Beyond Duct Tape: Holding the Heart Together in a Life of Ministry
Shari Thomas and Tami Resch have over fifty years of combined ministry experience. Shari and her husband, John, have partnered in church planting in world-class cities since the early 1980s. They currently reside in New York City. Shari conducted research on the stress and satisfaction levels of church planting spouses in the U.S. and developed the Church Leader Spouse Inventory used in many church planting assessments. Tami Resch and her husband, Steve, have co-labored in three church plants since 1991, and currently serve Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church in Columbus, Ohio.  In 2005, Shari and Tami founded Parakaleo, a ministry that provides gospel coaching, training, and network development for spouses in church planting in cities across the globe. “Everyone who has been through church planting knows that it is a family affair. It’s ‘all hands on deck’ — the church planter’s wife and children are deeply involved. Yet spouses of church planters at most get a chapter in books on church planting —if they are fortunate. Here, however, Shari Thomas and Tami Resch have written and assembled an entire volume, filled with all kinds of tools, helping wives to not only cope with the intense thing that is church planting, but to grow powerfully and minister effectively. I’m grateful for their work." Dr. Tim Keller, author of Generous Justice and The Reason for God