Preventing Ministry Failure

Great ministers don't just happen. Great falls from ministry don't just happen either. A complex mix of factors both internal and external test the limits of your ability to minister wholeheartedly over the long haul. Senior pastor Brad Hoffmann and licensed professional counselor Michael Todd Wilson work with pastors removed from their place of service. The common experiences of these pastors revealed patterns that consistently contributed to burnout, ineffectiveness and moral failure. If such patterns can be predicted, the authors reasoned, can they be prevented?Preventing Ministry Failure is a personal guidebook for pastors and other caregivers to prepare them to withstand common pressures and to flourish in the ministry God has called them to. Work through the exercises and reflections individually or in conversation with your peers, and you'll find yourself better equipped for the challenges of vocational ministry, and more conscious of the presence of God leading you on and restoring your soul.

Preventing Ministry Failure combines an updated version of James Guthrie’s A Humble Acknowledgement of the Sins of the Ministry with extracts from James Durham’s Commentary on Revelation in order to emphasize the necessity of pastoral holiness and the encouragement Christ provides to serve Him well. The result is a guide for pastors to openly discuss their common failings that also holds out hope for putting things right. Beyond updating the language, the editors add Bible verses to assist in meditation as well as questions to stimulate reflection and discussion. Here is abundant yet succinct material to promote personal conviction and examination, as well as help, encouragement, and counsel for ministers to shine amid the prevailing darkness.

What does it take to have fruitful ministry over the long haul? The stresses of pastoring are well known and can be a match for even the best-prepared, most experienced in ministry--multiple tasks, long hours, taxing responsibilities and, yes, some challenging personalities. Too often the results can be burnout, being run out or just feeling worn out. To find out how pastors can thrive as well as survive, the authors undertook a five-year in-depth research project among working pastors. Here in this ground-breaking book is the distilled wisdom of dozens of pastors who have been on the front lines of ministry. We hear from them what works, what doesn't and what distinctive issues people in ministry face. The authors uncover five key themes that promote healthy, sustainable ministry that lasts--spiritual formation, self-care, emotional and cultural intelligence, marriage and family, leadership and management. These themes are unpacked from the vantage point of ministry on the ground. Questions for personal evaluation and reflection are included throughout the book to bring home the significance of each section. This is the perfect companion for a peer cohort of pastors to read together. It can also be of value to church boards and others who want to better understand how to help sustain their pastors in ministry. In short, this is a book pastors can't live without.

There's a ticking time bomb in your ministry. Is it you? With vivid pictures of both self-destructive patterns and reconstructive grace, counselor Michael MacKenzie helps pastors avert moral failures and repair shipwrecked ministries. Addressing issues like shame, burnout, sexual misconduct, and more, this resource will help you become both the pastor and the person God intends you to be.

Every three hours a pastor quits. For every pastor or ministry leader who struggles publicly, multitudes struggle privately.- 57% of pastors say they would leave the ministry if they could. - 71% of pastors say they are burned out, and battle depression. - 75% of pastors feel they are unqualified and poorly trained to lead.Restored is a call to Revolution in the ministry community. If you are living on the edge, Restored gives you the tools to avoid burnout and disaster. If you have suffered a failure, Restored prescribes the route to healing and Restoration. Jeff Wolf has spent his life leading people, both in the public sector as a police sergeant and in the church as a pastor and denominational leader. His transparency will make you feel as if you are joining him on his own personal journey. Jeff has courageously revealed his scars to give you a window into the leadership struggle that, if unchecked, can endanger your destiny. No one is immune, yet no one is without hope. You can be Restored.

Best Books About the Church from Byron Borger, Hearts and Minds Bookstore "I thought God had called me to plant this church. Why did we have to shut our doors after only three years?" "I was at my breaking point. Then I got the news that our nine-year-old daughter had leukemia. I would have quit ministry forever, but I had no other employable skills." "False accusations were made against me and my family, wrecking our reputation permanently and forcing us to leave not only the church, but move out of the area." "I've served my church for the past 27 years and I've grown that church from 150 to 24 people." What do we do when we've failed? Some ministries are shipwrecked by moral failures like affairs or embezzlement. But for most of us, the sense of failure is more ordinary: disillusionment, inadequacy, declining budgets, poor decisions, opposition, depression, burnout. Many pastors are deeply broken and wounded, and we come to doubt that God has any use for us. J.R. Briggs, founder of the Epic Fail Pastors Conference, knows what failure feels like. He has listened to pastors who were busted in a prostitution sting or found themselves homeless when ejected from ministry. With candid vulnerability, Briggs explores the landscape of failure, how it devastates us and how it transforms us. Without offering pat answers or quick fixes, he challenges our cultural expectations of success and gives us permission to grieve our losses. Somehow, in the midst of our pain, we are better positioned to receive the grace of healing and restoration.

On Guard offers churches eight strategies for preventing child abuse and three for responding to it, helping to move church staff and leaders beyond fearful awareness to prayerful preparedness.

James P. Osterhaus offers pastors tangible and much-needed advice to help them at work and in their personal lives—advice that they do not often hear in seminary. More and more, men and women who minister find themselves depressed. Their marriages are often in trouble. Their families are negatively affected. Often, they have few if any close friends. Over the years, Osterhaus has coached and counseled hundreds of these ministers from various traditions on four continents. As he sat with ministers who have been nearly crushed by the burdens of ministry, he came to learn that the average training of ministers across the globe is woefully deficient in the very areas that allow ministers to avoid many of the pitfalls. This guide is a result of those countless conversations. Avoiding Pastoral Pitfalls is an attempt to fill some of the void left in the training of pastors. It offers down-to-earth, practical guidance in areas of ministry that are often neglected: understanding yourself (both strengths and weaknesses), what effective leadership looks like, the complicated organizational makeup of the church, how to deal with conflict effectively, how to make sense of your governing board, and how to both enter a new ministry and leave a ministry effectively.