A Review of the Book "Wounded Pastors" by Carol Howard and James Fenimore

Title: Wounded Pastors

Author: Carol Howard and James Fenimore

Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press

Year: 2024

166 pages

From the Back: Navigating burnout, finding healing, and discerning the future of your ministry.

Personal Thoughts: Wounded Pastors was a short book but I took a couple of months going through it, thinking out the questions at the end of each chapter, and truly trying to take in the information that was within the pages.

    Through storytelling from their own lives, and with the help of others willing to share their situations, Howard and Fenimore walk through what situations bring about stress and burnout for pastors working in congregations. By being vulnerable through opening up to the reader, it gives a personal touch so that the reader can connect with what they are saying.

    Not only are their stories about going downward in ministry, the authors give some suggestions and tools that can be used to move back upwards into spaces of feeling good about the work, setting boundaries where needed, and doing true discernment on if a decision needs to be made to stay or leave one's current ministry setting.

    It was an easy book to get into and could have easily been read in a couple of days, but it was worth the time to delve into the questions provided by the authors at chapter's end. This book was recommended to me and I pass on the same recommendation. Wounded Pastors is worth the read, especially if you can catch yourself before you hit the stages of stressed and burned out.