But many sensitive pastors today feel at sea.

The familiar horizons seem to become more distant as assumptions about the Church and the contexts in which it works are challenged and adjusted.  At the same time the sands begin to shift under our feet. Turmoil in theology is not confined to universities and colleges. If it were, most Churches and Christians would probably, as always, be largely unperturbed. The dilemma is: more acute: in many ways we know more about our world and ourselves than our predecessors knew. But knowledge does not necessarily lead to competent living.

All are caught between relevance and identity; the pastor is bound to feel this, for his ministry must be relevant to people and their predicaments, and it is based upon whatever sense of identity as Christian minister he can develop and which others can discern.