Book Review
Reviewed by Darold Morgan,
Richardson, TX
The Wounded Minister
Guy Greenfield, Baker Books, 2001.
One doesn’t get past a page or two of this book until he taps into an intensely personal current of angry and wide-ranging emotions that surge all the way through. There is passion, frustration, naiveté, catharsis, and finally a measure of healing that comes from this skilled and mature counselor and psychologist, pastor and teacher, who relieves an excruciating experience of being severely mauled and wounded by what he calls, “clergy-killers.” After a very successful career in teaching and writing, the author took a pastorate in his early sixties, literally to end his career in one last challenging venture of service. He discovered tragically the presence of “pathological antagonists” in the church who eventually ruined his efforts at ministry.
You must work through the initial impression that the author is venting his spleen against his unnamed opponents. When that problem is somewhat muted, one then becomes aware that the author slowly but wisely moves from the bitterness and negatives of his personal experiences to the key contribution and strength of the book. Simply stated, that is how to help people who have similarly been treated, and equally important, how to help individual churches handle this difficult problem of troublemakers in the fellowship!
Lest some casual reader think this is an isolated problem, permit the reviewer a personal word. In my years at the Annuity Board, few days ever went by without an anguished call from a terminated minister. These came to us because we administered their pension plans. These distraught people needed money immediately simply to pay bills and to get by. Few of these people ever received adequate support when these brutal acts occurred. Many were cut off without a dime and most lost their health insurance. Then and now, there are uncounted hundreds even thousands of these painful, ugly incidents. The costs in human suffering, embarrassment, guilt and grief, and church unrest are incalculable.
By using a wide-ranging source of contacts, the author draws upon some riveting experiences with many other ministers who have had devastating encounters with these pathological antagonists in their churches. Dr. Greenfield clearly delineates between the problem of the antagonists and the equally sad situation of termination brought on by ministerial failures. And there is a major difference between these. There are these events of failure, which brought termination to a sad climax because of faulty judgments, moral misbehavior, and pathetic skills in preaching and administration. The author speaks to this in his chapter, “Ministers Who Invite Attacks.”
Dr. Greenfield writes about a tragic and often unreported facet of the “Wounded Minister” who suffers persecution and termination from senior ministers in a large church setting, and even from denominational executives. Here is the raw exercise of power through one’s position. Far too many women and men have suffered when they have challenged, wisely or foolishly, the authority of senior leaders in these settings. Abusive pastors and denominational leaders do exist, but there is a peculiar inability often to prove the existence of this abuse of power because there is a lack of necessary paper trails, which could point to the problem. A great need is apparent for a revival of solid Christian values and ethical behavior in this relationship.
A concurrent strength of this book is reflected in Greenfield’s scholarship as he uses multiple quotations from experts in the fields both of Christian ethics and church administration. These are scholars like Lewis Smedes, Wayne Oates and Brooks Faulkner. All of these join with the author suggesting that somehow there is a place for psychological training and testing both for embryonic and experienced ministers. Additionally, there ought to be a way found for similar assistance to be channeled to these pathological antagonists whose repetitive behavior causes so much anguish.
Here is a forceful contribution to a neglected area of church life, an area that is nationwide in its scope and depth, crossing all denominational lines. It deserves a wide reading, and perhaps a by product of reading these difficult pages might lead to some unexpected but needed haling of a “Wounded Minister.”
