Letters to a Young Pastor: Reflections on Leadership, Community, and the Gospel of Grace

Speaking out of twenty-seven years of pastoral ministry, Ian Stackhouse writes a series of letters to a young pastor just starting out. Responding to the various challenges his young charge faces in the first few years of congregational leadership, Letters to a Young Pastor is something of a spiritual reflection on leadership in the context of Christian ministry. To say that the letters are addressed to a fictitious pastor is not to say that the issues are unreal. Letters to a Young Pastor addresses matters that anyone in leadership eventually has to face. It seeks to offer encouragement and practical wisdom, but also an insight into the inner world of a person wrestling with the demands of a vocational life. In this sense, Letters to a Young Pastor has relevance to anyone who is seeking to remain faithful to a calling, whether ecclesial or not, in a world dominated by consumerism, formulas, and success.

Ian Stackhouse is the senior pastor of Millmead, Guildford Baptist Church in the UK. He teaches in seminaries both in the UK and abroad, and has authored several books, including Praying Psalms (Cascade, 2018) and Letters to a Young Pastor (Cascade, 2019).