A Pastoral Pat on the Back - The Imperfect Pastor by Zack Eswine

The Imperfect Pastor is a book that will help you to remember what pastoral ministry is really all about.

How do you define success in pastoral ministry?

“If Jesus’s pastoral work consisted of doing large things famously as fast as he could in the most efficient way possible, I would never have known him.” (p.69)

I read “The Imperfect Pastor” as part of the development portion of the internship I completed at my church in Philadelphia, and reading it really challenged my view of ministry. Since being heavily involved in my college ministry, I have felt the pull of pastoral ministry. Teaching people about God’s Word and the gospel has been the desire of my heart, but I have felt a kind of dangerous ambition that Zack Eswine addresses in this book. “The Imperfect Pastor” is a reminder that success in ministry is not about doing “big things for God’s glory”, but about being faithful in tending the flock that God has entrusted to you. 

What I really love about this book is Eswine’s radical honesty and candor. He shares the disappointment he felt after laboring in ministry at a small church and experiencing no numerical growth. He experienced people around him in seminary telling him that they thought he was remarkably gifted, that he will do great things for God, and when he did not experience exponential growth he felt like a failure. As someone who has (on a much lesser scale) had those kind of words spoken over me intended as a blessing, I am determined not to let them feel like a curse but instead continually remind myself of the true definition of success in ministry.  

Eswine again and again reminds the reader of their own dependence and God’s sufficiency to meet that dependence. He tells stories of his experiences of small successes and failures, and it is truly refreshing to hear such a “normal” story being told in a book like this. This work is not a handbook for ministry or a step-by-step guide to being a pastor, but I have found it to be a helpful counter to my natural tendency toward ambition and desire to make my own name great.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wrestles with selfish ambition!

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