The Pastor’s Bookshelf Why Reading Matters for Ministry Austin Carty For busy pastors, time spent reading feels hard to justify, especially when it’s not for sermon prep. But what if reading felt less like a luxury and more like a vocational responsibility—a spiritual practice that bears fruit in every aspect of ministry, from preaching to pastoral care to church leadership? The Pastor’s Bookshelf shows how worthwhile reading is more about formation than information and how, through reading, a pastor becomes a fuller, more enriched human being with a deeper capacity for wisdom and love, better equipped to understand and work for God’s kingdom.
“The Pastor’s Bookshelf is an invaluable resource for members of the clergy, though its bookish enthusiasm is even farther reaching than that.”
— FOREWORD REVIEWS (STARRED REVIEW)
“Pastors who read and live by the wisdom in this book will be changed, as will their ministries and the people to whom they minister. This book belongs on every pastor’s shelf.” 978-0-8028-7910-3 • Paperback • 182 pages $19.99 US • $26.99 CAN • £15.99 UK AVAILABLE NOW
Austin Carty lives and pastors in Anderson, South Carolina. He is the author of High Points and Lows: Life, Faith, and Figuring It All Out.
— KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR
author of On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books
“In this warm and wise book, Austin Carty invites pastors to develop capacious reading habits, as wide and curious and wonderful as the world in which they serve. I hope this book is an occasion for many pastors to build new shelves of poetry and fiction, biography and memoir, all of them adventures in understanding humanity.”
CHURCH & MINISTRY
Foreword by Thomas G. Long
— JAMES K. A. SMITH
author of You Are What You Love
“I am gobsmacked by this book’s threefold beauty: its writing, its erudition, and the author’s deep commitment to what true reading can give not only pastors, but us all.”
— MARYANNE WOLF
author of Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World
Chasing after Wind A Pastor’s Life Douglas J. Brouwer Foreword by Richard J. Mouw After forty years as a Presbyterian pastor, Douglas Brouwer wondered if he had spent his life, as the author of Ecclesiastes laments, “chasing after wind.” But he also had the unmistakable sense that it had been worthwhile—though not in the ways he had expected it to be at the start of his career. In this memoir, Brouwer recounts stories from throughout his life that speak to both the disillusionment and the joy of ministry in the current age of shrinking mainline churches. “A somber, meditative reflection that will give the fellow faithful, be they pastors or congregants, much to ponder.” — PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“It’s one thing to have a talented, theologically well-formed Reformed pastor. It’s quite another thing for that pastor to be honest, truthful, courageous, eloquent, and interesting. Douglas Brouwer is that pastor. His book is bound to be known as one of the finest ministerial memoirs to come out of the last days of mainline Protestantism.” — WILL WILLIMON
author of Accidental Preacher
978-0-8028-8187-8 • Paperback • 238 pages $22.00 US • $29.99 CAN • £17.99 UK AVAILABLE NOW
Douglas J. Brouwer is a retired Presbyterian pastor who served churches in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, Florida, and Zürich, Switzerland. His other books include Remembering the Faith: What Christians Believe and How to Become a Multicultural Church.
“Douglas Brouwer is a fine writer and a compelling storyteller who, with disarming honesty, provides an intimate look at the unique life of a pastor. Chasing after Wind is a deeply satisfying read and I recommend it highly.” — JOHN M. BUCHANAN
former editor and publisher of the Christian Century
“In these pages, we encounter a thing far too rare—a pastor skilled in stringing together artful sentences, writing as a genuine human rather than a religious delegate clinching the script. If we had more stories like this, those of us who wear the stole would have a little more fear and trembling, and more wonder and laughter too.” — WINN COLLIER
author of Love Big, Be Well
“Douglas Brouwer’s memoir is an intelligent, candid, and absorbing account of a deeply felt ministry. He tells the truth about ministry in all its pain and joy. Absolutely compelling!”
— CORNELIUS PLANTINGA
author of Morning and Evening Prayers
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