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Pastoral Leadership: Shepherding and Caring for God's People
A book for pastors and church leaders, Pastoral Shepherding and Caring for God's People uses the context of biblical accounts and figures to offer practical advice and counsel on aspects of pastoral leadership. The author, Rev. Dr. Jamison Hardy, draws from more than 20 years of experience as a pastor and bishop to encourage pastors to be actively engaged in what is going on throughout the life of the parish and lead their congregations instead of passively following them.
192 pages, Paperback
Published August 17, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 18, 2025
There’s not really anything wrong with the book, but it’s a very surface level treatment of things. It’s probably best suited for new pastors or seminarians.
February 8, 2026
This book on pastoral leadership reads like a gifted mathematician telling you the answers to a host of mathematical equations without ever showing his work. Hardy says a lot of things, he doesn't "show" a lot of work. He declares how it should be, but his persuasion is lacking. Reading this book feels like the reader is being lectured at by someone who is annoyed with you.
There is no doubt that Pr. Hardy has exercised pastoral leadership for many years, nor that he has had a front row seat to a lot of "good" and "bad" pastoral leadership as a district president of the LCMS. In this regard, Pr. Hardy desires to share his wisdom with others so that leadership mistakes might be avoided and Christ's church strengthened. This is a commendable goal. I'm not sure he accomplishes it.
The redundancies of the book are distracting. For example, the phrase "effective pastoral leader(s/ship)" occurs AT LEAST 63 times throughout the book. Swap out the word 'effective' with "good" and you're flirting with over 100 times, or drop the word "pastoral" and add up "effective leaders" and now you're closer to 170 times. As a result, it's hard to "summarize" the argument of this book other than "The church needs more/better leaders!"
That's how this book reads. "effective leaders will . . ." "effective pastoral leadership is . . . " "effective pastoral leaders know . . . " "good leadership recognizes that . . . "
It's exhausting.
The book isn't lacking for information and wisdom, but it's an uninspiring read. As a pastor, I didn't leave reading this book encouraged in my vocation as a pastoral leader. Rather I felt bogged down with more 'musts' and 'shoulds' and 'oughts'.
There is no doubt that Pr. Hardy has exercised pastoral leadership for many years, nor that he has had a front row seat to a lot of "good" and "bad" pastoral leadership as a district president of the LCMS. In this regard, Pr. Hardy desires to share his wisdom with others so that leadership mistakes might be avoided and Christ's church strengthened. This is a commendable goal. I'm not sure he accomplishes it.
The redundancies of the book are distracting. For example, the phrase "effective pastoral leader(s/ship)" occurs AT LEAST 63 times throughout the book. Swap out the word 'effective' with "good" and you're flirting with over 100 times, or drop the word "pastoral" and add up "effective leaders" and now you're closer to 170 times. As a result, it's hard to "summarize" the argument of this book other than "The church needs more/better leaders!"
That's how this book reads. "effective leaders will . . ." "effective pastoral leadership is . . . " "effective pastoral leaders know . . . " "good leadership recognizes that . . . "
It's exhausting.
The book isn't lacking for information and wisdom, but it's an uninspiring read. As a pastor, I didn't leave reading this book encouraged in my vocation as a pastoral leader. Rather I felt bogged down with more 'musts' and 'shoulds' and 'oughts'.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews