MEA CULPA
Learning From Mistakes in the Ministry
By Kyle McClellan
Christian Focus. 116 pages. £5.83
ISBN 978 1 781 915 295
Reading this book is like watching a recording of a car crash in slow motion. It’s written by the man who crashed the car, and he’s writing it so that you might not make the same mistakes.
It’s a short book, easy to read, with seven lessons that Kyle McClellan learned from four pastorates that lasted a total of just ten years. He is brutally honest about the many ways he failed, and the many things he would now do differently in those early years of ministry.
Where he went wrong
Because he has allowed God to teach him through his mistakes, he writes with the maturity of a godly pastor who recognises where he (and sometimes where the churches he served) went wrong. His advice is helpful for young pastors wanting to avoid similar mistakes, and also for churches wondering what they are looking for in a potential pastor.
At times it was difficult to keep track of where one failed ministry ended and a n o t h e r began. Many of his illustrations related to American sports, so I was well aware I was reading a book from a different cultural context. Some of his insights are more thought through and better expressed in books such as Paul Tripp’s Dangerous Calling or Jared Wilson’s The Pastor’s Justification.
However, it was helpful to hear some of those truths again. And this book is worth reading for Chapter 2 alone, in which I found fresh insights exhorting pastors to love not just the gospel and the people, but to avoid what he calls a ‘gnostic bent’ and to love and understand the place where God has called them to minister. Worth a read.
