Fortress Press

"Wiest and Smith here invite clergy into a stimulating conversation about professional ethics. With real cases, solid theological-ethical reflection, and wise moral counsel, they illuminate an impressive array of issues. They resist easy moralisms and lofty generalities as they examine truth-telling in recommendation letters, boundaries in counseling relationships, fund-raising ethics, public invocations, and much, much more. This is an impressively useful book."
— James B. Nelson, United Theological Seminary

"With wisdom borne from years of their own ministries in seminary and parish, Wiest and Smith have given us not only solid insight into issues of integrity in ministry, but into the complex and theological nature of the profession of ministry itself."
— Marjorie Suchocki, Wesley Theological Seminary

"In this world, the comfort of knowing oneself to be right is denied to all but the Pharisees among us. No individual can evade responsibility for ethical decisions. The person and words of Christ ... point directions, set limits, and profoundly shape the mind of the professional clergy ... To live confidently and faithfully with incompleteness, risk, and ambiguity in the name of one's Lord is to become the kind of person demanded by the religious professions."
— Walter E. Weist and Elwyn A. Smith

1. Preface
   Introduction
   
   Part One: Truth



2. What Is Telling the Truth?
3. How We Tell the Truth
   
   Part Two: Authority
    
4. The Authority of the Minister
5. The Pastor as Professional
6. Practicing the Pastor's Authority
   
   Part Three: Character & Relationships
    
7. The Pastor as Human Being
8. Professional Relationships among Ministers
9. The Ethics of a Worldly Church
10. Ministers and Social Establishments
11. The Professional Character
    
    Notes
    Index