry spiritual truth with practical experience. The book claims to be a comprehensive guide to matters of the pastoral ministry and this is only partly true in that it touches upon many aspects of church life and ministry rather than goes deeply into them. The writers and the church which came into being around them, together with the other churches with which they have been linked were part of a larger moving of God’s Spirit that took place some thirty or so years ago. The excitement, the joy of being participators in that activity of God are a flavor present as you read. Perhaps we could call this an overview of the subject, beginning with the call of God and continuing on through matters of the way the church should be constituted and its ministry fostered. Eldership, leadership, pastoral care is central to the whole, counseling in various aspects is included, much of it anecdotal and then corroborated by scripture.
