Pastor As Person: Maintaining Personal Integrity in the Choices and Challenges of Ministry

by Gary L. Harbaugh

Harbaugh captures your interest with dramatic stories of the inner lives of working pastors, weaving these stories into patterns of meaning from his own reflection and research. An excellent study guide for the individual pastor, the pastor's support group, or the seminary class that really wants to come to grips with the dilemmas of being a person who is also a pastor.

Genres: Religion, Christianity

172 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

Reviews

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting angle on what a pastor is. Harbaugh's thesis is that pastors are people and that their personhood needs to be holistically integrated into their ministry. Harbaugh feels that many pastors are taught to put away their personhood as they serve in ministry, but ultimately are most effective when they instead embrace and incorporate it into their vocations.

The unique perspective comes from the fact that the author is a pastor, seminary professor, and a psychologist. What struck me is the many ways in which he incorporated that psychology. Why do pastors feel/think/relate/choose the way they do? How does their mortal, physical body affect their ministry? Great stuff to think through!

It's a little dated now, and a little dry. But all in all, a very solid book. We need fewer books about what a pastor does and more talking about what a pastor is and how to bring their humanity into their role!

[John Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wouldn't say it's anything special or particularly enlightening, but nonetheless helpful and meaningful. Harbaugh ends the book by saying he hopes that pastors currently in ministry wouldn't feel alone after reading. Not that I did before, because I have been open and honest with colleagues, but the book definitely provides a diversity of church and life situations to discuss what it is like, as a person, to live and serve as pastor that should open the doorway of greater honesty for others.

[Brett Marko · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book builds upon itself really playing out his message in the last 2 chapters. The book starts off a bit slow and you kind of wonder where it is going at first. However, Harbaugh does an extremely good job of wrapping in developmental psychology with the spirituality of the pastor. His insights are quite profound and are really centered on a giving one's life to Christ.

Aspects of this book that really jumped out at me was his discussion of a typical pastor personality and the potential problems this personality presents to both the pastor and the church as a whole. His discussion on how pastors typically view conflict, change and adversity sets a background for subsequent points. Caution is given on assuming a very dependent role with the congregation. He proceeds into how a pastor who is dependent on approval and affirmation by those in the church can view change and problems as crises versus opportunities for growth. Particularly interesting to me was Harbaugh's description of how a pastor's view narrows when they are under stress. This can lead to a resistance to change. Harbaugh further shows that this resistance to change reduces our ability to interact in with God in special encounters that he calls kairotic moments.

I really enjoyed how readable the book was and how he interwove his experiences with the psychological field and current psychological developmental theories so a lay person can understand them. This information lends great weight to the arguments he is making.

A final takeaway from the book centered around the whole concept of resting or relaxing in order to get better productivity from yourself as a whole. I look forward to investigating that thought further.

[Julia Matallana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you ever wondered how to deal with personal situations like loss, politics, mental and health problems as a pastor. This insightful and helpful book is for you