With thirty-four years of Christian service under his belt, Peter White, a Scottish pastor, has given us a book on effective pastoring. When I learned of it, I looked forward to reading material written from outside the American context that had the idea of the “key things” for pastoral ministry at its heart. Its content is broken into five large categories: Before God (the character, vision, walk, etc., of the minister), Among the People (ministry of the Word, worship, prayer), With Individuals (caring, listening, discipling), Development and Outreach (strategy and evangelism), and Organization (leadership, team, time, stress).
Its distinct Word-centeredness makes it very much worth owning. It gives good demonstration of methods and models in most of the areas it covers. Among its most refreshing features is its great reliance on Church history as well as on a wide variety of sources-White quotes everyone from Richard Baxter to Bill Hybels.
Because of its wide scope, it best serves as a resource to be regularly consulted rather than as a once-through read. Perhaps it tries to do too much. I would have preferred a narrower scope with expansion of some categories. The strongest categories are the first two, on the pastor himself and the ministry of the Word.
