Full Description
This is the essential companion to the book that addresses the alarming statistic that over 42% of pastors contemplate leaving the ministry. Dive deeper into transformative insights and practical strategies to overcome the overwhelming stress that plagues pastoral life. This guide goes beyond the book, offering valuable tools and resources to empower pastors and ministry leaders to thrive in their calling. Key features of the book include: In-depth exploration, personal reflection, practical application, and resourceful toolkit.
Death by Pastoring won the 2025 Golden Scrolls Book of the Year in Educational Nonfiction.
- I'm so thankful that Shane and Sue have brought this important conversation into the light. My family and I have been personally impacted by their ministry. As leaders, they prioritize the kingdom of God over the pressures of church ministry. All of us, as ministry leaders and Christ-followers, must receive God's call to restoration, especially during our painful seasons. This important book will help you reorient your soul to a kingdom that lasts forever.
- Pastoral ministry can be unrelenting and overwhelming, and the pressure it creates can produce unexpected outcomes. Leaning into their own stories of stress and its crushing effects on the mind, body, and spirit, Shane and Sue Schlesman provide profoundly Biblical and practical insights to help you chart a new path forward. Death by Pastoring offers more than a few tips to navigate stress. It's a powerful guide to create a life-giving rhythm for a hope-filled future.
- Shane and Sue are the perfect examples of what it means to lead and suffer. They have walked through the stress of leading and transitioning a growing church. They will help many pastors lead ministries from a position of health.
- Shane and Sue are the perfect discussion leaders for a critical conversation about pastor burn-out. I've had a front-row seat to the painful and purposeful changes Shane and Sue have made during a stressful leadership season. They have pursued freedom from anxiety, not an exodus from church or faith. Death by Pastoring is a must-read for every ministry leader.
- Shane and Sue have addressed the elephant in the room: pastors don't know how to talk about their overwhelming stress or how to get healthy. Death by Pastoring addresses a critical topic for pastoral leadership--reorienting your personal life towards spiritual and physical health before it's too late. This book is a must-read for pastors, pastoral staffs, and ministry spouses. As the Church, we cannot wait any longer to get real about the impact of stress and anxiety on pastors and their leadership.
- This book is filled with practical and impactful insights on how to deal with stress from trauma, work, family, every area of your life. The real life testimonies of Sue and Shane bring real answers to issues that leave us all broken and needing help. Their openness reveals true hope and victory in our hurts. Thank you for writing this book.
- Death by Pastoring offers a vulnerable, practical and hopeful look at the realities of vocational ministry, and attempting to carry the burden of leadership. The book helped me to see where I was allowing stress to win, what motivated me to be a stressed leader, and how to walk in rest and hope for the future. This book is neither fluff, nor an attack on ministry, but an examined look from true practitioners in how to have life while pastoring.
- I stormed through this book so fast and soaked up every nugget of it. The practical solutions are doable once you know how to implement them, which this book will teach you. One of the most pressing pieces for me is that your team is not complete without a counselor. Additionally true reverence and respect for a Sabbath has been so helpful to me! I receive those healthy heartbeats for a lighter load and I see and know in my knower now that it's ok! I so appreciate the perspective from the wife's point of view and I've passed this book to my husband. Prayerfully it will touch him like it's touched me or I fear the title of this book might come true in his life. I am thankful that I can recognize and have the tools now that it won't be that way for me from this point forward!
- This is an excellent book for any pastor or leader in a church to read. I can also see how this book would provide comfort and guidance for leaders in business, politics, education, etc. Churches, like most organizations, are made up of people with unique backgrounds and experiences who look to their leadership team to create a unified body. This can be an unbelievably stressful endeavor, especially in today's increasingly divided world. We need leaders but we need our leaders to be healthy in mind, body and spirit. Death by Pastoring is the handbook every leader needs to transform and lengthen his or her career and health span to do the work that God intended.
- So. Great. Right on time for me. I think all pastors in the West need to hear this message. Most humans are longing to feel seen. The enemy of our souls tries to get us to believe we are alone. I think this book reaches into the heart so they will say “Oh, you too?? It’s not just me?” And healing will come once they do the work and let the Healer do what He does. Bonus: the resources in the back are GOLD!
Awards & Recognitions
- 2025 Golden Scrolls Book of the Year in Educational Nonfiction
