Pastoral Imagination

“Campbell-Reed’s book is ideal for giving both professors and students a vision, rich stories, and deep questions to accompany them as they learn in practice how to speak love, enact hope, and demand justice in our broken and beautiful world.” –Serene Jones, president at Union Theological Seminary

“Encyclopedic in scope and pulsing with heart in every word. Pastoral Imagination is a compendium of wisdom and a companion for ministry. Pastors will turn to it again and again.” –George A. Mason, senior pastor, Wilshire Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas, and author of Preparing the Pastors We Need: Reclaiming the Congregation’s Role in Training Clergy

“Eileen Campbell-Reed has given us all a generous invitation to ponder anew what makes for faithful leadership today. Through story and scholarship … you will find here a treasure trove of insight, learning, and wisdom … that nurtures a lifetime of ministry.” –Eric D. Barreto, Weyerhaeuser Associate Professor of New Testament, Princeton Theological Seminary and editor of Reading Theologically

“Evocative, discerning, and insightful–this book gives … a travel itinerary for how ministers become engaging leaders of communities of faith today.” –Kathleen A. Cahalan, professor, practical theology, Saint John’s University School of Theology and Seminary and project director, Collegeville Institute Seminars

“Pastoral Imagination is a book of wisdom. Campbell-Reed expertly mentors the reader in the habits, disposition, and reflective ways of being that catalyze growth.” –Matthew Floding, Director of Ministerial Formation at Duke Divinity School, co-editor of Reflective Practice: Formation and Supervision in Ministry

“Gaining wisdom in the pastorate typically takes decades of trial and error and lots of support and advice from colleagues. In Pastoral Imagination, Campbell-Reed does us a great service by distilling decades of developed intuition into ‘ministry minutes,’ giving us the mentor that we need.” –Carol Howard Merritt, pastor, Bedford Presbyterian Church, author of Healing Spiritual Wounds

Rev. Dr. Eileen R. Campbell-Reed is visiting associate professor of pastoral theology and care at Union Theological Seminary, New York City. She also teaches for the Women’s Leadership Initiative MDiv program for Central Seminary, Minnesota. She is co-director of the Learning Pastoral Imagination Project; founder and host of Three Minute Ministry Mentor; and author of Anatomy of a Schism (2016).

Christian Scharen is Vice President, Applied Research for the Center for the Study of Theological Education at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York.