Review: Portraits of a Pastor: The 9 Essential Roles of a Church Leader

Portraits of a Pastor: The 9 Essential Roles of a Church Leader by Jason K. Allen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I realised that these compilation/collaborative essay type of type of theological titles tend to be of very high quality. Because, perhaps for the purposes of brevity, each contribution is essentially a summary that brings out the cream of the subject matter. Often a single author, when given about 200 pages, tend to not be as succinct as when they are given only tens of pages to convey that same message.

While not all volumes were as well written or engaging as the others (possibly because the topic assigned was not their subject specialisation or interest), they were the minority amongst many very well-written essays. As a whole, the essays laid out what is demanded and how daunting the role of the pastor is. And yet strangely at the end of my read, I was encouraged and heartened not because I knew I was able to meet every single criterion, but because I was in awe of the beauty and wonder of how a godly pastor would be like. Furthermore, the propositions and substantive matter were grounded in Scripture (in contrast to airy-fairy opinions) and peppered with illustrations aplenty. Significantly for me also, I'd imagine that other readers who are unsure of their call, would be more clear if they were called to pastoral ministry or not, once having read the job description of a church leader.

I received this book from Moody Publishers for the purposes of providing an unbiased review. All views are my own.

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