Ministry Loves Company: A Survival Guide for Pastors

Rating:
Summary: a warm and helpful guide to any leader of a non-profit
Review: Dr. Galloway has captured in a very readible way some helpful truths for anyone leading a non-profit organization. As a healthcare CEO in a number of organizations over 35 years I found new ways of looking at Boards and Volunteers in Dr. Galloway's book. I wish I had had this book 25 years ago!

His writing style makes these truths very accessible and does so with humor and humility. All of us can learn something from this gem.

Rating:
Summary: a warm and helpful guide to any leader of a non-profit
Review: Dr. Galloway has captured in a very readible way some helpful truths for anyone leading a non-profit organization. As a healthcare CEO in a number of organizations over 35 years I found new ways of looking at Boards and Volunteers in Dr. Galloway's book. I wish I had had this book 25 years ago!

His writing style makes these truths very accessible and does so with humor and humility. All of us can learn something from this gem.

Rating:
Summary: Insider Advice from a Ministry Pro
Review: If you could sit down and have a long series of chats with a venerable pastor, reflecting back on nearly forty years of landmark ordained Presbyterian ministry that gets to the nuts and bolts of innovative mission ventures and congregational renewal, you would no doubt jump at the chance. Short of hopping a train to Philadelphia's Main Line, hop on "on line" or over to your nearest bookstore and get a copy of John Galloway's latest book, Ministry Loves Company. You will feel as if you had all the time in the world to pick this pastor's brain and glean time-tested truth for success in the parish. In the tradition of such standard works as James Glasse's Profession: Minister and Sam Calian's Today's Pastor in Tomorrow's World, Ministry Loves Company offers both theoretical and practical advice on how congregations work and how pastors can help them work even better, whilst not losing their religion in the process. Moreover this book provides the added benefit of the collective wisdom not only of the author, but also of the author's father, himself a noted Presbyterian pastor of a generation ago, put to good use in the author's own pastorates.
The book is divided into five sections that cover every aspect of ministry from "coming to town" to "commitment to stewardship and mission." Many pastors will be tempted to thumb immediately to the fourth section, "conflict happens" but that would be premature. For there is a sequential nature to the book that indicates the growth of a pastorate is akin to the growth of a seedling into a sturdy tree. Each section is further divide into four chapters, which offer a series of wry observations on patience, parking, priorities, and much more. Frankly spoken, Galloway is not timid about tackling such topics as whether the pastor ought to know what the members are giving. Not to spoil the suspense he says they should, as a Geiger counter of the members' commitment level. There are also recommendations that show that successful ministry bends with the wind of the Spirit.
To those just starting out serving a new congregation, the author advises an intentional insouciance, in a chapter entitled "Do Nothing". Galloway cautions pastors that the first year of a new ministry is a time of forbearance, to observe and learn the ways of the congregation, gaining insight and garnering the congregation's trust, all the while, doing as little as possible to trouble the waters. This laissez faire approach is of course deceptively simple, as the author explains "Obviously, this first year of doing nothing takes a lot of work. It is productive work, because it focuses our energy." (page 17).
There are many such teachable moments portrayed in the various illustrations an examples. The author confesses that his former parishioners will recongnize themselves; the fact that they are depicted freely in the book only serves to add to the pithy wisdom expressed. These are not ivory tower observations but nuggets of truth pried from the rich mines of long experience. Consistently witty and often profound, Galloway observes, "Regardless of what our theology would have us believe, the experience of church crisis makes us realize that we are on the front lines of spiritual warfare." (page 116). In the chapter on "Spiritual Renewal for the Sake of Mission", Galloway's list of the nine "tests" for the validity of a person's claim for a renewal or born-again experience is, alone, worth the price of the book. An added bonus of this book is the compelling foreword by John Buchanan, co-pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago, touching on the challenges of theological education and preparation for ordained ministry.
Committees on Ministry might consider giving this book to incoming clergy, with an eye toward a preemptive strike at some of the very real pitfalls pastors are prone to tumble into (or cheerfully rush into). Similarly, Committees on Preparation for Ministry would find much of the anecdotal wisdom worthwhile when counseling seminarians on the cusp of new ministry. John T. Galloway, Jr. has served congregations in Greenwich CT, Spencerport, NY, York PA and Pittsburgh PA and since 1993 has served as pastor and head of staff of the Wayne Presbyterian Church. A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary (1966), he has also been the recipient of several honorary doctorates and has served on the boards of PC(USA) related colleges and seminaries. His earlier books are: The Gospel According to Superman and How To Stay Christian.
- John A. Dalles
Longwood, FL

Rating:
Summary: excellent guide to the challenges of church leadership
Review: Ministry Loves Company: A Survival Guide for Pastors by John Galloway, Jr.

While its title contains both truth and allusion, the subtitle of this book tells us what it's really all about. It is indeed an essential survival guide for pastors written by a seasoned senior clergyman. Rev. John Galloway writes in an engagingly humorous style, and reading his guide is like having an informal heart-to-heart chat with a wise and caring colleague.

Ministry Loves Company distills into 168 pages a lifetime of pastoral wisdom on topics ranging from coping with conflict and competition to church parking problems. Galloway warns the pastor just coming to a new church that it's as tough as being an outsider called on to facilitate an ongoing family reunion. His book is full of thoughtful advice on how to be patient during the gradual transition from listening to leading, and how to share in the existing priorities of a congregation while helping them to develop a new creative vision.

With enough important business to occupy ten clones, as the author puts it, how can the parish minister....

... balance the open-ended demands of preaching, pastoral care, and church administration?
... handle competition among congregation members for program space, budget, staffing, and publicity?
... maintain integrity in the face of pressures to play a competitive "numbers game" against other churches?
... cope with the irrational exuberance of the "born-again" yet shallowly self-centered member?
... deal with the easily offended or emotionally volatile parishioner without taking it all personally?
... in sum, how does the pastor manage and affirm the diversity of gifts and perspectives within the body of Christ?

As Galloway points out, "Few people can appreciate the sheer terror in the heart of the pastor when the going gets tough.... No matter how well we do, we can still be rejected and renounced" (p. 110-111) Having said that, he offers a useful collection of coping strategies for pastors to follow in the thick of a church crisis, while humbly admitting one never has all the answers. A time of crisis must be a prayerful time, he wisely counsels, a time of recognition that "...one of the shrewdest ways evil does us in is to get us believing that we are on the side of goodness and purity while our opponents are the incarnation of evil itself. Such a belief is guaranteed to provoke the most demonic words and deeds from us." (p.117) Would that all our secular leaders shared this profound insight!

Anyone faced with leadership challenges in a voluntary organization would benefit from this book. For the parish minister who would like to avoid a lot of misery by spending just a little time in John Galloway's congenial company, Ministry Loves Company is a survival guide well worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Applies to any organization or leadership endeavor.
Review: This book will help most anyone attempting to Chair an organization of any size that has been in existance for a while. Oh, to have had this book to read before I tackled many a group leadership position. I enjoyed reading it, in fact, I couldn't put it down. It may be for professional Pastors, however,t every layman can relate to the issues and learn from its very clever analogies, which, incidently, they will find stay with them.

Rating:
Summary: Applies to any organization or leadership endeavor.
Review: This book will help most anyone attempting to Chair an organization of any size that has been in existance for a while. Oh, to have had this book to read before I tackled many a group leadership position. I enjoyed reading it, in fact, I couldn't put it down. It may be for professional Pastors, however,t every layman can relate to the issues and learn from its very clever analogies, which, incidently, they will find stay with them.