Review: "Mondays with My Old Pastor"

"Mondays with my Old Pastor" is the journey of a disillusioned pastor, encouraged by his wife to go and talk about it with his old pastor - an 83yo man who was pastor of the same church for 50 years but is now retired. So he goes and meets with the old man each monday, and these are the conversations. I love the concept, and when I saw this book I was looking forward to hearing the wisdom and sharing in the conversations. But it didn't quite work like that.

It feels like a fiction book, but unfortunately not a great one. One of those mass-produced romance ones. The old pastor is too perfect and everything he says and does is unrealistically perfect, relevant and inspiring (the word "spellbinding" is used...). The old pastor comes across as some kind of all-knowing, all-understanding super-pastor, so much that after the first meeting, without even really revealing his struggles, the author walks away both weaping and shouting verbal hallelujahs, smelling the old pastor's perfect roses with their perfect little water drops, rejoicing while watching the perfect setting sun cast a perfect cross shadow on the ground (caused by the author's raised arms), and arrives home to be lovingly greeted by his perfectly understanding wife.... I couldn't read more than two chapters.

It made me wonder, Is this guy really a pastor? It almost feels like he's a fiction writer who's done some very basic research into what it's like to be a pastor, in order to use one as his main character. I realise this all sounds harsh, and maybe it's just culture differences (this was originally written in spanish), but as an everyday Aussie, it kind of feels a little insulting to my intelligence. And it's a little preachy, like he's put his own words into his old pastor's mouth in order to preach to his readers. I can't say I want to keep reading and wait for the "old pastor" to come up with the perfect gem in each meeting.

Real pastoring is not as neat as this. It's messy, because people are messy - even old pastors are messy (unlike this one, who apparently is super-organised - possibly the clearest sign he might not be a real pastor!). If your ministry isn't messy, you've probably stopped working with people.

I like the idea behind the book - describing a pastor who is struggling, discouraged, burnt-out, and disillusioned with their ministry. It's a common story in the real world, and we need more books and conversations to help them. But I'm not sure this is one of them. I'd recommend Brian McLaren's "A New Kind of Christian" series, or Ian Morgan Cron's "Chasing Francis," or something by Larry Crabb.