3 out of 4 stars
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Pastoring Is Not What You Think by Elijah Oladimeji is a fictional story that will make you chuckle, reflect, and maybe do some praying of your own. In this short narrative, Oladimeji packs more content than you can imagine in a few pages. With wit and a bunch of "halleluiahs," the reader gets to view a pastor's life. It is not about fame and money, but about serving the people and God. Being in ministry is not for the weak-kneed and slackers, but calls for patience and endurance amid standing in the trenches with the people.
Pastor Job is a minister at the Church of All Grace in New York. Seen as quirky by his parishioners and wife because he talks to himself, Pastor Job goes about his duties believing God will provide for everything he and the church need. His wife, Lorraine, wants a car, the rent for the church is past due and an undocumented immigrant who is getting deported, keeps calling for prayers. Among all this, Pastor Job does his ministry roles and shooting the breeze with young adults about the opposite sex. By the conclusion of the story, Pastor Job sees God show up in unlikely ways to help his people.
This book has a lot going for it. For one is how the author uses tongue-in-cheek humor with Pastor Job's character that you will either love or think heretical. In one part Lorraine comes into Pastor Job's office and sees him looking at a picture of a truck. When asked by his wife why he was doing this, he answers, "I am claiming this truck by faith." Then when he cuts it out, and she asks why he is doing that, he responds, "Pasting the picture of the truck on my wall, naming it, claiming it." Alongside the hilarious, there are more weighty issues that the author highlights like gun control and immigration. Pastor Job's sermons are not one of entertainment per se but one of edification on the Christian life. These monologues were my favorite parts of the book. Pastor Job talks about various themes, but I especially like the one about prosperity. Prosperity preachers are ones who are perceived as speaking about health and wealth only. The good Pastor (and the author) expose the misunderstanding on the subject by proclaiming that it is better to have a prosperity message over a poverty one. "If you want a bondage message, as opposed to freedom in Christ, please raise your hand."
As much as I liked the story, there are a few glaring mistakes. There were multiple missing quotation marks, the author misspelled Lorraine's name once, and capitalized a word when it should not have been. There were also parts of the dialogue, like "Man 4:", that were written as in a script instead of a story.
I give Pastoring Is Not What You Think 3 out of 4 stars. Despite the minor flaws, I think this an enjoyable and insightful read. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes humor mixed in with Christian theology and to anyone in ministry.
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Pastoring is not what you think
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