Loving the Church You Lead: Pastoring with Acceptance and Grace

Leadership columnist and respected pastor Dr. David Hansen has written four books, and two books about pastoral ministry. This is his second book. This text begins by laying before the readers a dilema that Pastor Hansen was dealing with in his ministry. Particularly, he was strugging through the struggle of whether to allow teen boys to wear baseball caps in the worship service of the rural church he pastored. In the process of struggling through the "baseball cap crisis" Hansen comes to one very important conclusion. It is more important for a pastor to love his CHURCH that to meet the emotional needs of any particular individual. The rest of the book unpacks what it means not just for a pastor to love particular individuals, but to also love their CHURCH. Throughout the book you learn about the different words for love in Scripture, and how each of these forms of love impact pastoral ministry. On the way we meet the sometimes ornery and always lovable folks that Hansen ministers with, and we are drawn into Montana ministering with him. The concept of the book is simple, but really loving your church is hard. Hansen acknowleges this. And then, on a roundabout tour through his ministry, he gives us a few tools to make that a reality.