When you feel hard-pressed by the demands and difficulties in ministry, it helps to know you're in good company.

"We've been surrounded and battered by troubles," writes Paul, "but we're not demoralized; we're not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we've been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn't left our side; we've been thrown down but we haven't broken" (2 Cor. 4:8-9, The Message).

One big demoralizer in ministry is not having enough people to do the work. A few years ago at Leadership we'd been short-staffed for three months. After an extended thorough search for the right associate editor, we thought we'd found our person — and it didn't work out. We had to live with more work than people for a while longer.

The same day I received that disappointing call, the mail brought two letters criticizing me or my work. Vance Havener once said that in ministry you need the mind of a scholar, the heart of a child, and the hide of a rhinoceros. I guess I haven't achieved ...