Author/Pastor Jimmy Dodd Releases New Book "Survive Or Thrive"

President and Founder of PastorServe (www.pastorserve.net), Jimmy Dodd, releases Survive Or Thrive: 6 Relationships Every Pastor Needs Sept. 1 From David C Cook. The book is the first in the PastorServe Series, a line of book resources from David C Cook addressing critical issues in pastoral ministry with instruction, encouragement and a focus on the relentless love of Jesus.

As a pastoral care expert, and from his 30 years serving as a pastor, Dodd has experienced first-hand how pastors everywhere are struggling with ever-increasing challenges in their ministry and personal lives. Upwards of 1,500 pastors leave pastoral ministry every month-not to retire, but because they have finally given up. Many of those who remain in ministry struggle with deep-seated insecurities or carry secrets that threaten to overwhelm them. This book, grounded in Scripture, is for these pastors, church leaders, staff and anyone serving pastors through coaching, training, counseling or mentoring.

"The vast majority of pastors are not known-by anyone," reveals Dodd. "Many of them feel there is no safe space where they can be known completely-in all their doubts, failures and insecurities. The result is commonly isolation, and sin loves isolation. This book will lay out the need for pastors to find key relationships to provide support, accountability and friendship while they are in ministry."

While confiding in the wrong person can be a deadend at best and disastrous at worst, Dodd shares how those in pastoral ministry can experience healthy personal and ministry growth, receiving ongoing support, accountability and restoration by investing in six professional and personal relationships: a boss, trainer, coach, counselor, mentor and good friend.

Dodd's conversations with pastors reveals a typical story. One pastor told Dodd, "Professionally, we are a staff-led independent church, so I don't have a boss. I don't regularly receive training, primarily because I am the trainer, and I have never had a ministry coach. Personally, I have never been to counseling; I lost touch with my mentor a decade ago, and if I were completely honest, I don't have one single friend."

"We see this truth revealed again and again," says Dodd. "When the six relationships are absent, a pastor is on the verge of a crumbling cliff. If nothing changes, the pastor will certainly fall. The question is not if, but when."

Confessing his own struggles as a pastor and revealing how he was led to begin PastorServe in the video athttps://vimeo.com/52248597, Dodd shares that every pastor should "have a safe place to go to have access to equipping and care for the challenges and crises they face. Because every pastor needs a pastor."

Dodd further encourages pastors to read Survive Or Thrive in the context of community. "A gathering of local pastors coming together to discuss this book would be ideal. A church staff or a ministry staff would greatly benefit from processing this material together, as a team. The questions at the conclusion of each chapter will serve as a guide for discussion."

Endorsing Survive or Thrive is Scott Sauls, senior pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church, Nashville, and author of Jesus outside the Lines; Dr. Wess Stafford, president emeritus of Compassion International; Dr. Steve Childers, associate professor of practical theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando, and president and CEO of Pathway Learning; Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family; Darrin Patrick, lead pastor of The Journey, St. Louis, vice president of Acts 29, and chaplain to the St. Louis Cardinals; Dr. Doug Nuenke, US president of The Navigators, and many more.

 

 

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