Portraits of a Pastor: The 9 Essential Roles of a Church Leader

As a pastor, do you feel like you’re wearing too many hats?

If you’re a pastor, you know the tension of balancing (or trying to) the many roles and expectations that come with leading a church. But are you able to distinguish which roles are truly essential? And can you measure how you’re fulfilling them?

Portraits of a Pastor features contributions from evangelical leaders like Jason Allen, Jared Wilson, Daniel Akin, and Owen Strachan on the essential roles and aspects of pastoral ministry. Together the book answers three important questions:

• What does it mean for the pastor to hold all nine roles?
• Why should the pastor fulfill these roles?
• How can the pastor most faithfully fulfill them?

A pastor must be a preacher, shepherd, missionary, evangelist, church historian, theologian, man of God, leader of his household, and leader of others—a tall order! After reading Portraits of a Pastor, you’ll:

• Have a clearer vision of the roles you should fulfill in the life of your congregation
• Be inspired to fulfill your calling by growing in new areas of leadership
• Know the unbiblical visions of pastoral leadership that may distract you from your core calling

It’s true: much is demanded of pastors. But it’s also true that too much is demanded of most pastors. Know what God has called you to, how to fulfill that calling, and what may be distracting you from it.

DR. JASON ALLEN is the fifth and youngest president of Midwestern Baptist Seminary. He has served as pastor and interim pastor of Southern Baptist churches in Alabama and Kentucky over the past fifteen years. He currently serves the church more broadly through writing and preaching ministries, including his own website www.jasonkallen.com, where he writes on various topics including higher education, theology, preaching, and cultural and local church issues. He and his wife, Karen, have five children: Anne-Marie, Caroline, William, Alden, and Elizabeth.

JARED C. WILSON is Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Author in Residence at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and the Director of the Pastoral Training Center at Liberty Baptist Church in Kansas City, Missouri. He has authored over twenty books. He and his wife, Becky, has been married twenty-five years and have dedicated this latest season of their lives to the mentoring and discipling of young men and women.

DR. JASON ALLEN is the fifth and youngest president of Midwestern Baptist Seminary. He has served as pastor and interim pastor of Southern Baptist churches in Alabama and Kentucky over the past fifteen years. He currently serves the church more broadly through writing and preaching ministries, including his own website www.jasonkallen.com, where he writes on various topics including higher education, theology, preaching, and cultural and local church issues. He and his wife, Karen, have five children: Anne-Marie, Caroline, William, Alden, and Elizabeth.

OWEN STRACHAN is Associate Professor of Christian Theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is also the Director for the Center on Public Theology at MBTS. He holds a PhD from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, an MDiv from Southern Seminary, and an AB from Bowdoin College. Strachan has published fourteen books and writes regularly for The Gospel Coalition, the Christian Post, and Thoughtlife, his Patheos blog. He is married and is the father of three children. Strachan hosts the City of God podcast available at https://cpt.mbts.edu.

CHRISTIAN GEORGE (M.A. Beeson Divinity School) is a writer, speaker, and author of five books: Godology; Sex, Sushi, and Salvation; Sacred Travels: Recovering the Ancient Practice of Pilgrimage; Jonathan Edwards: America’s Genius; and Charles Spurgeon: Prince of Preachers. He and his wife, Rebecca, are currently living in Scotland where he is working on a Ph.D. in theology at the University of St. Andrews. You can visit him online at www.christiangeorge.org.

DON WHITNEY (Arkansas State University; Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is the founder and president of The Center for Biblical Spirituality and is Associate Professor and Dean of Biblical Spirituality at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Don is the author of Spiritual Disciplines within the Church, How Can I Be Sure I'm A Christian, and Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. Don and his wife, Caffy, have one daughter and live near Louisville, Kentucky.