Zack Eswine - The Imperfect Pastor: Discovering Joy in Our Limitations through a Daily Apprenticeship with Jesus

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Its hard to imagine a book packed with more grace and insight into the extraordinary life of the ordinary pastor. So Ill quit trying and just read Zack Eswines The Imperfect Pastor again. No one today shows more insight into the perils and joys of everyday ministry in the local churcha refreshingly honest and beautifully written meditation.

Mark Galli, Editor-in-Chief, Christianity Today

I wish Id read this book twenty-five years ago when I first began to consider pastoral ministry. The ground Zack covers is vital for novices and senior pastors alike. He steers us well clear of dangerous ambitions, absurd expectations, and corrosive work patterns. But he does so with wit, self-deprecation, and deeply felt realism. Eswine reignited in me a love for the Perfect Shepherd, who has the extraordinary grace to include imperfect shepherds in his kingdom work. This should be on everyones must-read list!

Mark Meynell, Associate Director (Europe), Langham Preaching; author, A Wilderness of Mirrors

Zack Eswine has done it again. In The Imperfect Pastor, he extends the hand of brotherhood to every minister of the gospel. Too many weary soldiers guard the front lines; Eswine reminds us all that Christ is our guard and defender, and that strength in him is our strongest place.

Lore Ferguson, writer; graphic designer; speaker

This book needs to be read by every pastor, to rescue us and call us back to what matters. The expectation of large, famous, and fast ministry in a post-Christian culture can be a destructive burden. Zacks wisdom is a healing balm bringing needed grace to help us minister with patience and endurance.

Peter Boyd, Pastor, Shore Presbyterian Church, Auckland, New Zealand

This is simply the best book on pastoral ministry I have ever read. In an upside-down ministry world that idolizes stardom and size, Zack opens our eyes to the only things that really matter. Prayerfully read and reread this beautiful, poignant meditation, and you will discover joy and true greatness in the midst of your extraordinary, ordinary life.

Ken Shigematsu, Pastor, Tenth Church Vancouver; best-selling author, God in My Everything

Here is wisdom reminiscent of the gifted preachers of another era but expressed in the sound and tone of today. Here is pastoral theology written, preached, and lived out in the very real and checkered life of Zack himself. Here is humane and godly counsel. You should read this book!

Leighton Ford, President, Leighton Ford Ministries

Zack Eswine pokes his prose into a very sensitive area we pastors and leaders hate to discuss: we draw our sense of identity and esteem from the number of people who come to our churches, the size of the offering, and our social media followers. Yet this is a book filled not with condemnation but rather with winsome encouragement. I could feel Zacks arms around me as God used him to point the way forwardtoward a path of healing and hope.

Bryan Loritts, Pastor for Preaching and Mission, Trinity Grace Church, New York City; Founder and President, The Kainos Movement; Editor, Letters to a Birmingham Jail

The Imperfect Pastor is a refreshing reminder of what ministry is all about: walking with Jesus, recognizing our own desires and limitations, and reflecting a listening presence, hopeful patience, and restorative purpose. Zacks personal experiences related to the ups and downs of ministry, along with his contemplative approach to spirituality, will challenge and encourage anyone who seeks to minister in the name of Jesus.

Wendy Der, Director of Mobilization in Mexico, Avance Internacional

The Imperfect Pastor

Discovering Joy in Our Limitations through a Daily Apprenticeship with Jesus

Zack Eswine

The Imperfect Pastor: Discovering Joy in Our Limitations through a Daily Apprenticeship with Jesus

Copyright 2015 by Zachary W. Eswine

Published by Crossway
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Portions of this work have been adapted from Sensing Jesus: Life and Ministry as a Human Being (Crossway), copyright 2013 by Zachary W. Eswine.

Cover design: Tim Green, Faceout Studio

First printing 2015

Printed in the United States of America

Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-4933-5
ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-4936-6
PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-4934-2
Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-4935-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Eswine, Zack, 1969

The imperfect pastor : discovering joy in our limitations through a daily apprenticeship with Jesus / Zack Eswine.

1 online resource

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN 978-1-4335-4934-2 (pdf) ISBN 978-1-4335-4935-9 (mobi) ISBN 978-1-4335-4936-6 (epub) ISBN 978-1-4335-4933-5 (tp)

1. Pastoral theology. I. Title.

BV4011.3

253dc 23 2015014530

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

For Mamaw, Papaw, and Jessica
I look forward to introducing you

I want to thank Dave DeWit, whose heart for leaders in ministry and commitment to this book have humbled and encouraged me. Thanks also to Lydia Brownback for editing.

Im grateful to Bruwer Vroon, Matt Blazer, and the elders of Riverside Church for reading drafts and making suggestions. Thank you, Jessica, for all of your late-night and Saturday readings. Your insights, suggestions, and encouragement in our partnership together bless me.

I am grateful for Riverside Church, out of whose life together in our daily and ordinary ways I write this book.

I became a pastor. But I didnt know how to be one.

The Serpent saw this. He seized his opportunity.

You can be like God, he said. And I, the fool, believed him.