BOOK REVIEW: A good niche book that pretends to be more …

With 1,500 ministers resigning from the ministry each month, most of us have known or heard of a pastor who was burned out, fed up, and exhausted enough to quit.

That’s the unique niche “Mondays With My Old Pastor,” by Jose Luis Navajo (published by Thomas Nelson) targets with a good book that pretends to be better than it is.

Many of those ministers who throw in the towel on ministry could possibly be refreshed and renewed if they had someone to come alongside them and provide them with encouragement and wise counsel. Imagine a younger minister feeling the challenges of ministry having the opportunity to gain insights, advice, and ideas from an older, wiser, more experienced pastor.

That, in a nutshell,  is the story of “Mondays With My Old Pastor.”

The problem with this book is the quality of writing doesn’t fully pull off the concept of the book. The story is about a younger minister who is so burned out on ministry he’s ready to quit. Before taking that step, his wife encourages him to visit with his old pastor, a man now in the twilight of his life who had served as a pastor for decades.

Taking his wife’s advice, the younger minister calls on his old pastor on a Monday, and winds up visiting with him each Monday thereafter.

The core of the book is about an older, wiser pastor giving encouragement and counsel to a younger minister who is feeling defeated in ministry. That advice from the older pastor is often dished out in the telling of stories, some of which are profound, insightful and moving.

But all too consistently, the content isn’t as deep and powerful as the author portends. When a story is quite deep and rich, the author sometimes doesn’t have the writing skill to let the story move the reader in a powerful way. Instead, you have lines from the younger minister telling the reader, “I was amazed at how profound his story was!”

When you have to tell the reader what they should have experienced by their own reading, you know the quality and depth of your writing is suffering.

Added to that, the ending is vastly overplayed. When the drama of the story reaches a good crescendo, I found myself thinking, “End the story here!‘ But the author went on and on with a rambling ending that becomes confusing, silly, and useless.

In spite of lacking in some of the writing, the reader (especially if you serve or have served in a vocational ministry position) can easily imagine the setting of younger and older ministers sharing together the trials and triumphs that make up ministry. Some of the stories offered by the older pastor are so good I found myself tweeting about them or posting snippets on Facebook.

“Mondays With My Old Pastor” is a good book for the specific audience it targets, even if it pretends to be better than it is.

Scotty

I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of
their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not
required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed
are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal
Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use
of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”