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Military service has been completely and irrevocably converted from a matter of collective obligation to simple personal preference.

During the GWOT, the American people subscribed to three unofficial yet inviolable parameters for their wartime role: • We will not change. • We will not pay. • We will not bleed.

“In a democracy, all citizens have equal rights and equal obligations. When the nation is in peril, the obligation of saving it should be shared by all, not foisted on a small percentage.” Undersecretary of War Robert Patterson, 1944

“Cheering for the troops, in effect, provides a convenient mechanism for voiding obligation and perhaps easing guilty consciences.” 5

These is a difference between ulterior and ultimate motives. One is deceptive and manipulative, the other is intentional and patient.

Take small (yet intentional) steps to involve your neighbors in activities you naturally do.

Create a map of your block with names of everyone to keep them in your mind. Move from stranger, to acquaintance, to relationship one step at a time. This is the first step in taking the Great Commandment literally. Eventually, throw a block party to foster relationship building.

Wow, starts out incredibly convicting and is moving into some highly practical territory.

It's impossible to obey the second half of the Great Commandment—love your neighbors—if you don't even know your neighbors’ names.

Epilogue: Unanswered Questions - The students in universities, high schools, and junior hight schools today might not buy the line of relativism that has sold so well in classrooms for the past thirty years. 261

Chapter 13: The Question of Silence: "When Is It Time to Shut Up?" - …gracious listening flows from a heart that has been humbled, stilled, and transformed by the power of grace. Listening is simply a form of serving, of putting the other person first, as Philippians 2 implores us. It requires an inner concern for the person more than an outward practice of techniques. 250

Chapter 12: The Question of Anger: "What If I Really Want My Neighbor to Go to Hell?"

Epilogue: An Ordination Sermon on 2 Corinthians 11:2, "The Father of the Bride"

Conclusion: Pastoral Theology in the Classical Tradition -The goal [of reading the classical texts], rather, is to allow these classical texts to provoke us into critical thinking by disturbing our calm, culture-bound assumptions concerning ministry, and in doing so to suggest avenues for exploration. 115

Ch 5: Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor - …the book bears witness to the nature and power of pastoral ministry perhaps more convincingly than any other book in the history of pastoral literature. 95 His ministry certainly carried an urgent edge, as The Reformed Pastor makes clear, no doubt attributable in part to his sickness. 99

Chapter 12: The Question of Anger: "What If I Really Want My Neighbor to Go to Hell?" - To be sure, if our motivation for expressing anger is pure, unadulterated, righteous indignation, as it surely was for Jesus and Jeremiah, then we've got every right to yell. The problem is, what stands behind our ranting is often something else… Our words, then, have more sinful anger than truth in them. 228

Chapter 11: The Question of Compassion: "What If I Don't Care That My Neighbor Is Going To Hell?" - As I rub shoulders with fellow believers, I hear a coldness and, in some cases, a contempt toward the lost world around us. 212 Confusion... is not simply an intellectual puzzle to be sorted out; it's an emotional know to be untied. 214

Ch 4: Martin Bucer, On the True Pastoral Care - Martin Bucer's On the True Pastoral Care (aka Von der waren Seelsorge) is the principle Reformation text on pastoral theology. 76 Its value lies in the clear theological framework into which Bucer cast all pastoral work. 77