This book on ministerial formation and supervision provides an accessible and thorough resource. It explores the nature of ministry and formation for 21st Century church and public life. It argues for the importance of supervision in the learning contexts of placement, parish and pastorate and presents an exciting model of supervision as reflective practice that draws on existing literature from different disciplines, including other helping professions, literature and practical theology and the methods and insights of Clinical Pastoral Education, interpreted within a British context.

Chapters cover stimulating and useful areas for consideration by the theological educator and ministerial student, such as doing theological reflection in context; resistance to learning; coping with loss and failure; dynamics of power in ministry and issues of transculturalism in ministry and issues of gender and sexuality. It also offers ways in which the effectiveness of placement learning can be evaluated.