The Living Reminder: Service and Prayer in Memory of Jesus Christ

I recently attended a Formational Counseling seminar at Ashland Theological Seminary. The director of the institute; Terry Wardle...said that he thought this was Nouwen's best book. Sooo...naturally i took that to heart... Though i have not read all of Nouwen's books. I must say...it is short & sweet...a marvelous distillation and concentration of spiritual honey that i will savor for years to come.

The lack of reviews of this is surprising; in Living Reminder Nouwen has written a must-read for understanding ministry. He explores how Christian ministry, if it is to be genuine and effective, must be sustained by a deep and Christ-centered spirituality. Nouwen writes that the minister is called to be three things: a healing reminder (connecting human sufferings with those of Christ, being a living reminder of God), a sustaining reminder (where he discusses his novel concept of a ministry of absence and the importance of presence first to God rather than those ministered to), and a guiding reminder (providing prophetic confrontation, inspiration, and hope). In all of these things, Nouwen describes what the living reminder looks like and why, rather than what this minister does: "We have lost touch... we are called to connect, not so much by what we do, but by who we are" (30). While it is not a how-to at all, this book provides the why and how of incarnational ministry. Nouwen's writing is exceptionally clear, organized well, and concise. His ideas, however, are abstract; he deals with our paradigms rather than our actions. This is short, but very impactful... a must-read for anyone seeking to understand what a living reminder looks like.