Table of contents
When It's Time to Move
These books, originally published by Leadership Journal, offer deep dives on pressing issues of ministry and leadership from veteran ministry experts like Eugene Peterson, Fred Smith, Marshall Shelley, and others.
- Introduction
- “Burning Out, Rusting Out, or Holding Out?”
- The Unbusy Pastor
- A Dangerous Side Effect of Moving
- A Budget Primer
- Self-Disclosure: How Far to Go?
- Building Trust
- Who Works for Whom?
- A Guide to Candidating
- Starting Out and Staying In
- The Wilderness of the Candidate
- The Loneliest Choice of All
“Seven moves equal one fire.” —American folk saying
Anyone who’s packed and unpacked a truckload of household belongings—discarding this, squeezing that, scratching or even breaking the other—knows the truth of the adage. Moving has a way of diminishing us, until by the seventh time we wonder whether any original material is left.
Moving also takes its toll on the intangibles. For the pastor, leaving one congregation for another is a peril-fraught venture. What if the new board turns out to be obstinate? What if the family is unhappy? How long will it take to win confidence and—beyond that—genuine friendship through the new sea of faces? What if finances stumble? What if the new pace of work proves overwhelming?
This book provides timely help for the pastor in transition. Eleven specially chosen writers whose ministerial experience ranges from Episcopalian to Nazarene, from Quebec to California, tell of struggles they’ve faced, misgivings they’ve weighed, and solutions they’ve found. Together, their chapters provide a game plan to make relocation a positive instead of a destructive event.
This is the fourth volume of THE LEADERSHIP LIBRARY, a continuing series from LEADERSHIP, the practical journal for church leaders published by Christianity Today, Inc. Others in the series have included Liberating the Leader’s Prayer Life and Clergy Couples in Crisis.
THE LEADERSHIP LIBRARY is more than a collection of theory; it provides ways of coping with the most difficult areas of everyday church life. It offers practical, proven routes to effective ministry.
