20 Must-Reads on Pastoral Ministry: Part 2
INTRODUCTION
In our previous article, we posted the first half of our 20 must-reads on pastoral ministry. You can read that article here.
In this follow-up we look at the second half of our list, again focusing not on the “-ing” of pastoring, but the person, the pastor. These authors write with their attention fixed on the essential element of pastoring, the pastor’s soul. Doing is essential in pastoring; what could be more obvious? But our ministry is God-honoring, godly and healthy only as it flows from being, the fruit of God’s constant transforming and forming or our soul. In essence, pastoring is simply living in the flow of God: what He pours into our souls, what we process with Him in our souls, we then draw on as we pour out to others.
As we wrote in our previous article, “Pastor-“ books are few and far between, harder and harder to find in the fireworks and fanfare of the latest and greatest book on the “-ing” of pastoring.
But for those who long to be faithful undershepherds of the Great Good Shepherd, being the pastor to God’s people that He desires, we offer these ten books on the pastor’s soul.
And be sure to continue to the end and our bonus book. If you’ve read it or even known of it, please let me know. I’ve yet to meet a pastor who has read this obscure work written not to bless the pastor but to . . . . I’ll stop there. I don’t want to give away too much.
God bless you Pastor as you give focus to your soul and the ongoing transformation God is even now working in you. May these works, listed alphabetically, serve you well.
11. Preventing Ministry Failure by Michael Todd Wilson and Brad Hoffmann
Wilson and Hoffman examine the internal and external factors that test the limits of pastors’ ability to fulfill their calling, that of building strong for a lifetime of healthy and effective ministry. First, they look at the ministry today, noting the plague of ministry failure and the “God Complex” so pervasive in ministry. The authors then offer seven “Foundation Stones” upon which pastors can build – or rebuild – their lives and ministries: Intimacy, Calling, Stress Management, Boundaries, Re-creation, People Skills, and Leadership Skills. I often recommend The Holmes-Rahe Life Stress Inventory to those whom I coach, as well as to others. PMF is a personal and ongoing counseling session for the pastor as the authors present rich material and then give the reader the opportunity to reflect and respond to questions on each area. Another resource again and again.
12. Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders
Spiritual leadership illustrated in the lives of David, Moses, Nehemiah, Paul, and revered Christian leaders in history. SL woos readers onto the altar where we become living sacrifices, servants used for His glory. That journey involves a thorough self-examination of character, motivations, and godliness – the heart of the pastor. Every chapter is an unveiling of another component of growing our spirit and our spiritual leadership strong in Jesus Christ. My brother-in-law gave this to me in the early days of my ministry, and I’m so thankful he did. Its wisdom – and passion – continue to speak to me today. I’ve had young pastors tell me they don’t read books written by authors now dead. They tell me these others have nothing to say to them. What a price they pay. What a shame it is they miss a life-changing treasure like this.
13. Stand in the Gap by David Bryant
One mission brought Jesus to the earth the first time. One mission restrains Him from coming to earth the second time: His heart for the Great Commission. If we are undershepherds of Jesus – if we are pastors who have His heart – we will have His heart for the world. Here’s a journey into that heart. Personally, this book changed my life and ministry. I have worn out three copies. Are you ready for a changed life and ministry? Jesus stands ready to give you His heart and heartbeat. Without them, we cannot call ourselves His undershepherds. With them, we are pastors of cities, nations, and the world. Note: I read the first edition, “In the Gap.”
14. Survive or Thrive by Jimmy Dodd
In the first half of his book, Jimmy Dodd addresses the #1 killer of ministers and ministries: isolation, charging pastors the crime of willfully walking alone, the sentence of paying the price for it. The author does a deep dive on the consequences of this atomized lifestyle in ministry, one in which we work with others but walk with none in meaningful relationships. Even with all their smiles and charisma, there are a lot of lonely pastors out there. Dodd’s look at the Maturity Gap is especially enlightening as he describes our tendency to depend more on our giftedness than on spiritual maturity. His juxtaposition of backstage and front stage is a spotlight on the pastoral soul – we may be fooling our churches, but we’re not fooling God. Hopefully, we’re not fooling ourselves. To help us honestly assess our Maturity Gap and Front Stage – Back Stage response, Dodd offers six essential relationships every pastor needs. Survive or Thrive is the third book in the “pastoral trilogy” I most often recommend.
15. The Art of Pastoring by David Hansen
My first rule of Hermeneutics and Homiletics is “Never pay full price.” I have lived by this axiom for more than four decades as a pastor, shopping the clearance sections of bookstores with heart-thumping anticipation. It was on one such excursion into book heaven that I found this treasure by David Hansen. It had scuffs on the cover, so the price had been significantly reduced. I added it to my armload and brought it home, where it went on my “To Read Next” stack (I’m sure you have your own stack). A week or so later, I opened it and was immediately captivated by Hansen’s open and honest narrative on his lifetime in ministry. As he tells his story, he unashamedly offers up the questions and doubts he knew in the early days of pastoring, along with the answers and faith-builders he found along his journey. In this way, he sets up a beautiful blending of story and observations on the pastoral heart. Pastoral ministry wasn’t just an activity for Hansen, but a daily opportunity to learn and grow. We are privileged to read his journal. Time and time again, I found myself not only nodding and making notations but remembering similar experiences from my own life. Call this a narrative pastoral theology with notations. I’m on my second copy.
16. The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor’s Heart by Harold L. Senkbeil
The subtitle says it all: cultivating a pastor’s heart. This book is a personal pastoral retreat, with every chapter a handling and examination of the fibers of the pastoral heart. Learning and living the wisdom of this deep water treasure (deep calls to deep) will not grow your church attendance this week or this month. But it will grow your pastor’s heart, and this, in turn, will see Christ grow in the hearts of your people. The church will have a pastor, not just a preacher or CEO. And the church will experience the life Jesus intends for it. As you read The Care of Souls, your own soul will feel the care of the Great Good Shepherd. It will renew and reform Christ’s call in you, that call you first answered when you said yes to Him, and a life in pastoral ministry. The ministry of not just pastoring but being a pastor will breathe again in your heart. Your soul is looking for this book, Pastor. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
17. The Conviction to Lead by Albert Mohler
Everyone’s talking about culture. In the business world, politics, and church, everyone’s talking culture and “changing the culture.” But too often, we approach this subject with tools that cannot bring about that change. Culture is not imposed but grown. It is not enacted by programs but embodied by people in general, leaders in particular. It is not decreed by external forces but developed by internal character: as leaders live lives of conviction, those convictions are bred in others, and culture develops. Unfortunately, this is a lesson learned too late by many pastors. Dr. Mohler blends his own story of assuming the presidency of Southern Seminary at just 33 years of age and facing a battle of epic proportions to see a great seminary not just saved but a new coeur and culture develop. The chapter titles give just a hint about the truth on fire contained in this book. Here are a handful: The Conviction to Lead, Leadership is Narrative, Leaders are Thinkers, Leadership is All About Character, Leadership, and Credibility, Leaders are Readers, Leadership as Stewardship, The Moral Virtues of Leadership, and The Leader’s Legacy. Keep this one close; you’ll be taking it off the shelf from time to time to reread a chapter.
18. The Cross and Christian Ministry by D.A. Carson
Much of the church has been at work subtly, or not so subtly, removing the Cross from its architecture, music, teaching, and conversation. One-half of the message that obsessed the New Testament church (the second half being the resurrection of Jesus) has seemingly been archived by the 21st-century church, a relic of our past to be filed between mosaic floors and commandments. The same can be said of pastoral ministry and pastor’s hearts: the Cross life is in great danger of becoming a relic of our past, one without powerful and present meaning in our lives today. Fewer and fewer of us understand, let alone live, in the full power of the doctrine of the Cross that Paul describes with blood, sweat, and tears in his writings. Dr. Carson takes the reader through I Corinthians in presenting once again the centrality of the Cross to our lives and ministries as pastors. Put the Cross of Jesus back in the place given it in the New Testament, Carson writes, and experience its power in your life and ministry as a pastor. Pastor, when the crucifixion of Jesus is at the center of our hearts, resurrection life and power will fill our lives and follow our ministries.
19. The Pastor: A Memoir by Eugene Peterson
The author peels away the thin veneer of 21st-century pastoring to identify the timeless heartbeats of what it is to be a pastor. There is no fascination in these pages with mega-marketing-consumer-Christianity pastoring. Instead, this is a deep dive into the heart of the Great Good Shepherd, focusing on what pastoring is all about: relationship – with God and people. Someone focused on these is a pastor. Someone focused elsewhere is a hireling. The book blends story and insight seamlessly, a joy to read and reflect over. Reading it, I probably spent as much time reflecting on the writing as I did reading it. This is a book that leads to prayer, always a good thing for a pastor.
20. Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity by Eugene Peterson
Peterson raises the alarm: pastors are a vanishing breed in America. Not because of forces aligned against them but because of their own choices: they’re living not as pastors but as shopkeepers, peddling pablum to consumers when they could be feeding them the bread of life, procuring crowds when they could be making disciples of Jesus. Instead, Peterson calls pastors back to the life God intended for us in offering three spiritual actions that feed, define, and sustain every part of pastoral life. When these three heartbeats are consistent and strong in a pastor, life will follow, and life will be reproduced in others. These heartbeats are prayer, Scripture, and giving spiritual direction to people. This, the author writes, is the life to which Jesus has called and commanded his undershepherds. It is to this life that pastors must return if the church is to be filled with the life of God, and believers are to once again be not just church attenders or “believers,” but New Testament followers of Jesus.
BONUS BOOK
Featuring a title that’s sure to capture your attention.
The Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold Frederic
This book was required reading in a college literature class I took (Yes, it was a secular college). The professor, an atheist activist, saw the book as a weapon to wield in defaming Jesus, His church, and pastors. In teaching the book, he took great delight in mocking all three. I lost a grade respectfully debating this proponent of free thinking, but I gained confidence in standing alone for Christ. The plot of the book follows the career of a newly ordained pastor who goes to his first pastorate, bright-eyed, sincere, and naive. There he meets science, society, and sophistication. He finds His faith completely at a loss in offering an adequate response to their seeming unquestionable authority. His story ends in his own “enlightenment,” what Frederic would call a new birth from the darkness of religion into the light of reason and reality. I remember reading the book as a college senior and finding my faith and call in no way undercut or overwhelmed. Instead, the story of Theron Ware only served as a warning to keep my feet and faith solidly set in reality where God is Creator and Redeemer – it is He and not earth’s pretenders who has set the universe in space; it is He who is their, and my, Lord and Judge. Over the years, Theron Ware has been a friend to me, reminding me to fear God and walk humbly before Him in life and ministry.
FINAL WORD
By no means is this shelf of twenty books exhaustive: there are many more great works that will serve you well as you seek to grow as a faithful undershepherd. As we give ourselves to the hands of the Great Good Shepherd, He will be faithful to form and transform us for His glory, the good of His church, and the salvation of those yet far from Him.
When He returns, may He find us faithful, ever laboring most diligently on our first ministry: our ministry before the Audience of One where, as we worship, study, contemplate, confess, repent, and commit, He ministers to our souls, enabling us to be shepherds of His people.
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