The Book Your Pastor Wishes You Would Read by Christopher Ash: a Book Review

Pastors do a lot more than we give them credit for. They do a lot that most of us don’t even know about. It can actually be easy to forget that they’re people who feel all the same emotions we do. We think of pastors as caring for us, but should we be caring for them as well? In The Book Your Pastor Wishes You Would Read Christopher Ash teaches us about pastors and tells us things most pastors would probably be too embarrassed to tell us themselves.

Christopher Ash has been a pastor and the Director of the Cornhill Training Course. He is now writer-in-residence at Tyndale House, Cambridge. He’s also the author of many books, including Zeal without Burnout.

In this book, Ash does both pastors and church members a great service by teaching church members how to care for their pastors, which will in turn help their church be a healthier place. As a former pastor Ash wants to be clear about his purpose in writing this book. He says, “As a pastor, I was very well looked after, so I have no sour grapes and no axe to grind” (11). He goes on to say, “I’m now a church member, who needs to think just as carefully about these things as I’m hoping you will” (11). 

Ash begins the book by laying out why you should be concerned about caring for your pastor and then spends the bulk of his time in the book laying out “seven virtues of church members that impact our pastors.” Through these virtues he shows what it looks like to be a church member who looks after their pastor and takes good care of him. 

This book is so practically helpful. Church members don’t often think of all their pastor does and Ash has done a great service to the church by giving counsel to congregations on how to nurture their shepherd. Having sat in both seats—pastor and church member—Ash is an excellent person to write this book. He does an excellent job narrating and explaining the duties of pastoral work and an equally wonderful job in giving advice for how churches can protect their pastors.

This is truly the book your pastor wishes you’d read (but is too embarrassed to ask). So let me ask on behalf of your pastor. Would you do him a big favor and read this short, accessible book?

You can pick up your copy of The Book Your Pastor Wishes You Would Read on Amazon.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the Good Book Company in exchange for a fair and honest review.

—————-

Also, If you’re on Twitter, I’m currently running a contest that I’d love for you to be a part of. You can follow my username @CamLHyde and once I hit 2,000 followers, I will draw one to receive a free copy of Russell Moore’s latest book, The Storm-Tossed Family. This is the one book I read last year that I felt like would be worth reading once a year. Follow me and retweet for a chance to win!