Overview
12th Annual Outreach Resource of the Year Recommendation (Leadership) Pastors and church leaders often fall into the trap of people-pleasing. Charles Stone?s research on thousands of pastors and ministry leaders demonstrates the dangers of approval-motivated leadership. Bringing together biblical insights and neuroscience findings, Stone shows why we fall into people-pleasing patterns and what we can do to overcome these tendencies. With practical tools for individuals and teams, Stone offers concrete resources to help you and your leadership minimize people-pleasing and have more effective ministry.
Full Product Details
Author: Charles Stone ,
Ed Stetzer
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Imprint: Inter-Varsity Press,US
Dimensions:
Width: 14.00cm
, Height: 1.80cm
, Length: 21.00cm
Weight: 0.314kg
ISBN: 9780830841097
ISBN 10: 0830841091
Pages: 236
Publication Date: 10 January 2014
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Available To Order
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Reviews
Charles Stone is a gift to the body of Christ, and so is his latest book, People-Pleasing Pastors. As I read through the pages I was personally convicted. Who doesn't want validation and appreciation for our efforts? We are human after all, right? But Charles's book reveals the dangers when a healthy need of appreciation goes too far. His extensive research of over twelve hundred pastors gives us insight into what Christian leaders have known intuitively but few talked about--we are serial people pleasers. Thank you, Charles, for highlighting this problem and giving us hope for a solution. --Brian Dodd, leadership blogger, pastoral coach with The Rocket Company
""Charles Stone writes about a topic that every person and leader needs to be aware of: people-pleasing. He shows the problem and offers seven practical principles as solutions to overcoming people pleasing. The principles are full of wisdom and insights. Reading this book will allow you to become a better leader. I personally enjoyed and would recommend reading this well-written book."" -- Dan Black, leadership blogger ""We are not called to please people so that we can achieve a more secure identity. We are called to love people out of the secure identity that we already possess, the one that was bought for us through the redeeming work of Christ. People-Pleasing Pastors acknowledges a real problem, and helps equip those in ministry to resist the temptation of seeking the approval of people above all else."" -- From the foreword by Ed Stetzer, president, LifeWay Research ""We all need to be reminded of who we're really working for as pastors. People-Pleasing Pastors needs to be read by every pastor, especially the ones that are still fighting the urge to please everyone around them. Charles is a great leader himself and has written a helpful book on a much-needed but seldom-discussed topic!"" -- Artie Davis, founder of The Sticks Network, founding pastor of Cornerstone Community Church, Orangeburg, South Carolina ""Thousands of gifted, called and passionate pastors are lost to the church every year. The reasons vary, but high on the list is people pleasing. Charles Stone has taken on a major issue confronting pastors. His insights are remarkable and his applications life changing. This book can save the ministry of a pastor and a church. Serving people and people pleasing are two very different things, and every pastor needs to know the difference."" -- Larry Magnuson, SonScape Retreats ""Charles Stone has that rare gift of knowing and speaking directly to the heart of today's shepherd-leader about the one big leadership issue we all have but rarely admit: our tendency to want to be liked. He cuts through the fluff and helps us recognize our tendency to be people pleasers and gives us a practical way back to strong, authentic leadership. Churches will be far healthier whose pastors and leaders read this book!"" -- Brandon Cox, founding pastor at Grace Hills Church and editor of Pastors.com ""People-Pleasing Pastors bridges both practice and theory to equip pastors to become not only more emotionally aware of their people-pleasing but also competent to navigate their emotions. All ministry leaders—young and old as well as professional and volunteer—will benefit from applying this book to their personal life and the teams in which they serve."" -- Aubrey M. Malphurs, senior professor of educational ministries and leadership and pastoral ministry, founder of The Malphurs Group ""In his latest book Charles Stone helps turn John 12:43 pastors ('they loved human praise more than praise from God') into 1 Thessalonians 2:4 pastors ('We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts""). People-Pleasing Pastors serves as an important book for those in ministry."" -- William Jones, president of Columbia International University ""Many, if not all, pastors today, often unconsciously, suffer from a vicious 'double bind' of knowing that they are 'to please the Lord' but being hard wired to 'be pleasers of people.' In his book People-Pleasing Pastors, Dr. Charles Stone helps pastors and church leaders recognize it, and then begin to cut and unravel the various aspects of this painful and lethal condition of ministry. He can do so because he has struggled with it himself and has found the freedom of becoming a slave to 'one master' and can lead you into habits of life and service to others in the joy of that one Master."" -- Keith Meyer, pastor, consultant and author of Whole Life Transformation and Spiritual Rhythms in Community ""Whether you are a seasoned minister or a rookie, people pleasing is a reality that we cannot keep running from. It is neither bad nor good, it just happens to servant leaders to whom people look for answers and help. This book is aimed beautifully by Charles Stone to face our anxieties and thoughtfully respond to this dilemma instead of denying and facing painful consequences. It is worth your time and is a great opportunity to thoughtful action steps."" -- Juan Carlos Flores Zúñiga, president, Fundación LiderInnova (www.liderinnova.net) ""Charles Stone is an excellent writer. I love his work. He hit a hot button with this book for all of us who serve as pastors. The temptation to keep people happy—and be liked—impacts all of our ministries. This is gold, pastors. Pure gold."" -- Ron Edmondson, senior pastor, Immanuel Baptist Church, Lexington, KY ""Filled with rich insights and profound wisdom born out the crucible of decades of ministry, People-Pleasing Pastors is a must-read for every pastor. I was challenged both personally and in the next growth steps for my own leadership. Charles Stone has given the church a great gift!"" -- Peter Scazzero, pastor and author of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality and The Emotionally Healthy Church ""My ministry mentor used to constantly remind me, 'You have nothing to prove and no one to impress.' In doing so, he gifted me with an incredibly freeing approach to ministry. In People-Pleasing Pastors, Charles Stone shows us why it's so important to find our identity and self-worth in Christ rather than in ministry performance and congregational approval. Better yet, he provides practical tools to help the reader assess and grow in this important area of spiritual and psychological health."" -- Larry Osborne, author and pastor, North Coast Church, Vista, California
Self-awareness in Christian leaders is precisely Paul's point in Romans 12:3. And it is the lack of self-awareness in leaders that is debilitating Christ's church. Charles Stone explores this crippling and toxic individual dynamic approval-motivated leadership amidst the larger social context of leadership in the church. He integrates relevant research data, acute summary thinking and the best nonacademic applied explanation of Bowen's Family Systems, neurology and theology along with several practical tools for individuals and teams to explain how Christian leaders can grow up, develop and mature into Christ-like Leaders. People-pleasing Pastors is destined to become a central practical training text for all who work in ministry contexts. Truly an equipping book! --Rev. Dr. Russell R. Veenker, BCPC, clinical director, Mountain Learning Center
Unfortunately, I see many pastors and leaders fall into the people-pleasing trap. This creates a barrier to healthy ministry--and healthy leaders. Charles provides practical, doable and grace-filled ideas on how to tackle this issue head-on. Supported with Scripture and neuroscience insight, it's a must-read for every pastor in today's high-expectation ministry environments. --Tony Morgan, author, consultant, leadership coach (TonyMorganLive.com)
Author Information
Charles Stone is lead pastor at West Park Church in London, Ontario, and founder of StoneWell Ministries, where he coaches pastors and church leaders, applying neuroscience insight to spiritual leadership. He is the author of 5 Ministry Killers and How to Defeat Them, and he can be found online at charlesstone.com.
