Book Review: Portraits of a Pastor

If you ask the average person on the street what is a pastor, you will get many different answers. Some of those answers might include one who is an entertaining speaker. Another answer might be the one in charge of the church. If you ask a Christian what a pastor is suppose to do, you will also get many different answers. Some of them might include preaching as long as its not boring. Others would be one who is reaching out to people while the rest of the church works and plays.

There are many unhealthy expectations of a pastor these days. A majority of them are not even biblical. Jason K Allen, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, has put a book together with a few contributors on what a pastor is and what he is suppose to do. The book is titled, Portraits of a Pastor.

In this book, we see the pastor as a shepherd, man of God, preacher, family man, missionary, evangelist, leader, theologian, and church historian. Each one of these qualities are addressed by authors who have been the pastoral ministry. The contributors to the book are Danny Akin, Jason G Duesing, Ronnie Floyd, Christian T George, Owen Strachan, Donald Whitney, John Mark Yeats, and Jared C Wilson. Each one of these authors goes through the qualities of the pastor as well as his biblical role in the church.

There might be some of you who don't agree with what has been written in this book, but I did find it very helpful in hopes of one day I will become a pastor and/or elder. I highly recommend this book for those entering the pastoral ministry or those who are wondering if this is what the Lord is leading them to do. I also think it is wise to have a pastor share this book with his fellow elders.

Thanks Moody Publishers for letting me review this book.