Excellent journals already exist to help clergy improve their preaching and administrative skills, said Dahlman. Instead of a technical article on preaching, it might offer advice on how to preach during a family crisis or whether to tell family stories in the pulpit. But more serious issues lurk everywhere. Ministers aren't perfect and they don' t have the option of living in a perfect world or working with perfect churches, said Dahlman. Some of that pain and sin will come home with them.
Pastors see it all.
That's going to affect their families, one way or another. If we're going to try to help pastors' families, we'd better put out a magazine that's honest and forthright. If not, they're going to laugh us off the face of the earth. Terry Mattingly teaches communications at Milligan College in Tennessee. Reprinted with permission.