Best-selling authors Marva Dawn and Eugene Peterson offer encouragement to pastors.
Pastors are strategically placed to counter the culture. No other profession looks so inoffensive but is in fact so dangerous to the status quo. Their weapon? A gospel that is profoundly countercultural. But standing firm in today's world isn't easy. Powerful forces, both subtle and obvious, attempt to domesticate pastors, to make them, in a word, unnecessary.
In this book, two of today's most respected authors help pastors recover their gospel identity and maintain a pure vision of Christian leadership. Marva Dawn and Eugene Peterson reconnect pastors with the biblical texts that will train them as countercultural servants of the gospel. Marva Dawn looks to Paul's letter to the Ephesians for instruction for churches seeking to live faithfully in today's world. In turn, Eugene Peterson explores Romans, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus, drawing from them the correct view of pastoral identity.

Marva J. Dawn (1948–2021) was a renowned theologian, author, musician, and educator. Her many books include Reaching Out without Dumbing Down: A Theology of Worship for This Urgent Time, A Royal Waste of Time: The Splendor of Worshiping God and Being Church for the World, and The Sense of the Call: A Sabbath Way of Life for Those Who Serve God, the Church, and the World.

Marva J. Dawn's profile page

Eugene H. Peterson was a longtime pastor and is professor emeritus of spiritual theology at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia. His many other acclaimed books include The Contemplative Pastor, Eat This Book, and The Jesus Way.

Eugene Peterson's profile page

Academy of Parish Clergy, Top Ten Books of the Year (2001)
Reformed Review
"Every once in a while, a book comes along that should be required reading for everyone who is in ministry. . . If you have enjoyed previous works by Dawn and/or Peterson, you will enjoy this book as well. It is a book that draws pastors, especially closer to God and encourages us to rely more fully on his grace."
Provident Book Finder
"This is a rich book with much to assist both pastors and laypersons in shaping their biblical identity as countercultural servants of Jesus Christ."
Christian Retailing
"The book's premise is that there are three ways that pastors are unnecessary: to what the culture presumes is important, to what pastors themselves feel is essential and to what congregations insist that pastors must do and be. The Unnecessary Pastor should liberate ministers from such manmade limitations and free them to become what God has called them to be. It's likely not only to be popular with clergy, but also clergy-to-be, as seminarians could definitely benefit from its godly insights."
Leadership
"Peterson and Dawn's book is a path back to the altar of honesty. Dawn and Petersen have come to set us free of our addictions to self-importance. It has always been better to be needy than necessary. Their book rightly teaches us that we are unnecessary. When we doubt it, we are irrelevant as well."