In a town that thrives on crises, M. Craig Barnes, pastor of National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., knows them too. In When God Interrupts (InterVarsity), he recounts how he discovered a lump on his throat—a cancerous tumor on his thyroid gland.

"Once the doctors found the metastasis," he writes, "everything changed for me. For the first time in my life it occurred to me that I would not live forever. … it became so clear to me that God doesn't need me. I need him."

Whether writing about medical or pastoral crises, Barnes traces well their impact on the soul and how to receive God's grace amid them.

A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary and the University of Chicago (Ph.D. in church history), Barnes has also written Yearning (InterVarsity). Leadership editors Kevin Miller and Dave Goetz visited National Presbyterian Church to discuss with Barnes how a pastor can enjoy God's grace even during ministry's storms.

The conversation began in an unlikely place—discussing ...