LIFE AND WORK OF THE PASTOR

PASTORAL MINISTRY 7336

Book Review on Resilient Ministry

In Resilient Ministry Bob Burns, Tasha D. Chapman, and Donald C. Guthrie offer the results

of their research on how to survive and thrive in pastoral ministry. Their findings come from

their research and from a program called the Pastors Summit. In it, they selected a number of

pastors who have shown fruitfulness in their ministries. The pastors and their spouses got

together three times a year for six years in small cohorts to share their experiences and to deeply

explore the waters of ministry. Burns, Chapman, and Guthrie, analyzed the data that came from

the Pastors Summit and organized their discoveries around five primary themes. Throughout the

book they explore these five themes: spiritual formation, self-care, emotional and cultural

intelligence, marriage and family, leadership and management. While the themes may be

presented individually, truth is that they function as a whole, which means that they are

interrelated and a resilient ministry is one that considers them all.

One of the highlights of this book is that it contains the comments and quotes of the pastors

during the summit. We can listen to their voices sharing their experiences and their struggles.

Those in ministry will be blessed to know that they are not alone in their worries, concerns, and

struggles. It is really encouraging to know that pastors who have a fruitful ministry have gone

through difficult times and are as human as anyone else. This is a book that explores the daily

life of ministers as they navigate not only their pastorate but life in general. It helps us to realize

that pastoral ministry is not an otherworldly profession, but one in which we face many

challenges that are not necessarily related to theology or hermeneutics, such as time

management, marriage conflicts, family responsibilities, physical health, and stress among
others. At the same time, however, this book focuses on the particular challenges that pastors

face because of the specific nature of their profession. It is particularly helpful in a time that the

pressures of life and the changes in our society have made ministry harder than it was decades

ago. Statistics show that more than ever pastors are quitting ministry. Thus, this book serves as a

guide that, if well applied, could prevent pastors from burning out and, instead, have a thriving

ministry. Furthermore, church staffs and members in general would highly benefit from its

reading. As a future pastor, I am sure I would be coming back many times to this book during

my ministry and I would recommend it to my fellow pastors.

Before talking about the specific content of the book in its chapters, there are four important

contributions to be mentioned that appear practically in all of the chapters. These contributions

are at the foundation of a resilient ministry. First, throughout the book, it becomes clear that one

of the main issues pastors face is the pressures of ministry and the lack of time to do other

essential activities. As one pastor said, it is about the “tyranny of the urgent.” In sum, pastors

often struggle with workaholism. Perhaps, one of the biggest contributions of Resilient Ministry

is a challenge to the reader pastor to rethink how they are using their time and a call to rearrange

their schedule in a way that it matches their list of priorities. Second, and along the same lines,

another important contribution of the book is its emphasis on reflection. Personally, I almost

never take the time to pause and reflect. I do reflect but not on a particular time. I reflect when I

am taking a shower or when I am driving. Nevertheless, reflection is so important that every

minister should take a moment in their schedule specifically to reflect about life, work, projects,

family, spiritual life, and practically everything.

Third, another insightful contribution of the book is the importance they give to relationships

of openness and accountability. They strongly point to the fact that we all need people of
confidence with whom we can talk openly about all the struggles of ministry, family, marriage

and life. For pastors it is particularly hard to find those persons because of the nature of their

position. They are seen as the spiritually mature leaders of the congregation and cannot share

everything with their staff and church members. That does not mean pastors cannot find friends

and nurturing relationships in their churches, but it means it is difficult to find confidants.

Church members and staff can be their allies and friends, but hardly would they be the person

with whom pastors think in loud voice. Usually pastors share their struggles with their spouses,

but then their spouses do not have anyone to rely on. And when there are marital issues too often

both the pastor and the spouse find themselves with no one to talk about it. Therefore, pastors

need to intentionally look for people with whom they can openly address any kind of issues and

know that they have complete confidentiality. These are confidants with whom there is no clash

of interests, and/or mentors who could offer advices and accountability. And fourth, the authors

mention in a number of chapters that hardships can be helpful for growth and maturity.

Hardships can be harmful when we deal with them in an unhealthy way, but when we give

ourselves the time to pray, reflect, and find wisdom in others, hardships are a fantastic way of

spiritual, emotional, and personal growth. Resilient Ministry scores four points with these

contributions. Finally, this is not a great contribution, but it is a plus that I truly enjoyed. At the

end of every section the authors offer recommendations for further reflections in books, movies,

and other resources. I have already watched some of the movies they recommended and it has

been not only fun but also insightful.

In the first two chapters, the authors explore the importance of spiritual formation. It is

usually assumed that pastors are mature spiritually; however, pastors are not spiritual super

heroes, they are normal people as any other Christian and they face the same challenges. For
pastors, this topic is particularly difficult to grasp. Unlike many other professions, a pastor never

takes off their “pastor hat.” And it is assumed that they are highly spiritual people. Therefore, it

is hard for pastors to recognize their spiritual struggles and to address them. But pastors, just as

anyone else, need help and accountability in their spiritual journey. Another specific difficulty

for pastors is that they often tend to think that their job is their spiritual formation. After all, they

read the Bible and pray as part of their job. But pastors need a specific time to foster spiritual

growth apart from their work responsibilities. One important insight is the emphasis on spiritual

disciplines. For pastors, prayer, bible devotional reading, worship, sabbath and other spiritual

practices must be part of their regular schedule in a way that is not one more of their job

responsibilities.

The next two chapters address the topic of self-care. Statistics show that many pastors

struggle with emotional and mental health. The advices the authors share are extremely helpful

and insightful. It would not be possible to address them all here, but a number of them are the

following. As it was mentioned before, reflection is a big one. It is important to pause regularly

and think about what we are doing. Another important insight is the search for an identity apart

from their job. Pastors, as anyone else, need to work on their self-awareness. Also, as it was

mentioned above, pastors need relationships of confidence and accountability. Moreover, pastors

need to keep learning and growing about the pastoral practice. And finally, physical health is

important for pastors as it is for any other human being.

In chapters seven and eight, the authors deal with emotional intelligence for pastors. Some of

the challenges that pastors face in this area are the following. The problem of people pleasing,

the problem of emotion-faking, the problem of lack of reflection, and the problem of conflict

avoidance. To develop emotional intelligence and deal with these problems, the authors suggest
practicing physical exercise, reflection, slowing down, journaling, emotion identification, and the

exploration of family genograms. The next two chapters are somehow related, and they deal with

cultural intelligence. From my perspective, emotional intelligence has to do particularly with our

own emotions whereas cultural intelligence has to do with understanding the emotions of others

and realizing that they do not always experience life in the same way I do. Thus, in these

chapters the authors encourage pastor to grow in their cultural awareness and cultural humility in

order to acknowledge, celebrate, and value the diversity in our communities. Every church is

diverse, even those where the congregation is mostly from one race. Cultural differences happen

from family to family, and even from person to person. Thus, pastors, as leaders of a community,

must be culturally intelligent.

The next two chapters are perhaps the most challenging, at least from my perspective. These

chapters are about family and marriage. There are numerous helpful insights. However, for the

sake of time and space, suffice it to say that the importance of family and, particularly, the

pastor’s spouse are highlighted. For pastors, their spouse and children must be a priority above

the congregation and their job. And their family must never be taken for granted.

It is really impressive how the authors manage to talk about so many topics in one single

book. From spiritual formation to leadership and management, from cultural intelligence to

family and marriage. Of course, there are many things that are left unsaid and others that are only

mentioned. But, in general terms, they accomplish a great job addressing so many issues and

offering great advices and challenges for pastors. However, what this reflects is the great

diversity of the pastoral ministry. Pastors deal with issues of many different natures in one single

job. In chapters thirteen and fourteen, the authors address this difficulty of the pastoral task in

practice, the issue of leadership and management. Some of their important insights are systems
thinking, reflection (not surprisingly), political intelligence, growing in relational capital and

trust.

This is a very helpful and insightful book. However, there is a number of questions or

critiques that I would raise. First, the book is too American. And this is not something for which

authors are to blamed. They are Americans and they are writing for American pastors. However,

sometimes their advices are only useful in an American context. As opposed to what it is usually

thought, the hurry of life and workaholism is not something unique in the United States.

Actually, I would said that it is worse in other contexts. For example, in the context that I know,

Latin America, the hurry of life is worse in various ways. People in Latin America work, in

average, above sixty hours a week and earn less than half of what Americans earn. And they

hardly take one week off per year. Thus, what in America is called “workaholism”, in Latin

America is not a matter of choice but a matter of survival. Moreover, in Latin America, not most,

but many pastors are bi-vocational. And that is an issue that the book Resilient Ministry does not

even address. Being bi-vocational changes drastically the rules of the game for pastors.

Furthermore, unlike the majority of the world, churches in America have the infrastructure and

the financial power to hire more than one person on staff. Even the smaller churches often have

at least two paid positions. In other contexts, many churches hardly have one paid position. For

all of that, some of the insight of the book are only helpful in an American context. Which is not

to say that the book is entirely useless in other contexts. Actually, I would say that there is more

in the book generally helpful than not. But it was important to point out the American-

centeredness of the authors.

Another question that I would raise is whether sometimes the authors are being too indulgent

with pastors. I think it is a strength of the book that they offer comfort and encouragement to
pastors. And it is also crucial that the authors make pastors reflect on how they manage their

time, warning about workaholism, and the importance of pausing and reflection. But I would

expect that the book would at least mention the danger on the other side of the spectrum. There is

also a danger of being too lazy and pausing for too long. The authors affirm that pastors usually

work harder than most people. I do not know exactly where they get the data. If they consider the

data from the pastors of the Pastor Summit only, then I would ask if they did not consider that

pastors in the summit are pastors with fruitful ministries precisely because they work hard.

Furthermore, I appreciate the fact that the authors made us reflect on the importance of

working on our identity not only as pastors but as Christians and as individual human beings. It

is true that there is a danger for pastors in building their identity from their role as ministers.

However, again, I think that it would be important to address the danger at the other side of the

spectrum. To be a pastor is indeed a call not only a profession. And I think it is a great danger to

see the pastoral ministry as a mundane profession because it is not, it is a holy task. At some

point, I felt that the authors were saying something like “being a pastor is only another

profession do not take too seriously.” Maybe I am wrong, but I do need to affirm that being a

pastor is to be called by God for a purpose. And, perhaps pushing back to the book a little bit, I

would ask whether burning-out in ministry has to do more with a lack of identification between

my self and my calling and less with too much identification. I truly believe that being a pastor is

a call from God that shapes our identity. The theme of calling is universally attested on Scripture.

And it is briefly, if at all, addressed in the book.

Finally, I sincerely would expect more of other pastoral responsibilities that I consider much

more important than the question of how many weeks of vacation a pastor takes a year.

Responsibilities such as preaching the word, teaching Scripture, proclaiming the gospel,
defending the truth, visiting the sick, caring for the needy, counseling the afflicted, and others. I

understand that one single book cannot address all the issues of pastoral ministry at a time. This

book addresses very important issues but, honestly, I still think that the essentials of the pastoral

ministry are, in general, left aside. I do not want to be misunderstood, this is an excellent book.

But, certainly, it is not a book that profoundly describes what, in essence, a pastor is and what a

pastor does.