You might have seen a tweet floating around from Grace Publications about a new book that will shortly be coming out. It is called The Pastor with a Thorn in his Side. If you haven’t seen that tweet and the attached video, here it is!
The book is mainly about doing ministry with depression. It has a chapter on my story, and I edited it, but isn’t mainly by or about me. It is seven different stories of pastors who suffer with depression, some of the things they have experienced that have not been so helpful and other ways in which people can (and have) helped them.
Whilst we hope this book would serve any pastor who has started to suffer with depression, it isn’t only for them. The stories may offer hope and useful suggestions of help for anyone suffering with mental health issues. But this book has a further reach than that. It is for anybody who is either suffering with depression themselves, knows somebody else who is, or think they may well know people in the future who suffer this way too. Apart from anything else, the book will help anybody who wants to understand what depression looks like, what it might be like for a pastor suffering with it and how best you can support them so that they can continue ministering effectively to you.
The book will be launching end of April/early May. We hope it is a blessing to you. There will be a microsite popping up with more information about the book soon which I will share that when it is available. Of course, the more of you that buy it, the less I’ll go on about it. In other words:
Can’t say fairer than that.