As pastors we can all cope with the good times and blessings we receive. What tests us is when things go wrong, or when something happens that causes anxiety and hurt. How do we respond to poison pen letters? To members who refuse to submit to our authority as pastor? To those who cry, ‘Unless the pastor goes, I go’? To a group in the church (large or small) who are for ever criticising our preaching? To individuals who, for reasons best known to themselves, attempt to stir up the church against us? It is situations like the ones mentioned above that cause us to cry, ‘Help, Lord, what do I do?’ In this book we have one pastor’s honest and moving account of the battles he faced during his pastorate—how he overcame them or how they overcame him.
