Gardner C. Taylor and Samuel Proctor; We Have This Ministry: The Heart of the Pastor's Vocation; Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1996. 152 pp. $14.00

In We Have This Ministry, Gardner C. Taylor and Samuel Proctor, two revered stalwarts of the African-American church, share the compressed wisdom of decades of effective pastoral ministry. Taylor served as Senior Pastor of the Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn, and Proctor served at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. Each one has also served as seminary professor. The book contains thematic essays about several different aspects of the pastor's task.

Each is clearly marked as to whether it is written by Taylor or Proctor. Taylor covers "The Pastor's Commission," and "The Pastor as Administrator." Proctor covers "The Pastor as Teacher," "The Pastor as Intercessor," "The Pastor as Counselor," "The Pastor and the Family in Crisis," and "The Pastor and Diversity, Liberation, and Community." Aimed primarily at those entering the pastoral ministry, Proctor states, "Our hope is that ... these reflections will prove helpful to those now engaged in pastorates with many years of ministry stretching before them." Written in an oral style, one can almost hear these two men reflecting out loud in these pages.

The authors make a valid distinction between preacher and pastor. However, it is curious that these two pulpit giants would not deal with preaching. No reason is stated for this omission. Perhaps the next project these two will undertake is some collaboration on preaching. The "cross-pollenization" of these two giants would prove both interesting and beneficial.

It never hurts for a seasoned veteran to review the truths presented in such a work. However, its primary benefit would be as a supplemental text or a seminary course dealing with pastoral ministry or "The Life and Work of a Pastor."

Jacks, G. Robert; Getting the Word Across: Speech Communication for Pastors and Lay Leaders. Grand Rapids: Eerdman's. 1995. 243pp. ISBN 0-8028-4152-x. $20.00

Robert Jacks, Associate Professor of Speech Communication in Ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary, has given attention to two vital but often neglected aspects of one's pulpit ministry - the public reading of the Scriptures, and the optimal use of one's voice. In so doing, he has provided a very readable, even entertaining work.

At first, it may seem that there is not much to be said about the public reading of the Scriptures. It may seem that one who is writing such a volume is attempting to make a case for more public reading of the Scriptures. Instead, Jacks provides helpful pointers for making one's reading of the Scriptures in public worship more natural and effective. At various points along the way, the author offers humorous asides. Shaded boxes at convenient intervals serve to summarize in compelling fashion the point the author is trying to make.

In teaching preaching, I have often emphasized that the sermons I preach best, with the most passion and forceful delivery, are those sermons where the "text has grabbed me." In similar fashion, Jacks argues that the best public reading of the Scripture is done when one has lived with the text enough to internalize its meaning and is thus able to project the thought of the passage with appropriate emphasis and clarity.