Another one...

Here is another great quote from Andrew Purves in his amazing book, Reconstructing Pastoral Theology: A Christological Foundation:

". . . the whole of Christian faith and life, everything in discipleship and ministry, is the explication of Jesus Christ and faith in him, which means a sharing in his life.  He is not one 'doctrine' among others; all other doctrines are expression of or elements in the one faith in Jesus Christ.  Thus in all aspects of Christian life and ministry, in everything that is said and done, Jesus Christ in his living personhood is the principal actor, the 'thing itself,' in whom we live and whose ministry we share.  He is not a point of reference, or even the most religious of all ideas, as though that which is  Christian is somehow at a distance from him.  Neither is he a principle for action derived from his life, a kind of timeless ethical directive to be followed.  Everything is the 'speaking' of God's own Word and Truth who is Jesus Christ in his actuality, and as such, he is inherently and irreducibly a practical and personal Truth.  Whatever else pastoral work is about, if it would be Christian it concerns directly Jesus CHrist as the living and personal Word of God.  Pastoral work has no other basis or validation than Jesus Christ, he alone is its self-sufficient basis."

Wow...