Embodying Wisdom: Pastoral Proverbs for Reflective Practice

Authors

  • John Patton

Abstract

This reflection on practice has grown out of the fact that for some time now I have been trying to figure out how to be a wise old man. For many years I have thought about the question found in the middle of the book of Job, “Where shall wisdom be found?” Recently I discovered one answer to that question that I had never considered. Wisdom may be found not only in reflection upon actual events of ministry, but also in the sayings about practice designed to inform that ministry. Certainly, the essence of the so-called clinical method of learning is its focus on particular ministry events of particular persons, but from those events there emerge repeated themes and repeated
sayings for interpreting them. The sayings are not rules for practice. They are challenges to stop and think—to reflect—before you act or speak in order to develop your own particular wisdom and authority for ministry.

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