Rob Ventura

The apostle Paul was arguably the foremost servant of Jesus in the history of Christianity. In A Portrait of Paul authors Rob Ventura and Jeremy Walker take a look at Paul and the nature of his ministry by means of a careful walk through Colossians 1:24-2:5. In doing so that not only show the characteristics that guided Paul as a servant of the Gospel but they provide a road map of the types of things they strongly believe that both search committees should use as they seek a pastor to lead them and that pastors should possess and develop throughout their time in active ministry.

Ventura and Walker are both pastors who came to their common understanding of Paul and his ministry while preaching through the book of Colossians. Together, as they work through the end of the first chapter and the beginning of the second they indentify within it the key facets of Paul's ministry, keys that they feel all pastors should both identify and pursue. There ten, including joy, focus, essence, goal and conflict. Each chapter contains a discussion of that facet of ministry for Paul, a discussion that goes beyond the letter to the Colossians but includes relevant material from Acts and the other Pauline letters. The chapters then have two closing sections, one addressed to the Christian reader and one addressed to pastors. It is in the closing sections of the chapters where the authors speak directly to the hearts of their readers in commending the qualities found in Paul's ministry as the essential qualities for all ministers.

While Ventura and Walker use Colossians as their stepping-off point, they don't limit themselves to that text, as their exploration of Paul's ministry is saturated in both Biblical texts and the work of other authors, particularly the Puritans. In the 21st century there is a plethora of ministry leadership books, with a broad range of suggestions and recommendations for those who serve in pastoral leadership, works that are unfortunately reliant on methods that work in business and/or make accommodations to the culture of our day. Ventura and Walker have gone back to draw from Paul, the example par excellence, without apology to the trends of our day, to give direction and encouragement to those who seek to shepherd God's people well today. I highly commend this book and have added it to those resources I intend to return to for guidance and encouragement in my own ministry.… (más)