Mistakes are inevitable, even for pastors. Even for excellent pastors. Wisdom and will can go awry, and ministry suffers.

The mistakes can be as benign as arriving late for a meeting, or as harmful as living a lie. Some "mistakes" come as brash surprises: A pastor told LEADERSHIP, "One day I changed the church thermostat-and the church fired me! They told me I was 'too involved.' "

Mistakes happen. But dig into any effective pastor's past, and you uncover mistakes transformed into character. To discover how this is accomplished, LEADERSHIP associate editor Jim Berkley sought the insight of veteran pastors who, combining grit and grace, have grown through their mistakes. He pooled their wisdom into Making the Most of Mistakes, an upcoming volume in THE LEADERSHIP LIBRARY. The following excerpt focuses on minimizing the damage of personal blunders.

Thick containment shields cover the best designed nuclear reactors. Should something go wrong, these shields provide the first line of defense by ...