Pat Hoffman
Wipf & Stock publishers, 158 pages
Reviewed by Dean McDonald
Full disclosure: My husband and I have known and loved Pat and Cecil Hoffman since 1971 when the two of us interned for the National Farmworker Ministry in and around Los Angeles.
Pat Hoffman’s memoir focuses on her time ministering to the AIDS-affected community in and around Los Angeles. Such involvement would seem unlikely if one would simply see her as an unassuming woman of a certain age. However, in the stories she tells, one begins to understand the depth of her faith that was cultivated over previous years of committed spiritual practices, and her deep relationships with spiritual guides in justice-based causes.
She was primed to listen for God’s calling and she was faithful enough to risk responding to the call she heard. Hoffman’s ministry required that she grow from the “learned helplessness” acquired in childhood, to trusting that she was indeed powerful enough to set forth into a vocation that few others could even imagine or think important for the church.
Not without trepidation, Hoffman began as a hospital AIDS unit visitor. She tells of her fragility in making those first difficult visits, and how – over the course of years – her self-confidence grew. Her story is of God’s empowering Spirit transforming a life from timidity to remarkable boldness. Over time, Hoffman took on greater responsibility in a variety of advocacy jobs.
Hoffman’s ever-honest description of her evolving growth makes her book an important one for anyone sensing a call yet doubting if he or she can adequately respond to it. It is clear that her own response was not easy or without times of misgivings. Nevertheless, what comes across so strongly is that persons of all ages and backgrounds can grow into greater wholeness.
“Summoned and Shaped” is more than a memoir; it is a book that offers hope to anyone who may be sensing a call that seems too unconventional or challenging. It affirms how the gifts needed in ministry can be ours if we have friends and mentors to encourage and support us, set our mind to the task, feel passionate about the people and project, keep ourselves grounded in faith and understand how crucial self-care is.
This is a long list of requirements Hoffman demonstrates as necessary, but that do not guarantee effective ministry. Her book makes clear that personal and institutional situations change so that the time will come for going in new directions. That means that ears be always attuned to God.
“Summoned and Shaped” concludes with a “how-to of spiritual questing,” a clear outline of how a group might be organized and run to support the “spiritual sustenance” of participants. The tried-and-true format evolves from input Hoffman received from others and that she went on to further develop and use.
This is an inspiring book for CPE and seminary students, pastors and congregations alike.
Dean McDonald is a retired Presbyterian pastor and marriage and family therapist living in San Anselmo, California. She has served numerous PC(USA) churches, as chaplain at National Presbyterian School and was an administrator on the pastoral staff at Washington National Cathedral.
