Review: Pastors at Greater Risk

Pastors at Greater Risk by H.B. London Jr.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The book is written in an engaging, authentic manner. London and Wiseman display their immense experience and also tap on the insight of leaders from other like-minded organisations that care for pastors (through Q&A/interview sessions at the end of most chapters) to lay out the unique challenges of being a pastor. I'd imagine that their wise (preemptive) recommendations and (reactionary) interventions would be thoroughly insightful to practising ministers. Indeed it’s much better to learn from the mistakes of others rather than making them yourself. Its best use perhaps is as a reality check to pastors - STOP running yourself dry and take the necessary measures to not crash and burn!

I appreciated how in including letters from pastors and their family members to illustrate specific topics, London and Wiseman do not sugarcoat the crushing toll of pastoral ministry and opt to publish it in its raw form. Also great was the highlighting of key principles by featuring them as block quotations, which broke up the monotony of walls of text. If I could feature a paradigm-shifting principle I learnt from this book, it would be the advice to avoid having monday as an off day - read Chapter 7 for the full scoop!

Even at 300 plus pages, it did not feel that long because the content was accessible and topics discussed were highly relevant. What keeps this book from being rated a full five stars would be the tone of the book - I felt the full weight of the gloom and doom that would befall the lives and families of the pastors. My impression was that it would be better to avoid ministry rather than to have to struggle unsuccessfully against the insurmountable odds placed on a pastor; I felt rather depressed and helpless when I saw how much I had to do in my own strength to not destroy my family and my ministry. My guess is that the authors' target audience would be Arminian-leaning pastors and so the slant of works (pursuit of holiness; not overworking etc) and practical step-by-step applications would resonate deeply with them.

How is a pastor ever going to survive? I'd rather have wished for London and Wiseman to remind us of the supernatural life-changing power and the blessed everlasting hope of the Gospel. Practical advice is great, but we ministers need to be captured and consumed before imparting a love of Christ to their families and flock.

Nevertheless, because this title is so exhaustive in its sweep and extremely helpful in its depth of suggested interventions, it would still be an invaluable resource in any pastor's library (even for the slightly reformed ones like myself). Just be sure to read Edmund Clowney's inspiring Called to Ministry alongside this to catch a glimpse of Clowney’s enrapturing love for his Saviour and great awe and joy of being in his service.

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