The thirteen essays in Reflections on Renewal provide a wide and deep perspective on pastoral life today.American Catholic Studies The contributors to this impressive collection of reflections offer critical insights and pose provocative questions concerning the present and future direction of ministry.Pastoral Music Too often lay ecclesial ministry is approached as a response to the declining number of priests rather than both as a vocation rooted in Baptism and a work of the Spirit in our age. In Reflections on Renewal, editors Eschenauer and Horall engage readers in a collaborative, reflective process that both broadens and deepens the conversation. Bishops, theologians, and lay ecclesial ministers provide the foundational essays and reflective questions. Readers are taken behind the scenes of discussions that birthed the USCCB document Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord, given a rich history and theology of lay ecclesial ministry, and provided with concrete ideas on how to foster renewal of ministry and the church.Julia Upton, RSM, Provost, St. John's University, Jamaica, New York . . . an excellent source book of essential information for understanding lay ecclesial ministry coupled with keen critical reflections on salient issues attached to it. The editors, a lay ecclesial minister and an academic, have included essays from those closest to the USCCB document and those who reflect on it from a variety of helpful angles--historical, theological, educational, sociological, psychological. I heartily recommend it to those responsible for lay ministry formation and for all who want to probe the state of the question on lay ecclesial ministry.Mercedes Iannone, Professor, Pastoral Ministries, St. Thomas University, Miami Gardens Florida This volume presents a critical engagement on the vocation of lay ecclesial ministry in the United States. A 'prophetic conversation' that justifies the need for a global and ecumenical reflection on renewal, particularly with the local churches of Asia, Oceania, Latin America and Africa, in which U.S. immigrant perspectives on ministry are rooted.Faustino M. Cruz, SM, PhD, Visiting Professor in Practical Theology, Seattle University This is an important and timely book for all who have a concern for present and future directions of lay ecclesial ministry in today's church and society. A rich and comprehensive gathering of writers from a range of disciplines present an analysis and review of key issues in contemporary ministry that are presently faced by both academics and practitioners. Forthright in the approach they take, the authors engage with the realities and complexities of renewal in the diverse and multi-leveled ecclesial communities of the post Vatican II era. A valuable book for pastoral theologians and for parish groups.Dr. Maryanne Confoy, RSC, Jesuit Theological College, Melbourne, Australia In these times, the very future of the Church may well depend on the future of lay ecclesial ministry. Reflections on Renewal: Lay Ecclesial Ministry and the Church is a groundbreaking book that advances the conversation toward a new vision for lay ministry and indeed for all the functions and forms of ministry in the Church.Thomas Groome, Professor of Theology and Religious Education Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, Chair of Department of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry, Author of Will There Be Faith (HarperOne, 2011) The shift in the ministry paradigm from ordination to baptism and the present emphasis on the universal vocation to holiness and mutual service-this is the single most important characteristic of Catholic Christianity in our time. Reflections on Renewal presents a series of well-informed and thoughtful essays from leading scholars on the vision and pragmatic realities of lay ministry for today and tomorrow. Archbishop Gregory Aymond's enlightened foreword is an engaging overview of the expanded possibilities for well-educated and well-formed lay women and men in serving the gospel, the community of disciples, and the reign of god. The call to ministry, this volume makes clear, is expanding, not contracting-and its shape goes back to Christian origins, a retrieval of how the Church acted in its first century. This book is about the hidden seed, growing secretly-so compelling it will soon be made manifest!Robert A. Ludwig, Ph.D., Professor of Pastoral T