Re:views- Pastoring the Pastor
by Scott Hamilton on Wednesday, 30th January 2013
Be honest, if you hear about a pastor reading a book called Pastoring the Pastor you probably wonder why. It perhaps conjures up images of the pastor in question making up a mental score chart to see how his church is performing in caring for him. In all honesty this book will disappoint you if you are approaching it with a list of hows and whats as regards putting together a typical care package for your pastor. However, it will be of significant benefit in other ways, Tim Cooper and Kelvin Gardiner have done a great job.
The book is written as an ongoing email correspondence between a fresh start young first-time pastor and his, more seasoned as a pastor, uncle. I enjoyed the creative approach to this and it made it a fairly undemanding read while also affording some quality lightbulb moments. It allowed a failry seamless transition between a number of pastoral hotspot scenarios and was effective at identifying that much of the challenges that pastors face are actually more to do with their heart than with the church they are called to serve. It provided a fairly realistic picture of the rollercoaster ministry can often feel like, charting the highs and lows of the younger pastor with the sense that the authors had more than passing personal experience of the task at hand either personally or through the kind of personal correspondence that the book is built upon.
Contrary to the book being a good book to give to those who you think could look after you better it will serve a different and better purpose. If you are a pastor it will be of significant benefit to read as a reminder to yourself of what you are called to as a pastor. If you are an elder it will encourage you to say helpful and Biblical things to the pastor you serve alongside as well as giving you some insight as to what might be going on in his head and in his heart. If you are involved in mentoring church leaders, part of any regular gathering of pastors or if you have regular contact with a younger pastor and are trying to figure out how best to serve him as he figures things out this book will serve you. It really is a quick and helpful read.
You can buy it from (follow the link):
Amazon
Amazon Kindle
ICM Books