For today's entry in the Friday Five interview series, we catch up with Charles Stone.

Charles Stone is a pastor in London, Ontario and an author. His most recent book is People Pleasing Pastors.

Today we chat with Charles about people pleasing, collaborative leadership, and thinking rightly.

You've done a lot of study on the nature of pastoral leadership. What led you to write a book on the tendency to people please?

I've served as a pastor in some capacity for over 33 years. Early on in my ministry I found that I sometimes said "yes" to people in the church even though I wanted to say "no." It seemed that an invisible pull inside me prevented me from saying "no." And if I said "no," I either did it too forcefully or kept thinking that I'd suffer some negative consequence for doing so. Over time I realized that I had developed ingrained habits of people pleasing. I realized that such a problem would stifle my ministry. ...

You have reached the end of this Article Preview

To continue reading, subscribe to Christianity Today magazine. Subscribers have full digital access to CT Pastors articles.

Log InSubscribe

Already a CT subscriber? Log in for full digital access.