8.20.20 Being a Relational Disciple and Becoming a Relational Pastor

While preparing and meditating on the theme of Relational Disciple Formation for upcoming Sunday School series, I encounter this intriguing book that caught my attention. In The Relational Pastor: Sharing in Christ by Sharing Ourselves, Andrew Root believes a pastor is primarily a “convener of empathic encounter of personhood” (p. 44). It is true that this picture of a pastor "flies in the face of American individualism". The author's correctives also apply to the Chinese way of exploting relationship of which I confess to be a by-product and propagator of both cultures. 

Just by reading some reviews, it makes me interested to interact with the book to enrich my research on the relational paradigm. I found the following review helpful in outing point the author's strengths and weaknesses, 

"this is a book that correctly identifies the intense need for deep and authentic relationships... but a book that mistakes both the means and the end of humanity’s deepest relationship. (The reviewer is responding here) The means: God’s living and inspired Word, brought to bear in people’s lives and hearts as the Holy Spirit does its work through preaching and teaching. (vs. Root claiming that is the role of the relational pastor, p. 84) The end: a gathering of believers who are caught up in a saving and restored relationship with God, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as they love and share life with one another under God’s good Word (vs. Root emphasizing aspects of pastoral ministry—preaching, prayer, church leadership, and evangelism., p. 158). This is a book, therefore, which, while providing some valuable correctives, could mislead many regarding the Word-centered nature of pastoral ministry, as defined by Paul to Timothy, and therefore to us as pastors today." (2 Tim. 4:1–5)

I am convinced that God is relational and thus ministry needs to be relational, yet there is a pitfall even being a relational disciple or becoming a relational pastor. Relational is both vertical and horizontal because Christ is both the means and the end of ministry. Christ is the high priest mediating the vertical relationship between God and people, and through Him we, disciples and pastor, can come before His throne together horizontally (Heb. 4:15-16). The Gospel is most glorious and vivid when both the vertical and horizontal relationships intersect as Christ and the Church becomes one (Eph. 5:32).