THE UNWAVERING PASTOR:
Leading the Church with Grace in Divisive
Times
By Jonathan K. Dodson
Good Book Company. 149 pages. £9.99
ISBN 978 1 784 987 657
When I picked up The Unwavering Pastor I have to say my heart sank! Another ‘The Insert-Adjective-Here Pastor’ book! I’m so glad I did though.
What the book contains is helpful, heartfelt, honest advice about leading a church when things are tough and people are unkind. The author takes us through 2 Timothy through the lens of Paul giving Timothy advice in the midst of hard times.
The scenarios he describes are contemporary (many dealing with the corona virus epidemic and recent political divisions, though from an American context). I couldn’t help feeling that the author’s experiences of ministry must be very similar to mine.
Dodson offers real-life, practical advice for dealing with difficulties (and difficult people!) in a godly, compassionate way: how to pray, how to deal with criticism, how to challenge, how to keep going, but never in a way that seems condescending or that he has all the answers. He says in his introduction that he is offering ‘a sympathetic ear from a fellow struggling pastor’ and it certainly comes across that way. He also makes the point that he is not claiming to be ‘the unwavering pastor’, but describing one from the pages of 2 Timothy.
The end of each chapter has a helpful summar y, and each chapter can be read on its own, so that you can ‘dip in’ as needed. I would recommend it for those who are finding pastoral ministry hard (let’s face it, that’s most pastors!) and/ or those whose churches are going through, or have recently been through, a period of turmoil, difficulty or division (which again, let’s face it, is most of us). What you will find is food from the word mixed with good advice from a fellow-struggler.
