15 THINGS SEMINARY COULDN’T TEACH ME
Edited by Colin Hansen and Jeff Robinson
Crossway. 155 pages, £13.82
ISBN 978 1 433 558 146
Learning the Highway Code is one thing, driving a car is quite another. And, just so, training for the ministry is one thing, but there is a huge gulf between that and actually pastoring a church. Many fail to get across.
This is a book for those new in ministry, from The Gospel Coalition stable, which tries to bridge the gulf.
Practical challenges
Fifteen different pastors have each written a chapter covering a practical aspect of serving in a pastorate – things seminary can’t teach you. The topics range from the fact that Bible knowledge will not make up for lack of love; what to do when a church is dying; how to be a good man for your wife and children when you are in ministry; through to handling conflict in the church, the temptation to try to make a name for yourself, and much more. The men who write seem to be from a variety of churches, large and small, some are old hands, some young. There are a lot of heart challenges here. One man who could not get a church to hire him explains how that feels and what the Lord was teaching him through it.
Of course, the book is something of a self-contradiction. It is a book trying to teach pastors something they can’t learn from books! So the man in the pulpit mustn’t think it is going to fix all his problems. It is always a matter of the heart. Also it speaks from and into a US context, which is somewhat different from the evangelical church culture in this country. However, given those caveats, it does a pretty good job. Especially if you have a new young pastor, fresh out of seminary; this might prove a welcome gift to him and his wife. But make sure you pray for them too.
