Christian Service: Seamands' Ministry in the Image of God

Ministry in the Image of God:
The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service
By Stephen Seamands
Intervarsity, 2005
(189 pages, $13.00, paperback)

reviewed by Tim Patterson

As the title of this book suggests, Stephen Seamands, professor of Christian doctrine at Asbury Theological Seminary, is interested in a refocusing, if not a recovery, of a view of pastoral ministry that is defined, guided and inspired by the variegated nature of the Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity, according to Seamands, had fallen on hard times since at least the days of the Enlightenment, when philosophers and theologians like Kant and Schleiermacher undermined the centrality of the doctrine in Christian thought and practice in deference to the spirit of their age—an age of “cultured despisers.” Disdain for the non-rationalistic notion of a God who is Three-in-One yet One-in-Three ran high from the eighteenth century on, but theologians like Karl Barth worked to reverse this trend by stoking renewed interest in Trinitarian studies, a development which has continued unabated into the twenty-first century.

Because of rationalistic obfuscation, as well as an assortment of other influential trends that battered the good ship Christendom (some of which Seamands addresses later in the book, e.g. pragmatism), the Academy and the Church lost sight of the essential and central role the doctrine of the Trinity had played in their respective spheres. Although renewed interest in Trinitarian studies has produced a burgeoning literary corpus, Seamands believes that the overly theoretical nature of these writings has made them largely inaccessible to those in pastoral ministry. We note in passing that while there is undoubtedly some truth in this observation, it may be equally true that such Trinitarian interest was likely supplanted by other more immediate and engaging interests for contemporary pastors. Indictments against current ministerial philosophy and practice have been helpfully, if not a little painfully, served up by men like David Wells, for instance, particularly in the sixth chapter of his incisive book, No Place for Truth.

Be that as it may, Seamands is completely right in his desire to reformulate pastoral ministry in terms of Trinitarian doctrine. As he so happily points out, all of creation exists and moves as a result of Trinitarian impulse and intent. “The doctrine of the Trinity has been described as the grammar of the Christian faith” (pg. 11), and we might truthfully add “the grammar” of all creation. Because God has revealed Himself to be triune in very nature, His intents, purposes and pleasures necessarily (and sublimely) flow from that nature. To miss – or worse – to ignore this central truth of God is to miss creation’s raison d’etre, and hence, to fall for a thousand incidental distractions which undermine the vocations of men, not the least of which is the vocation of shepherding Christ’s church.

In the opening chapter, Seamands offers this definition of pastoral ministry: it is “the ministry of Jesus Christ, to the Father, through the Holy Spirit, for the sake of the church and the world” (20). The final ten pages of the chapter unpack Seamands’s understanding of this definition. Jesus began in the gospels what He continued in the narrative of Acts, principally through His apostles. They were chosen and employed by Jesus Christ to continue on earth what He had begun, and the call of men to ministry is the call to join Him in what He began and what He now sustains. The ministry is His, not ours—a fundamental but increasingly less obvious point in today’s ecclesiastical culture.

The direction and focus of the Son’s ministry was oriented primarily towards His Father and only secondarily towards the needs of those around Him. The Father’s will and pleasure dictated the direction of Jesus’ ministry—a point, Seamands notes, today’s pastors would do well to heed (25). In His remarkable kenotic incarnation, the Son, in keeping with the Father’s will, made Himself “radically dependent on the Holy Spirit” (27). From His conception until the pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost, the ministry of Jesus was in complete harmony with, and dependent upon, the Holy Spirit.

Here, then, is the shape of Trinitarian ministry. In the remainder of the book, Seamands explains and applies “seven characteristics of Trinitarian life that have profound implications for the vocation of ministry”: Relational Personhood, Joyful Intimacy, Glad Surrender, Complex Simplicity, Gracious Self-Acceptance, Mutual Indwelling, and Passionate Mission (18-19).

This outline, though generally sound, lends itself to a sometimes forced discussion, and Seamands’s anecdotes do not always serve his points well. More seriously, the book exhibits a relative paucity of even basic exegetical work, while some biblical citations appear pressed to fit the content of the outline rather than vice versa. Add to this a small but influential deference to elements of pop psychology (particularly chapter 3), and an otherwise sublime topic suffers a bit of dilution.

On the balance, this is a very readable, non-technical book which addresses a profound, if increasingly disparaged, foundational reality of existence and ministry. Although the author writes specifically to those in pastoral ministry, the corrective he offers would be beneficial to anyone who cares about what God cares about.

Tim Patterson is pastor of Grace Assembly in Lynchburg, VA. (www.gaonline.org)