Ministry Unplugged: Uncommon Calls to Serve

Susan Willhauck, Chalice Press

How do congregations today discover their unique place and role in their community and in the greater ministry of the church? Susan Willhauck seeks to immerse the readers of this little book in these questions.

Ministry can and does take place in the most unusual places and in the most unusual ways. Ministry Unplugged explores out-of-the-ordinary expressions of the call to ministry, telling stories of passionate people involved in ministry in uncommon ways and places in order to spark congregational imagination about ways to be ministers for Jesus Christ.

There are stories of ministries of social justice, advocacy, care giving, spiritual formation, and arts ministries.

Willhauck opens up possibility as reality through stories about places, including a hair salon that not only preaches the Gospel but is also named “Christ Did It All Hair Salon”; and a bistro-style restaurant alternative to the soup kitchen for the homeless in a major urban area.

These are ministries which will challenge our notions of how to be Christian and how to be “church”. They shift the locus of the gospel message and show the work of Christ in the world, and they show that the call to ministry is multi-layered and takes more than one form.

Through this congregations and individuals are assisted to re-think assumptions about what ministry is, who can be in ministry, where it can be done and how it can be done. There are questions to work through at the end of each chapter. The challenge is to be challenged: have a read!

Peter Harvey