Book Review: The Grace of It All

[From time to time through the years, I've reviewed books for the journal of my seminary alma mater, Trinity Lutheran Seminary. Here's a review I submitted yesterday.]

The Grace of It All: Reflections on the Art of Ministry. By F. Dean Lueking. Herndon, Virginia: The Alban Institute (www.alban.org), 2006. 152 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1-56699-332-6; ISBN-10: 1-56699-332-6 $17.00 (paperback)

It may be that all pastors have at least one book in them.

In their books would be presented the experiences and lessons derived from years of pastoral ministry.

From them, seminary students would gain valuable “heads up” insights and those already engaged in pastoral work would find encouragement and counsel.

Although he’s written other books, The Grace of It All is F. Dean Lueking’s attempt at such a book of a lifetime. Part memoir, part shirtsleeve pastoral theology, The Grace of It All often has the feel of a conversation with a seasoned and generous mentor. This, as Lueking explains in the Preface, is his intention, believing as he does that such conversations in print are needed. “The need is for pastoral writing that joins sound theology, biblically grounded in the mighty acts of God’s judgment and mercy, with the realities of congregation and community in our world.”

For this, Lueking is as qualified as anyone. A brilliant preacher with an extraordinary ability to make accessible sometimes difficult Biblical truths, as many will already know, he spent forty-four years in one parish, Grace Lutheran Church in River Forest, Illinois, before beginning an international ministry of teaching and mentoring pastors.

The Grace of It All is filled with tales of triumphs and failures, of lessons learned, and, maybe most helpfully, of the everyday experiences that, in the end, bring pastors their greatest sense of satisfaction. We get to see and personally experience the many ways in which the Triune God can grace pastors’ everyday lives and the everyday lives of the people and communities they serve

Lueking veers between memoir and pastoral theology here. Mostly, he manages to maintain a balance between the two, helping us to see the ways in which God sustains pastoral ministry. But at times, like a politician stumping, intent on mentioning as many locals as possible, Lueking strains the reader’s goodwill by going on for pages citing specific members of the Grace Lutheran Church family he so long served. When he does so, it reads not so much as a chronicle of the Biblical “cloud of witnesses” as it does as a series of entries in a seed catalog.

That, coupled with the fact that the last chapter seemed to slog along unnecessarily, made me feel, after reading it, that The Grace of It All would be an even stronger and more helpful book if it were reduced in length by about fifty pages.

In the end, though, I was happy to have read this book. I enjoyed spending time with Lueking if, for no other reason, than that it has encouraged me to listen to the experiences and stories of my fellow clergy, treasure troves of insight, wisdom, and testimonies to the rich grace of God. As Lueking writes, “We need each other’s stories…The disappointments, like the poor, we have always with us. But the good news of Christ’s grace abounds over sin and brings the great gain of godliness with contentment.”

In this book, Lueking manages to show us what contentment and gain come to those who, year in and year out, stick to their calls as ministers of Word and Sacrament in service to the gracious God made known in Christ.