Diary of a Pastor's Soul - Paperback

by M. Craig Barnes (Preface by)

Christianity Today 2021 Award of Merit (The Church/Pastoral Leadership)

Diary of a Pastor's Soul tells the story of a fictionalized pastor, embarking on his final year before retirement, who reflects on the experiences and relationships that have formed his vocation and shaped his soul over a lifetime of pastoral ministry.

Drawing on his own experiences, seasoned pastor Craig Barnes invites readers to embrace the life lessons of a pastor who has been formed by his failures and his fleeting moments of glory, but most of all by discovering the holy in the routine but often quirky duties of being a parish pastor.
Through 52 weekly thematic entries, Barnes presents spirituality in narrative form through a collection of interwoven stories about learning to love others with curiosity, amazement, vulnerability, and most of all gratitude for the grace found in flawed lives.

Barnes's fictionalized diary approach creatively shows how the pastoral vocation forms mind, heart, and soul, helping pastors make sense of their own calling. With unvarnished honesty, this book eloquently illustrates a lifetime of ministry, revealing how "the Holy haunts the landscape of life."

Back Jacket

Diary of a Pastor's Soul tells the story of a fictionalized pastor, embarking on his final year before retirement, who reflects on the experiences and relationships that have formed his vocation and shaped his soul over a lifetime of pastoral ministry.

"Pastors know that there's no one who understands the particular challenges and joys of ministry better than Craig Barnes. When you read this diary, Craig's delight in, exasperation with, and love for the church is manifest. In this rich collection of some of Craig's best thoughts on the Christian ministry, pastors will find much encouragement and guidance, and anybody else will discover why the pastoral ministry is such a serious, joyful, demanding, and ultimately fulfilling vocation."
--Will Willimon, United Methodist Bishop (retired); Duke Divinity School; author of Accidental Preacher: A Memoir

"In this fascinating and beautifully written book, Craig Barnes, employing a creative format, lovingly reveals the challenges and privileged blessings of the pastoral vocation. Barnes loves being a pastor and finds surprising grace even in ordinary ecclesiastical minutiae. I couldn't put the book down."
--John M. Buchanan, former editor and publisher, the Christian Century

"Craig Barnes offers readers a diary full of grace and truth about pastoral ministry. His writing is a salve for the human soul. But more than that, the Holy haunts this book."
--Luke A. Powery, Duke University

"Barnes has more gifts than anyone has a right to have, and many of them shine in Diary of a Pastor's Soul. The meal Barnes offers us is served up like a harvest of ordinary ruminations from a pastor's soul. It gradually turns out, however, to be more like sitting at Babette's feast, prepared by one specially gifted by God to show us how local and seasonal ingredients of pain, beauty, and faith can be more than enough to reveal a table that is actually laden with truth and grace. Take and eat."
--Mark Labberton, president, Fuller Theological Seminary

Author Biography

M. Craig Barnes (PhD, University of Chicago) is president of Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey, where he also serves as professor of pastoral ministry. He previously taught at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and has pastored several churches. Barnes frequently speaks and preaches across the country, writes regularly for the Christian Century, and is the author of numerous books, including Searching for Home, When God Interrupts, Sacred Thirst, Hustling God, The Pastor as Minor Poet, and Yearning.