Over the summer holiday, I read John Stott's fine book The Preacher's Portrait. These were addresses given in 1961 at Fuller Theological Seminary in which he considered 5 metaphors used in the New Testament for the work of ministry: Steward, Herald, Witness, Father and Servant.
A similar track is taken by Derek Tidball in his helpful work Builders & Fools: Leadership the Bible Way. He also explores ministry metaphors, choosing to focus on Ambassador, Athlete, Builder, Fool, Parent, Pilot, Scum and Shepherd (he kindly arranged them in alphabetical order, for the obsessives amongst us....).
Both books I've found really helpful, in all sorts of ways, but I want to ask some questions and to invite you to help me think some issues through (there is some overlap in how I've framed them):
i. To what extent are the metaphors used in the New Testament tied to their cultural situation or would you see them as trans-cultural?
ii. How transferable are they? How ought we to appropriate them? How would you, for example, apply the metaphor of 'herald' today? How do we delineate the notions behind the metaphors?
iii. Ought we to also seek to employ metaphors for ministry from today's world? If so, what might they be? Do they need to be modern equivalents of the biblical ones or can we expand the list - that is, are the Bible's metaphors descriptive or prescriptive?
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