When The People Say No: Conflict and the Call to Ministry

by James E. Dittes

Psychological insight, theological understanding, and biblical metaphor combine here to offer solid help for a little-understood aspect of the minister's task. What is the minister to do when confronted with opposition from his or her own congregation, when met with frustration in his or her ministry? With empathy for both the minister's plight and the congregation's pain, James Dittes shows how these very frustrations can be the beginning of real and healing ministry. When the people abandon the intimacy and openness of the church with appeals for agenda and rigidity, when projects begun with enthusiasm collapse in apathy, when the people demand that the minister conform to their image of him or all these bespeak a need, even an unspoken pain, underlying the surface conflict. At the very point the minister most feels the desire to pack up and move on his people may most need him to stay. 'When the People Say No' will help every minister recognize this enigmatic call and meet it with a creative and healing response.

Genres: Religion

160 pages, Paperback

Published August 3, 2004

Reviews

[Jacob · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was horrible on almost every level. I am pretty sure it was written by someone who pastored in a "dying" church his entire life, and the book seems more like a coping mechanism than actual reflection on ministry.

James E. Dittes, I have empathy for you, and I will give you a big hug if I ever see you, but please stop writing.

[Alan Marr · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first chapter of this book, "Ministry as Grief Work" is probably as good as anything I have read about Minisitry but the book falls away after that. I found it difficult to follow the threads. However it felt as though there could be pure gold in there if only I could understand what he's trying to say. I will try to read it again some time in the future.

[Nathan Willard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seems to be a little dated now, such that I didn't understand the full import of the central conflict in the book. But the testimony of what happens when the image of a church in the pastor's mind differs from its image in that of a church was powerful and relevant.

[Cimuchowski]

Suggested by Roy Terry.