Encouragement for Today's Pastors: Help from the Puritans

by Joel R. Beeke, Terry D. Slachter

The Scriptures advise us to learn from examples of faithful ministers (Heb. 13:7). The Puritans were a group of such ministers whose teaching and living can be particularly encouraging to troubled and discouraged pastors today. They were steadfast in adhering to Scripture as the Word of God, in confessing the great truths of the Reformed faith, and in applying sound doctrine to the problems of life in an age and culture nearly as challenging as our own. In Encouragement for Today's Pastors , Joel R. Beeke and Terry D. Slachter examine the writings of these pastors of a bygone era consider how they can help struggling pastors today. Here pastors will find a helping hand, reminding them of the importance of cultivating personal piety, resting in God's sovereignty recovering clarity in their calling, discovering means of support God provided, recognizing the dignity of their office, and taking comfort in grace and glory to come. Table of
Part Piety
1. Zeal for the Ministry of the Word
2. 'In Sweet Communion, Lord, with Thee'
3. Encouraged by God's Promises
Part Sovereignty
4. God Gives the Increase
5. Submission to God's Will
Part Clarity
6. Taking Heed to Doctrine
7. Practicing What Is Preached
8. The Calling of the Shepherd
Part Creativity and Community
9. History and Science
10. The Communion of Saints
11. A Cloud of Witness
Part Dignity
12. 'One among a Thousand'
13. Doing the Work of Angels
14. The Urgency and Importance of Preaching the Word
Part Eternity
15. The Reward of Grace
16. The Glories of Heaven

Genres: Leadership, Theology

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 20, 2013

About the author

Joel R. Beeke (PhD, Westminster Theological Seminary) is the chancellor and professor of homiletics and systematic theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary. He has served as a pastor since 1978 and currently ministers at the Heritage Reformed Congregation of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is the editor of the Puritan Reformed Journal and The Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth magazine, the board chairman of Reformation Heritage Books, the president of Inheritance Publishers, and the vice president of the Dutch Reformed Translation Society.

Beeke has written and coauthored 120 books, edited 120 books, and contributed 2,500 articles to Reformed books, journals, periodicals, and encyclopedias. He frequently lectures at seminaries and speaks at Reformed conferences around the world. The Lord has blessed him and his wife Mary with three children and eleven grandchildren.

Reviews

[Kyle Grindberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite encouraging indeed!

[Will Pareja · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is beef jerky pastoral theology.
Our insipid literary diets and short attention spans make reading the Puritans more a drudgery than a delight.
Enter Joel Beeke.
Beeke and Schlacter have scoured and served up appropriate portions of pastoring on a page to pastors today.
Next to Scripture, they have consulted those quills of the past who bled bibline.

This is a truly a help for those who are hard pressed to read Puritans themselves.

[Andrzej Stelmasiak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read first 8 chapters, skip the rest. As my Pastor have said 'Beeke and Slachter will not be Encouraged that their book on Encouragement will receive only 3 stars' :D
If anything, it's a clever (not really) way of advertising books your publishing house does...
If not notes that I have made in this book, this would not be necessarily a 'keeper'. And yes, I do appreciate the Puritans, so it's not necessarily them that are at fault here...

[Nate Bate · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a lot of long quotes from he puritans in this book. It does have some helpful guidance for today's pastors; however, it feels like the modern gets dwarfed by quotes from long ago. With the main title advertising help for "today's" pastors, I would have liked much more emphasis on pastoring today. This doesn't mean there are not a lot of gems in this book.

[Steve Hemmeke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not so much encouragement, as just a hodgepodge of the Puritans’ views on theological topics related to the ministry. The introduction and epilogue were relevant and encouraging. Much of the rest was either convicting or at least relevant to a pastor’s calling. If you’ve worked through 2/3 of your list of books addressing the pastor’s calling, it is time for this one.

I do commend Joel Beeke’s ministry to you, though. A lot of good stuff there. Puritan Theology, co-authored with Mark Jones, is especially good for the theologian.

[Yuri Cameron · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s okay. I’m not a big puritan reader so I had a bit of a hard time understanding what the puritan quotes were actually saying. I struggled sometimes seeing how the book was specifically helpful. Generally it’s a good work, but in practical issues that come up, etc, I think it could’ve been a bit more detailed.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an encouraging book! It is well organized and picks from some very choice Puritan quotes for an easy-to-read volume. This is a great introduction to Puritan writers as well as a very practical Pastoral Devotional. Read it after a few years of ministry to be refreshed and to be reminded of this great marathon we are running for the Lord.

[Alan Rennê · Rating 5 out of 5]

Que livro! Interessante é que, ao me propor a lê-lo, pensei: - Terminarei a leitura revigorado!

Na verdade, terminei a leitura quebrado, contrito, mas, ao mesmo tempo, suplicante por graça da parte do Senhor, pois quem é suficiente para estas coisas?

Recomendo a todos os meus colegas ministros do evangelho!