Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome | R. Kent Hughes, Barbara Hughes

Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome | R. Kent Hughes, Barbara Hughes | A Liberating Read

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Liberating Ministr...

	Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome R. Kent Hughes, Barbara Hughes Crossway Books, 2008 - 208 pages average customer review:based on 3 reviews view larger image
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How does one measure success in ministry? Longtime pastor Kent Hughes and his wife Barbara urge readers to turn to God s Word rather than numbers.

Every year thousands of God s servants leave the ministry convinced they are failures. Years ago, in the midst of a crisis of faith, Kent Hughes almost became one of them. But instead he and his wife Barbara turned to God s Word, determined to learn what God had to say about success and to evaluate their ministry from a biblical point of view.

This book describes their journey and their liberation from the success syndrome the misguided belief that success in ministry means increased numbers. In today s world it is easy to be seduced by the secular thinking that places a number on everything. But the authors teach that true success in ministry lies not in numbers but in several key areas: faithfulness, serving, loving, believing, prayer, holiness, and a Christlike attitude. Their thoughts will encourage readers who grapple with feelings of failure and lead them to a deeper, fuller understanding of success in Christian ministry.

This book was originally published by Tyndale in 1987 and includes a new preface.

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Proper Perspective for Evaluating Ministry

It is so easy to miss what God would consider fruitful and faithful ministry by falling prey to the worldly ways success is measured. Every pastor and Christian worker should read this book.

Dr. Sandy Shoemaker

A Liberating Read

This book is concise, and largely biographical. It is geared toward protestant ministers, but I think it will resonate with a wider audience since the Bible calls us to such a counter-cultural view of success. Your concept of success will be enriched, confirmed and maybe even changed. This is a timeless read, and well worth rereading. You may even want to keep a loaner, as I have!

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Reminding pastors what is succcess is

Many pastors and church leaders find themselves evaluating their ministries by corporate standards. As a result, if the church or ministry does not meet particular benchmarks they feel the ministry is unsuccessful.

Kent Hughes has been a pastor for over four decades and he writes Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome for the pastor who is feeling this pressure. The book was originally published by Tyndale House in 1987 and has now been updated and republished last month by Crossway.

Hughes recounts a scene from early on his ministry where he was working on a church plant. From all accounts this was going to be a successful ministry. Hughes was blessed with a clear demonstration of pastoral gifts, a solid core group, a promising social demographic, and financial backing. However, after a short period, Hughes was on the edge of despondency and ready to leave the ministry. He goes on to articulate the depths of despair that colored these early days of ministry:

"My long-established world of bright prospects and success melted around me. I was in the darkest, deepest depression of my life. My memory of this time is of a gray, horizonless sea. A faint light falls from a threatening sky and I am treading water alone, sinking. Soon, I will be below the surface. Melodramatic, to be sure! But that is how I felt. I wanted out."

For someone like myself who is in the process of church planting, this book is encouraging and sobering, while being very practical.

Hughes goes on to describe the way in which the Lord brought him low only to bring him back up through prayer and dependence upon the God of the Scriptures. It was through this process of praying and reading that Hughes began to learn what ministry was all about. Thankfully he is now sharing his story of God's grace in his own life.

The majority of the book is made up of defining what biblical success is. The successive chapters are, Success is...faithfulness, serving, loving, believing, prayer, holiness, attitude.

Hughes is deeply transparent throughout the book. His wife Barbara occasionally and helpfully pops in to add her perspective during the times of trial and growth. Her presence in the book would be helpful for pastors' wives for sure.

This would be a great book to pick up for a pastor who is feeling `beat up' in ministry. It would also be a great gift for a seminary student or young man who is pursuing ministry. Either way it is a helpful and biblical reminder of what matters and what does not. And Hughes has done it for over forty years.

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