Gary Fenton, Your Ministry’s Next Chapter: Restoring the Passion of the Mid-Career Pastor. Baker Books, 2005. Referenced in: Minister Self-Care LifeandLeadership.com Summary Not every minister experiences a crisis in mid-life, but most do become more reflective. Fenton offers very helpful perspective on issues of the mid-career pastor. Some mid-life pastors succumb to the insidious tendency
William Bridges, Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes. Second edition, expanded and updated. De Capo Press, 2004. Referenced in: Minister Self-Care LifeandLeadership.com Summary Bridges writes this long-time best seller out of his own experience in the 1970s where he left an enviable career as a respected professor and entered a period of great uncertainty about
Bruce G. Epperly and Katherine Gould Epperly, Four Seasons of Ministry: Gathering a Harvest of Righteousness. Alban Institute, 2008. Referenced in: Minister Self-Care LifeandLeadership.com Summary The authors offer great insight into how ministers may realize their greatest contribution in each phase of their lives. They express these phases as four seasons of ministry: Springtime –
Judith A. Schwarz, Blessed Connections: Relationships that Sustain Vital Ministry. Alban Institute, 2008. Referenced in: Ministry Burnout, Preventing and Overcoming LifeandLeadership.Com Summary Schwarz believes the startling statistics about ministry burnout and failure point to a breakdown in primary relationships with self, God, and others. The first three chapters discuss the development of an authentic self,
Gary R. Collins, Editor, and Louis M. McBurney, M.D., Author, Counseling Christian Workers: A How-To Approach. Resources for Christian Counselors, Volume 2. Thomas Nelson, 1994. Referenced in: Ministry Support Systems LifeandLeadership.Com Summary Part I of this resource covers the same issues as McBurney’s older volume, Every Pastor Needs a Pastor. Parts II and III are
Gary D. Kinnaman and Alfred H. Ells, Leaders That Last: How Covenant Friendships Can Help Pastors Thrive. Baker Books, 2003. Referenced in: Ministry Support Systems LifeandLeadership.com Summary Ministers usually have scores if not hundreds of acquaintances, but often lack even one real friend. Members of their churches often regard themselves as the minister’s friend, but
Gary L. Harbaugh, Rebecca Breneis and Rodney R. Hutton, Covenants and Care: Boundaries in Life, Faith, and Ministry. Augsburg Fortress, 1998. Referenced in: Ministry Support Systems LifeandLeadership.Com Summary The scope of this work is broader than covenant support groups for ministry self-care, addressing how such covenants help one enliven their service to family, congregation, and
Daniel Overdorf, Ministering to Your Minister. HeartSpring / College Press Publishing, 2008. Referenced in: Ministry Support Systems LifeandLeadership.com Summary This volume, written Johnson University Professor, Dr. Daniel Overdorf, provides a very practical guide for congregations who love their ministers and want to do everything they can to “share in all good things” with them. He
Roy M. Oswald, How to Build a Support System for Your Ministry. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2005. Referenced in: Ministry Support Systems LifeandLeadership.Com Summary Oswald is a Senior Consultant with Alban Institute. He equips ministers who want support systems but do not know where to start. He says ministers must seek this support intentionally, recruit
Gary R. McIntosh and Robert L. Edmonson, M.D., It Only Hurts on Monday: Why Pastors Quit and What You Can Do About It. ChurchSmart Resources, 1998. Referenced in: Ministry Support Systems Ministry Burnout, Preventing and Overcoming LifeandLeadership.com Summary McIntosh provides churches with helpful insight and workable solutions for pastoral burnout. Each chapter ends with a
