Chasing after Wind
eBook - ePub

Chasing after Wind

A Pastor's Life

  1. 238 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Chasing after Wind

A Pastor's Life

About this book

One pastor's journey from idealism, through disillusionment, to an acceptance of grace Ā 

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." What did all the hard work on evenings and weekends and holidays, away from his family, amount to? What was there to make of the long string of petty conflicts and the overwhelming feeling of disillusionment? And in the current age of shrinking mainline churches, what could he point to as the end result of his decades in ministry?Ā 

Chasing after WindĀ will resonate with pastors everywhere who went into ministry to do lifechanging work for God and ended up spending most of their time managing the parking situation outside the church, fielding parishioner complaints about the color of the sanctuary carpet (or, in Brouwer's case, the color of his shoes), and endlessly fundraising for mission projects and building maintenance. In telling his story, Brouwer comes to recognize that the most meaningful parts of his career—the "holy bits," as he calls them—were in unexpected moments where everything was stripped away but the mysterious work of God. Recounting these times of curious joy and shared mourning, he demonstrates how a pastor can find grace and peace in looking back on a life in ministry.

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Yes, you can access Chasing after Wind by Douglas J. Brouwer in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Theology & Religion & Social Science Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. Foreword by Richard J. Mouw
  6. 1. At the End of the Day
  7. 2. An Utterly Normal Childhood
  8. 3. My Career in Christian Publishing
  9. 4. Chaim Potok’s Smile
  10. 5. I Was No Elijah Parish Lovejoy
  11. 6. That’s What They Call Grace
  12. 7. The Boat Is Leaking
  13. 8. The Least Likely People
  14. 9. I Was Paid Well, After All
  15. 10. We Welcome You
  16. 11. Dollar for Dollar
  17. 12. We Had Hoped
  18. 13. Lunch at the Golden Nugget
  19. 14. The Holy Bits
  20. 15. Leaders and Best, Champions of the West
  21. 16. God Loves All Kinds of People
  22. 17. Ich bin ein Züricher
  23. 18. Bears and Hyenas and Other Worries
  24. 19. Chasing after Wind
  25. Acknowledgments