Yes, pastor, you can (and should) change your mind! The context of ministry continually changes, the surrounding culture changes, and a living God demands constant movement and change. So, pastors and preachers must be prepared to change! Some of the current assumptions about how to persevere in ministry need to be questioned. What ideas and approaches do we need to change, in ourselves and in our ministries? And how, exactly, do we change our minds and practices, when we're called to be steady, stable, and sure?
Will Willimon narrates of some of the twists and turns in his own journey as a pastor. These stories and "change-of-mind-and-ministry" points can be helpful to new pastors who are negotiating their own way into future ministry. Novice pastors can receive guidance and encouragement from hearing how a prominent pastoral leader, bishop, author, seminary professor, and well-known preacher for nearly five decades changed, grew, and adapted in Christian ministry. And longtime pastors will find assurance and encouragement as they continue to grow and change, too.
The book consists of guidance from an older, experienced pastoral leader to other pastoral leaders, especially young and new ones. Willimon frames the material around the ways he has changed his mind and offers crucial ways that he once thought about ministry compared and contrasted with how he thinks now. He depicts the pastoral vocation as requiring adaptation and revision by its practitioners. Along the way, the book includes conversations with First and Second Timothy as the precursor of this book, an older, experienced pastor (Paul) offering advice to a young, unseasoned pastor (Timothy).
