This Odd and Wondrous Calling: The Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers

This Odd and Wondrous Calling: The Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers

by Martin B. Copenhaver (Author), Lilian Daniel (Author)

Synopsis

This Odd and Wondrous Calling offers something different from most books available on ministry. Two people still pastoring reflect honestly here on both the joys and the challenges of their vocation. / Anecdotal and extremely readable, the book covers a diversity of subjects revealing the incredible variety of a pastor's day. The chapters move from comedy to pathos, story to theology, Scripture to contemporary culture. This Odd and Wondrous Calling is both serious and fun and is ideal for those who are considering the ministry or who want a better understanding of their own minister's life.

$21.41

Save:$3.37 (14%)

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 255
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Published: 26 Nov 2009

ISBN 10: 0802864759
ISBN 13: 9780802864758

Media Reviews
Samuel T. Lloyd III
Dean, Washington National Cathedral
One of the most human and most helpful books on ministry that I know. With moving, often humorous stories Lillian Daniel and Martin Copenhaver open windows onto the major and the mundane in the life of a minister shaking hands at the door, navigating a clergy marriage, handling money, visiting the hospital. Here is ordained ministry in all its depths, its ordinariness, and its joys.
Lauren F. Winner, author of Girl Meets God and Mudhouse Sabbath
My dictionary doesn't have enough enthusiastic adjectives for this book, which I adore. . . Everyone who loves the church or struggles with the church or is just plain curious about the church will relish every page.
Thomas G. Long
Candler School of Theology, Emory University
Honest, wise, deeply personal, profoundly theological, and what's more delightfully written.
M. Craig Barnes, author of The Pastor as Minor Poet
This is not another 'how-to' book that reduces the mystery of pastoral ministry to simplistic formulas. . . The authors are often brutally honest about the church as well as themselves, but always compelling, and in the end so very hopeful about our calling.
Anthony B. Robinson, author of Changing the Conversation
Here's a book about ministry from the inside, written by two practitioners of the craft. And not just any two practitioners, but two excellent ministers who are gifted writers. . . . This is the best kind of affirmation of the ministry u an honest one, richly grounded in the reality of the church.
Peter J. Gomes(from the foreword)
This book gets better the more it is read; it does honor to the church and the ministry. . . We have in it both a classic and a class act.
Byron Borger
Hearts and Minds Bookstore
If you are a clergy person, you will love this. If you know pastors well, you'll get it. If you want to understand what ministers go through their inner lives, their joys and frustrations, the strains on their marriages, their fears and foibles this is a must-read.
Samuel T. Lloyd III
Dean, Washington National Cathedral
One of the most human and most helpful books on ministry that I know. With moving, often humorous stories Lillian Daniel and Martin Copenhaver open windows onto the major and the mundane in the life of a minister -- shaking hands at the door, navigating a clergy marriage, handling money, visiting the hospital. Here is ordained ministry in all its depths, its ordinariness, and its joys.

Lauren F. Winner, author of Girl Meets God and Mudhouse Sabbath
My dictionary doesn't have enough enthusiastic adjectives for this book, which I adore. . . Everyone who loves the church or struggles with the church or is just plain curious about the church will relish every page.

Thomas G. Long
Candler School of Theology, Emory University
Honest, wise, deeply personal, profoundly theological, and -- what's more -- delightfully written.

M. Craig Barnes, author of The Pastor as Minor Poet
This is not another 'how-to' book that reduces the mystery of pastoral ministry to simplistic formulas. . . The authors are often brutally honest about the church as well as themselves, but always compelling, and in the end so very hopeful about our calling.

Anthony B. Robinson, author of Changing the Conversation
Here's a book about ministry from the inside, written by two practitioners of the craft. And not just any two practitioners, but two excellent ministers who are gifted writers. . . . This is the best kind of affirmation of the ministry u an honest one, richly grounded in the reality of the church.

Peter J. Gomes (from the foreword)
This book gets better the more it is read; it does honor to the church and the ministry. . . We have in it both a classic and a class act.

Byron Borger
Hearts and Minds Bookstore
If you are a clergy person, you will love this. If you know pastors well, you'll get it. If you want to understand what ministers go through -- their inner lives, their joys and frustrations, the strains on their marriages, their fears and foibles -- this is a must-read.
Author Bio
Lillian Daniel is the senior minister of First CongregationalChurch, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, and a host of the Chicago-basedtelevision program 30 Good Minutes. She is alsothe author of Tell It Like It Is: Reclaiming the Practiceof Testimony, and When Spiritual but NotReligious Is Not Enough: Seeing God in Surprising Places, Even the Church. Martin B. Copenhaver is senior pastor of Wellesley Congregational Church in Wellesley, Massachusetts. His other books include Living Faith While Holding Doubts and To Begin at the Beginning.