This is my kind of book. It’s all about what it means to be a pastor and how to get there. It’s my kind of book because it deals with a topic that I am passionate about. It is clear from that book that Bobby Jamieson also has a big heart for building strong pastors. I had a great experience studying this very topic for my thesis project while working on my doctorate in education at Southern Seminary. In fact, I did case study visits to research exemplary models of churches training pastors and Bobby Jamieson’s church was one I visited. He serves at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington D.C. as an associate pastor and is the director of the internship program. This church trains around a dozen interns each year and this book serves as a compilation of exhortations for the interns and for anyone seeking to become a pastor.

This book is specifically written to those aspiring to become the main preaching pastor at a church. It is loaded with counsel and exhortations for those on the path to being a pastor. The chapters are short, organized, and punchy – with imperatives designed to provoke aspiring pastors to study the Bible, examine themselves, pray diligently, and seek counsel from those who they know in their church who have walked the path.

This is a perfect book to hand a young man who believes he is called to be a pastor. Though Jamieson would not like me typing that sentence! He prefers to use the language of aspiring to be a pastor (rather than declaring you are called before you get there) and makes a stong case why he prefers people say, “I aspire,” rather than, “I am called.”

The book is organized into three parts of advice.

• Part one is on finding the path and deals with topics such as calling, seeking wisdom, and making the biblical qualifications what guides you.
• The second part of the book is about walking the path to being a pastor. This section includes imperatives such as learn from pastors in healthy churches, lead something, elder before you elder, apprentice in the craft of preaching, and take every teaching opportunity you can get.
• The third part of the book is about approaching the destination of pastoring and includes topics such as candiating and finding a good fit regarding your theology and philosophy of ministry.

I greatly enjoyed reading this book! Many of the encouragements and ideas matched the practices and themes on how to effectively train pastors that I found in my doctoral research. What an excellent resource!

Amazon Link

I received a copy of this book from Crossway in exchange for an honest review.