The Imperfect Pastor: Discovering Joy in Our Limitations through a Daily Apprenticeship with Jesus
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
Dear Pastor,
Desire burns within you. You’ve trained and dreamt of doing large things in famous ways as fast as you can for God’s glory. But pastoral work keeps requiring your surrender to small, mostly overlooked things over long periods of time.
You stand at a crossroads. Jesus stands with you. You were never meant to know everything, fix everything, and be everywhere at once. That’s his job, not yours.
So what now? Let the apprenticeship begin.
This is a Logos Reader Edition. Learn more.
- Examines issues of identity and esteem in pastoral ministry
- Explores common challenges of ministry
- Part 1: The Calling We Pursue
- Part 2: The Temptations We Face
- Part 3: Reshaping Our Inner Life
- Part 4: Reshaping the Work We Do
Top Highlights
“You were never meant to repent because you can’t fix everything. You are meant to repent because you’ve tried. Even if we could be god for people and fix it all, the fact remains that Jesus often does not have the kind of fixing in mind that you and I want.” (source)
“Death, grief, loss, recovery from addiction, as well as emotional or physical trauma, parenting special-needs kids, adjusting to chronic illness, depression, disability, or disease—all of these desolations are handled poorly when ‘efficiency’ and ‘quantitative measures’ are required of them. To the important pastor doing large and famous things speedily, the brokenness of people actually feels like an intrusion keeping us from getting our important work for God done.” (source)
“Do you remember what it was like before you desired vocational ministry? You had no training. You were unknown in the world. Jesus was lovely to you. He had saved you. He had communicated his love to you. He was all treasure, true, pleasurable, satisfying, and altogether beautiful. He was your portion. He was your desire. It was this ravishing provision of Jesus that roused your affections to serve him in the first place with your life in vocational ministry.” (source)
“Attaching Jesus’s name to these desires doesn’t change the fact that they look just like the cravings of the world.” (source)
“At minimum we must begin to take a stand on this one important fact: obscurity and greatness are not opposites.” (source)
The Imperfect Pastor might be the most helpful and profound book I’ve read in years. If you’re in pastoral ministry, grab a copy.
—Matt Chandler, Lead Pastor, The Village Church, Dallas, Texas; President, Acts 29 Church Planting Network; author, The Mingling of Souls and The Explicit Gospel
It’s hard to imagine a book packed with more grace and insight into the extraordinary life of the ordinary pastor. So I’ll quit trying and just read Zack Eswine’s The Imperfect Pastor again. No one today shows more insight into the perils and joys of everyday ministry in the local church—a refreshingly honest and beautifully written meditation.
—Mark Galli, Former Editor in Chief, Christianity Today