Customer Reviews

Wounded Minister, The: Healing from and Preventing Personal Attacks

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
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I'm married to a Presbyterian minister. While reading this book, I got chills of recognition several times. Dr. Greenfield described slanderous scenes from his and colleagues' experiences that were almost 100% identical to what my family went through a couple of years ago. I'm willing to bet that other pastors who read The Wounded Minister will also have at least one "Hey, that's my life!" moment. Greenfield notes clergy abuse patterns, consequences, recovery steps, and scriptural reassurances in a highly readable style. May this guide help you well, as it did for me.

Greenfield here addresses clergy causalities and ministerial mistreatment by churches. His depth and breadth are more extensive than any author I have read previously. This work is divided into three sections: the reality of church abuse, ministers whose personalities and/or disorders bring pain upon themselves, and ways to recover and to heal.

For me as a pastor, the best portions of the book were the last two sections. Most ministers are aware of the horror stories of clergy being abused by their churches, but far less are aware of traits in their own lives that increase the probability of injury. Also, few ministers who are wounded are aware of the many ways that healing and recovery can occur.

This volume is a must-read for any pastor or associate pastor. If he hasn't experienced yet the heartache of ministry, I am convinced it is not matter of when it comes, but how intensely it comes. This book will help a minister in caring for himself and in supporting colleagues who have been wounded in their service.

This book is filled with information, but written as though the author were discussing matters with you personally. He shares many stories of abused ministers and majors on the most common pattern: pathological antagonists coupled with passive leaders or members who do not want to get involved.

The author recounts some of his own experiences, and discusses how families, marriages, and even the faith of ministers are affected when they are forced to resign to keep their sanity.

He provides lists of categories of unhealthy people, and makes a distincition between pathological antagonists and activists. He addresses the former (and these make up the worse culprits), but offers little help for the latter (most of my personal brushes were with activists).

Those who have suffered will find encouragement. They need to hear that, in most instances,it is not the minister -- but people with unhealthy mental attitudes -- who are usually to blame. This is especially the case in churches that have repeatedly fired their pastors. In many churches, messed up people have become key influneces.

The subtitle, "Healing from and Preventing Personal Attacks" is not really accurate per se. Although the book promotes a healing that comes from understanding, there is little about how to defend oneself from personal attacks (other than encouraging churches to include a "minister's advisory counsel" -- more bureaucracy and another place for troublemakers to dig in as far as I am concerned).

Sections on assertiveness, verbal self-defense, and how to defend oneself against false accusations would have been helpful but were missing. A section on what to ask church leaders when candidating might also have been helpful (although there was some helpful information about what to look for in a church -- and the importance of contacting previous pastors who served there).

The strength of this book is in its empathy, and it might be a good place to start for those who need emotional recovery. Pastors who are currently facing such antagonists will find some help here -- but not enough (in my opinion).

The author mentions that most schools do not train pastors in religious, "street fighting." It is that "street fighting" techinique that could have used more attention here. Pastors need to remember that Jesus was only passive during His crucifixion and trial -- the rest of the time, He fought back with fervor.

Pastors who have been hurt badly will appreciate this book. It will help initiate the healing process.

Any young clergy member MUST read this book, it will help you in your career.

I found the book to be full of good advice, interesting, yet sad, stories of conflict in the church. I also found it ot be a good overview of church conflict literature. He quotes and summarizes G. Lloyd Riediger and Kenneth Hauck, who have also written excellent books on the subject.

I rate this book "Best in class" because I found it to be the most scriptural and spiritual in its approach.

If you are a Baptist, and a male - or if you are in any call system - you may resonate with this author's clearly articulated pain. If you are in an appointive system where people can't vote you out, well, it doesn't help much.

I wish the author had gotten past the tremenous pain he suffered befor he wrote the book. It seems cathartic for the writer, but not practically helpful to the reader.