Competent Pastor

What does it mean to say that a pastor is competent? And how does a competent pastor function? This book is intended to help pastors, seminarians, and lay people who work with pastors understand and answer these two questions. Competence in ministry is a moving target. A ministry technique that works in one parish may not work in another. What works today may not work five years from now. But a competent pastor will be able to adapt to changing locations and changing times. A competent pastor will be happy in her job-or able to figure out why she's not happy and how to move forward. A competent pastor won't get stuck-or when he does get stuck, he'll know what steps to take to get unstuck. Competence, defined by author Ronald Sisk as "e;the ability to do what needs to be done,"e; requires ministers to understand themselves and others and to keep a realistic perspective on their lives. Competent pastors function by moving toward this kind of understanding and perspective.