Every Minister Needs a Lover by Paul and Sybil Eppinger, Baker, $8.95
She was beautiful, alluring, and seductive. She excited him, tempted him, teased his fantasies, and threatened his marriage.
She was the church. He was Paul Eppinger, a pastor in Phoenix.
The other she in Paul’s life is his wife, Sybil, a marriage and family counselor. Together they’ve written a book to help pastors and their spouses renew and enrich their relationship in the midst of ministry, the very thing that threatens to undermine so many marriages.
In thirty brief chapters, designed so couples can read and reflect daily in the book for a month, the Eppingers reveal how their own marriage nearly ended because of ministry and how they rebuilt it. They show how they now deal with, among other things, sex and children and especially ministry.
What Can We Do About Church Dropouts? by C. Kirk Hadaway, Abingdon, $10.95
There are demographics on “unchurched Harry” telling us who he is and how we can get him in the church door. But what about “dropout Dave,” former church member? What’s he like? How do we get him back in church?
Kirk Hadaway, church growth specialist for the Southern Baptist Convention, has some answers. He shows why some dropouts have drifted away, others have fled, and others still have been pushed out. He describes some as “estranged mental members,” others “young libertarians,” others still “irreligious traditionalists.” And there are more.
In short, Hadaway shows churches who their dropouts are and how to get them to drop back in.
The Board Member’s Guide to Fund Raising by Fisher Howe, Jossey Bass, $22.95
Board members from the local art gallery, the United Fund, and First Baptist Church have at least one dislike in common: raising funds for their organizations. If they read this little book and apply its wise precepts, that just might change.
Fisher Howe, a consultant with Lavender/Howe & Associates in Washington, D.C., not only compellingly explains a board’s responsibility for fund raising but also provides helpful do’s and don’ts, from evaluating direct mail appeals to how to solicit donations from “big givers” (e.g., “Talk opportunities, not needs,” and “Begin, be brief, be off”).
Although Howe writes to board members in nonchurch nonprofits, church board members will benefit by listening in.
Reaching Kids Before High School: A Guide to Junior High Ministry by David R. Veerman, Victor $12.95
They are not adorable little kids. But they are not yet people you can reason with, like high schoolers. They are junior highers, the misfits of adolescence, and in the midst of their struggles with self-esteem, discovery of sexuality, and explorations of faith, they need the church’s help.
In his book, Dave Veerman, vice-president of Livingstone Corporation, discusses everything from laying a ministry foundation (primarily on the needs and characteristics of junior highers) to relating to parents. He shows how to teach the Bible and how to use discipline wisely.
Veerman doesn’t spend a lot of time trying to help us understand junior highers. (Perhaps he knows that they remain one of the eight wonders of the universe.) Instead, he spends the bulk of his words on teaching us how to reach them. They are words well spent.
A Celebration of Ministry: A Renewed Vision for Joy and Success in the Pastorate by Joseph Seaborn, Jr., Baker, $8.95
Author: Professor of religion, Indiana Wesleyan University, and pastor at College Wesleyan Church, Marion, Indiana.
Main help: Seaborn examines realistically the discouragements of ministry (from complaining parishioners to the seeming absence of God) and then shows how to celebrate ministry in the midst of preaching, worship, congregational activities.
One practical take away: Think of ministry as an Exodus journey: “An accurate map of the Exodus, if Moses could draw it, would look more like an explosion than a direction. … So your people sometimes stray from your infallible plan. So they get a little bit lost on purpose. That’s no reason to crumple your vision and toss it aside. What if Moses had done that? What if he had canceled Canaan the first or even second time one of the tribes defied his goal?”
Key quote: “There’s too much worth applauding in our churches to let negative issues call all the shots. Every hardworking pastor has the right to celebrate. He has a right to turn his eyes to what is going right and, if necessary, mention it occasionally to the Chicken Littles who are sure that the sky above the church is falling. The pastor with a balanced view always sees the good beyond the blatant bad. That’s what leaders ought to do.”
Copyright © 1991 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
