The Pickled Priest and the Perishing Parish: Boomer Pastors Bouncing Back

Hal West. Bloomington, Ind.: CrossBooks, 2011. 128 pp. (Paperback).

Before you groan and skip this review — please wait! It’s not what it looks like. Not at all. This book was actually written by a Southern Baptist. You thought it was a book about Catholics or Lutherans? So did I, but you know how preachers love alliteration. I guess he couldn’t help himself. 

Let’s forget the unfortunate title and take a look at the book. Hal West is a longtime South Carolina pastor who set out to write a book to help other struggling baby boomer pastors deal with a changing world and a church that does not want — or know how — to change. He admits, “Many of us know that our churches are losing ground, as powerful forces ever so slowly erase familiar faces from our midst and erode the ground around our foundations.”

Using a mixture of personal experience, research and Scripture, West carefully lays out the issues and gives some basic and challenging advice on how discouraged pastors can bounce back and lead their churches to deal with the “new realities of the 21st century.” 

My advice? Skip the title. Read the book.